A two-week residency in Perth by visiting artists I Made Bendi, Ni Made Rinu and I Komang Arba Wirawan has culminated in the creation of three new artworks. Whilst here they worked in two venues; the new ArtLAAB Studio (situated in the Masonic Hall on the corner of Hampton Road and Stirling Highway, Nedlands) and the Ancient Rock Studio, Byford.
The guest artists of the Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Visual Arts (ALVA) at UWA were welcomed at an official ceremony attended by the Perth Indonesian Consul-General Bapak Syarief Syamsuri and his wife Ibu Ella Syamsuri on Monday 26 September at UWA’s Cullity Gallery.
The three artists’ have different specialities but the works all reflect their unique relationship with Balinese culture.
Rinu works in the traditional Kamasan style of painting. This 400 year old style depicts puppet-like figures to bridge literacy in pictorial language between image and text. Her work is a document which records the process of developing relations between the Faculty of Art at the Indonesian Institute of the Arts (ISI), Denpasar and the ALVA.
Bendi paints in the Balinese contemporary style. His work Purification of The Earth Mother is inspired by the ancient Lontar inscriptions of Bali, especially those found in the Siwa Tatwa stories. His work describes the process in which the earth mother is purified by the universe. In Bali a ceremonial procession about the purification of our Earth Mother is normally held once each year. The ceremony is called “Mecaru Tawur Ke Sanga”. Through this ceremony Balinese hope that nature will flourish and provide bounty for humans living in the world.
Arba’s photographic work captures a moment in the Ramayana story in which Rama, Sita and Lakshmana journey into the forest during a transforming thirty-year long pilgrimage. The photograph was taken during a dance performance by some members of the Faculty of Performing Arts (ISI ) at UWA’s Calloway Auditorium on September 27.
The three works will be on display in the Cullity Gallery until the end of October 2011.
