From August 2002, until October 2003, the Crossing Boundaries toured Australia.
This guide provided teachers with suggested pre-visit, exhibition visit and post-visit questions and activities for use with Middle, Later Years and VCE students. Colour reproductions of 17 artworks from the exhibition provided an introduction to, and record of, the experience.
While the exhibition has finished, this guide remains a valuable teaching resource for teachers wishing to introduce their students to Balinese and Indonesian art.
The Australia and Indonesia relationship has operated on diplomatic, political and economic levels over many decades. However most Australians know Indonesia only through the tourist experience of Bali. This exhibition explores Indonesian Art through the window of Bali to combine the familiar with the unfamiliar, in order to stimulate a greater curiosity for the culture, political and social history of Indonesia at a time when Indonesians and Australians need to understand each other better.
Balinese artists live in the worlds of tourism and tradition, but they are also part of the modern nation of Indonesia. Balinese have both embraced and criticised the implications of tourism. While they see tourism as a form of cultural promotion they are concerned tourism is turning their island into a commodity. The tourist view of Bali is often superficial, but it can offer a window to broader knowledge. Balinese artists have been working to open up that window by preserving and upholding their traditional Balinese cultural identity and engaging Bali's role in a national identity. Some of the artist's works are explicitly political, others political in the broader sense of embracing the realities of modern life. Balinese art thus offers an introduction to new ways of understanding the diversity and complexity of Indonesia.
Since the 1940s Yogyakarta, in Central Java has been the artistic centre linking Bali to the Indonesian art world. Many Indonesian artists who lived on Bali come from Yogya and Balinese artists have traveled there to study or practice art with colleagues from all over the archipelago. One of the chief vehicles of this interchange was the Sanggar Dewata, "Workshop of the Gods", formed in the mid-1970s by Balinese artists trained in Yogyakarta. Under Indonesia's New Order political art was discouraged and artists were encouraged to concentrate on aesthetic development. However the work of this group's members reveals how it was impossible to separate aesthetic concerns from engagement with society, and in the 1990s the veiled allusions to social change and foment became more explicit.
Bali's role in Indonesian art has been as an object and as a culture in which to live. Many Indonesian artists who chose to live in Bali, or have extended visits to the island to paint, bridged the distance between Balinese painters and mainstream Indonesian art. Some have engaged with Balinese painters and society, others have produced images of Bali, painted in an abstract mode that avoids politics, on a level of fantasy, myth and legend. Other Indonesian artists have been explicitly political, joining the Indonesian nationalist rebellion against colonial rule, particularly through PERSAGI (the Union of Indonesian Painters, an artists group established in 1937). Those who survived the revolution became involved in the1950s and 1960s with the leftist group LEKRA, the People's Art Institute, associated with the Communist Party of Indonesia and found their work banned from exhibition under the authoritarian Suharto regime.
Balinese art may be enmeshed in Indonesian art, but it has its own path of development. The traditional in Balinese art has not been superseded by the modern, it exists side-by-side. The clearest example of Bali's separate development was from 1928 to 1942 when hundreds of young Balinese were encouraged to paint for a new tourist market. The results include a radical and unique form of modernism in which these artists used traditional motifs and stories as the basis for dramatic experiments in style.
Exhibition catalogue Crossing Boundaries. Bali: A Window to Twenthieth Century Indonesian Art. 2002. Asia Society AustralAsia Centre, Melbourne.
Objects, books, music. Language and Multicultural Education Resource Centre, 150 Palmerston Street. Carlton 3053. Phone (03) 9349 2400
Broad range of curriculum resources, classroom guides and resources, art, culture, religious and other material is available through: http://www.curriculum.edu.au/accessasia/indonesia/teacher/resource/links.htm
Suggested general activities
Note: each painting is a link to a larger version of the same image.
In recent decades Balinese women have successfully entered the male dominated arena of art. Traditionally women were engaged in the ritual and domesitc arts - dancing, making offerings, printing batik textiles and weaving cloth - art forms regarded in the west as craft due to their utilitarian and ephemeral nature. Women's artistic abilities were hindered by men's stereotypical attitudes. They were thought to have a poor sense of colour, be unwilling to get dirty and expected to conform to the Panca Dharma Wanita (Five duties of Women), prescribed by Indonesia’s state run women’s organisations.
Since the early 1990s however women have found it easier to engage in the broad range of artistic practices on Bali. The Seniwati Gallery for Art by Women, Ubud, established in 1991 by Mary Northmore, has given women the opportunity to study, explore relevant issues and exhibit and sell their work in a gallery exclusively representing women.
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Cokorda Istri Mas Astiti, Women of Two Continents, 1993, oil on canvas |
A lecturer in fine art at the Udayana University in Denpasar, Bali’s capital city, Cokorda focuses in her art on the relationships and roles of women as mothers, teachers, performers, workers, artists and wives. She uses humour and irony to explore situations of human contact between the Balinese and foreigners visiting Bali.
In many traditional cultures the prime purpose of art was to serve religion. Paintings and objects were created and used in rituals, ceremonies and offerings. Hinduism, an ancient religion, was introduced to Bali by early Indian traders and today approximately 95% of Balinese are Hindu.
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Gambir, Cokorda Oka. Ramayana, c.1935, wash technique and gold paint on paper, 28.0 x 37.0, private collection |
The Ramayana is an epic Hindu poem about the seventh reincarnation of Vishnu as Rama, a hero prince, sent to earth to restore righteousness. It relates the tale of the kidnapping of Rama’s wife Sita, by the king of the demons and her dramatic rescue by Rama and the white monkey god Hanuman. The painting's visual narrative has a religious, moral and philosophical purpose and in common with similar stories of this type depicts good versus evil.
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Hendra Gunawan, Gerilja Berbelanja (Fighters in the Market), 1952, oil on canvas |
A radical and eminent left wing Indonesian artist, whose works together with other politically committed Indonesian artists painting in Bali, were unpopular with the government during the 1970s and 1980s. As a result of earlier associations with the communist sponsored LEKRA (People’s Culture Association) Hendra was imprisoned and many artists' exhibitions banned. The male figure in the painting is a guerrilla fighter. In some of his works Hendra paints women guerrillas in action, attesting to the fact that women were active participants in the revolution.
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Hardi (Suhardi), Old Woman Waiting, 1979, reproduction print, 12.0 x 17.0, from a series of art cards with a poem inside by Rendra, private collection |
Balinese art of the 1970s and 1980s was produced in a specific context, that of the ‘New Order’ government of President Suharto favouring economic progress over human dignity and encouraging a growth in tourism. Under this regime many peasants lost their land to development projects and golf courses. Injustice and corruption was rife within the government, army and judiciary departments, (refer to exhibition catalogue essay Indonesia in History, by Dr Robert Cribb). The generally apolitical nature of Balinese painting until the 1990s provides a sharp contrast to the radical art of Hardi and other members of the politically challenging New Art Movement of the previous 15 years.
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Mat Ucap, ‘Damai di Bumi, di Hati’ (Peace on Earth and in the Heart), 2000, reproduction print on paper, 17.5 x 13.0, private collection |
Ucap is one of the radical Balinese artists working in Yogyakarta, historically the centre for artistic cultural protest. Ucap and the other artists continue this tradition of creating art to reveal and protest against political, social and economic oppression. These artists are also very critical of the increasing capitalist orientation and the commercial gains within the art world.
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Surya Darma, Bali Burger, c. 1995, ink and watercolour on paper, 17.0 x 24.5, private collection |
A cartoonist whose work has appeared in the Bali Post, Drama makes sharp and controversial observations which reflect his economic background.
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Ida Bagus Nyoman Rai, Donald Friend painting at Batu Jimbar, c. 1977, pen, pencil and ink on paper, 60.0 x 85.0, private collection |
Between 1928 and 1942 hundreds of young Balinese were encouraged to paint for the new tourist market. The result was a radical and unique form of modernism in which artists used traditional motifs and stories as the basis for their experimental styles. The culture, lifestyle, environment and exotic nature of Bali also attracted many foreign artists. In the 1930s Ida Bagus Rai worked under the patronage of Swiss artist Theo Meier and in the late 1970s with the well known Australian expatriate artist Donald Friend.
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Ida Bagus Nyoman Rai, The Beached Whale, 1978, pastel and crayon on canvas, 110.0 x 154.0, private collection |
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Nisak Indri Khayati, Shadow puppets, 2001, watercolour on paper, 39.0 x 52.5, Seniwati Gallery of Art by Women |
This work is a behind-the-scenes look at the wayang, a shadow puppet play, that informs girls and boys of accepted gender roles and demonstrates the opposing forces of good and evil. The dalang, puppet master, manipulates the puppets. He narrates the story using different voices for each character, conducts the gamelan orchestra and manages the male assistants.
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Affandi, Self Portrait on Kusamba Beach, 1983, oil on canvas, 130.0 x 149.0, Queensland Art Gallery |
Affandi was self taught and became one of Indonesia’s most internationally renowned artists. Together with Hendra Gunawan he was active in the cultural and revolutionary movements that shaped Indonesia’s artistic identity. He chose to paint the reality of the everyday struggles and life of ordinary people, in place of the colonial perspectives of Indonesia and Bali as an idealised paradise. Affandi was one of the founding members in 1938 of PERSAGI, a movement of national protest artists, who created posters, slogans and works of social commentary. At the time Affandi painted this portrait he was experiencing sadness. Many friends including Hendra Gunawan had died and he observed life for the fishermen was becoming more difficult.
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Kartika Affandi, Nelayan ( Fishermen), 1992, acrylic on canvas, 140.0 x 200.0, Museum Universitas Pelita Harapan |
Kartika learnt to paint under the direction of her father, Affandi. At fifteen the family travelled to India where she was offered a position in an art school. She later studied painting and restoration in Austria and Italy. She was frequently the subject of her fathers figure studies. Like her father, she uses painting to explore personal emotions and psychological aspects of herself.
Since the 1940’s the artistic centre of Yogyakarta in Central Java has been Bali’s link to the Indonesian art world. Many of the Indonesian artists who lived in Bali came from Yogyakarta, and for decades Balinese artists had been travelling there to study and practice art. One of the chief vehicles for interchange between artists was through the Sanggar Dewata or ‘Workshop of the Gods’ formed in the mid 1970s by Balinese artists trained in Yogyakarta. Under Suharto’s New Order regime political art was discouraged and the Sanggar Dewata artists were encouraged to concentrate on the aesthetic developments in their art.
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Nyoman Erawan, Untitled (Tanpa Judul), 1990, oil on canvas, 150.0 x 114.0, Neka Art Museum |
Erawan like other Sanggar Dewata artists has found it impossible to separate aesthetic concerns from engagement with society. He is regarded as one of Indonesia’s foremost contemporary installation and performance artists. Many of his performances are staged as new types of Balinese Hindu rituals with the central themes of creation out of destruction, in which the organic and inorganic are linked.
The work of the 1930s Balinese modernists had a strong overlap with that of artists working more closely with Balinese traditions. However even within the traditions there was still room for innovation, both in terms of use of medium and style. These works together with others in the exhibition illustrate aspects of traditional art practice that have continued to be made throughout the twentieth century, contemporary with forms of art more in line with thoes perceived to be modern Indonesian and Balinese art.
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I Wayan Goenaksa Toenas, Sakenan, 1937, wash technique on paper, 46.0 x 57.0,, private collection |
Toenas reveals an intimate and detailed view of his local environment. His work is full of keen observation.
These notes have been developed and written for Art Education Victoria by Lin Celli and Marian Strong, in conjunction with the Asia Society, AustralAsia Centre and the exhibition curator Dr Adrian Vickers. Background information is from the exhibition catalogue: Crossing Boundaries. Bali: A Window to 20th Century Indonesian Art
![Ucup, Mat. 'Damai di Bumi, di Hati' [Peace on Earth, and in the Heart], 2000, reproduction print on paper, 17.5 x 13.0, private collection](crossing_boundaries/damai_tif_72dpi_sm.jpg)
