We feel a great responsibility to share our incredible cultural experience that we gained during our study on the island of Gods, as Bali is often referred to. Especially because it is quite difficult to find information on eastern fine arts culture in our western art literature.
I can only hope that as the time passes, we will manage to fill the gap in knowing the eastern Asian cultures to enrich all of us.
(Following text is a fragment of text written by my friend Milan Regec who is a guardian of my exhibitions.)
Wayang Kamasan
The first Balinese painters were inspired by shadow theater wayang kulit and on their canvas they pictured surface figures or illustrated episodes from religious and historical eposes. This style is called wayang classic or wayang kamasan (named after a village where come together all artists caring for keeping the historical heritage and natural development of this style). Wayang kamasan is still very popular among the locals as well as tourists and it is basically imposed for all religious purposes.
It is best to compare wayang classic with icons and iconography that are known from eastern Churches. A picture always captures a story – allegory from Ramayana epos, or even more often from much more extensive Mahabharata (both belong to basic texts of Hindu stream). There are strict rules applied as well – shape, placement of the figures, clothing, jewelry, and even the shape of mouth and eyes – all these have not only a prescribed form but they also carry a lot of meanings. For instance, the size of stomach tells us about the figure’s character – no stomach, small stomach, stomach leaning over, gigantic stomach. However, this is not an expression of obesity. For instance, a figure with bigger stomach can express that the person has a witty personality with sense of humor (often mocking). It is not only about dichotomy of the good and the bad – this is being expressed by placing the figure to the left, looking to the right or vice versa. There are also the good who slip to the evil from time to time or, on the other hand, the bad who would desperately like to be good, but they just can’t manage. Even a good character can be moody, indelicate, or sometimes too careless and dreamy – eyes, mouth, mustache, stomach, chest, teeth (teeth are considered to be the most distinguishing sign) and, of course, posture of the body can express even the smallest tones of human nature or mood. Therefore the artist doesn’t get a set of strict rules but rather a range of expressions from which he can create characters and situations according to his ideas.
To be able to understand the wayang pictures it is necessary to be at least a bit familiar with the mentioned rules. And maybe you would be surprised to see that even native Bali people are sometimes a bit lost – caste relevancy perhaps is not in direct relation with wealth and the social status but it is definitely visible in religious education. Brahman (a member of the highest caste) would describe the wayang picture perfectly, others, however, can have a problem even with identifying the main figures – something also with “reading” their characters or actual intentions in relation to illustrated action.
Wayang pictures are full of characters and action – there is no color used for painting the background. A simple rule says that the more characters and action, the better the wayang. Everything should be „filled“. The characters are captured in three quarter profile (so at all time at least two eyes are visible) in a tense pose determined by rules and hierarchy. In many ways they resemble the much older Egyptian relief paintings. However, the people in Bali didn’t use stone and since the humid tropical weather is not very gentle to the traditional materials, the oldest preserved wayang paintings are not even 200 year old. Originally were used only natural colors (ocherous yellow, red, black and white). The secret of color production preserved but the plant to produce for example yellow color is very difficult to find in Bali nowadays. The Dutch brought into wayang new colors – green and blue. Natural or acrylic, the dyes are mixed into light mild tones so as to give the picture a historical touch.
Preservation or restoration are quite unknown in Bali – it is much more common to let things fall apart and then build them again. For the local people this represents a natural circle of life – they try to keep their traditions alive, instead of preserving them. This applies also to wayang pictures (another example is the permanent re-writing of texts written on lontar palm leaves, which can last for approximately 50-70 years). The oldest ones of them started to appear in temple decorations since the 17th century. The oldest and the most important artifact is the ceiling decoration in round balé – stage of the king’s palace Kerta Gosa in Klungkung. Except that there must have been some water leaking in, it stands unprotected on the corner of the most frequent crossroad in the city. In the past the place fulfilled the role of law-related decision making – the court hearing was happening without the indicted person because it was not a common thing to bring criminals into the palace. Its other functionality was to enable the prince to sit there and look at the girls coming through the crossroad to the market. Occasionally he commanded to his butler and the girl “suddenly disappeared” to reappear as a new wife of the king’s harem.
Even though the motive and some of the panels of the 7 level ceiling are 200 years old, most of it had to be replaced. And the younger the work (the specialists agree) the lower the quality – the rate of life is speeding up and contemporary artists don’t have hours or years to sit at one piece of canvas – if they want to eat. We had the chance to visit a living legend and the most respected artist from Kamasan I Nyoman Mandra. In a small gallery we not only found a few pictures but also a lot of awards and a photo album full of photos capturing exhibitions or presidential visits. The house and the workshop were as humble as the other ones and the artist lied in shabby clothes and socks full of holes (we could rather say he wore holes stitched together rather than socks) and at the stairs and at the front yard he was warming up his ill body. In a bowl he had a fistful of rice and in the mug there was some kind of thick beverage. Despite the mentioned, he welcomed us in his home with a smile on his face and he was interested in us. He was accompanied by two elderly women, and one gladly showed us the gallery and offered us some water and nuts. This visit made a very strong impression on me and I spend a lot of time thinking about it.
I tried to make a unique drawing on a hand paper according their strict rules of Bethlehem. It was as if I knew the theme and I could speak a foreign language.
Overlapping of cultures of different religions is very unique but very popular in Bali. Especially when it is preceded by understanding the original culture and religion, of which is the technique borrowed.
It is unbelievable how much can we learn from the Balinese people and their strong and active perception of their Hindu believes. They are incredibly tolerant towards other religions along with keeping a strict loyalty to their own traditions – for example you can enter a temple only if dressed in their national clothes, but they will never look at you lofty. The religion is visible in all their lives, but more than in a prayer they live it through the art – music, dance, theatre, costumes, pictures, and even each ornament decorating their houses, that all reflects their lively religious believes to which they dedicate a lot of time every day. All their ceremonies and festivities are connected with various forms of arts, on which participate all the local inhabitants. It is this creative art that for the Balinese people represents the way to real understanding and perception of connection between their religion and everyday life.
The young artists in Bali admire our modern art and for us are their traditional techniques and forms of expressing things very special. They often honestly don’t understand our effort to “preserve history”. For Balinese people is everything a part of a never ending circle of live and dead. That is why they don’t try to preserve their traditions and they try to keep everything in its lively active form.
B with M
P.S.: Attached you can find picture “Bethlehem” in wayang kamasan, published in bulletin volume 38 th of World Gallery of art on paper drawings 2010, Skopje
2. P.S.: Thanks for the translation of the text : Dana Mudráková, www.damu.sk, J
