February/March, 1998
No. 033/VI/98
cover story
Galleries Galore
The boom in
contemporary Balinese
art
Why bourgeois Balinese
are collecting art
beyond
bali
From Toraja to the
Togians
Sulawesi's most seductive
parts
Treading Lightly in
Lombok
Tips to being a green
tourist
regular
features
Weekender
The Saltmakers of Amed
Home Grown
Legian's Legend,
Made Kasim
Health and Beauty
The Ubud-based
Bali Utama Spice
Books
The search for the Great
Bali Novel continues
Cuisine
Bumbu Bali cooking
school
Fiction
Marni's Ride by
K. Landras Syaelendra
Jungle Drums
advertising index for
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The invitation cards, neatly printed on recycled paper, lie stacked
on the table, complete with information as to the time, place and semi-formal dress
required to attend the big ritual event, an exhibition of para rupa, or fine
arts, at the new Galleri Ruko. The word 'gallery' brings a stock set of images to mind.
There is the sophisticated expatriate connoisseur, the modern-day Walter Spies or Bonnet
courting the Tjokorda, the Art Council bureaucrat and the barefoot art critic. There are
the tourists whose art experience is packaged for them like a guided tour of the mall
where everything's on sale. There are the cultured travellers prowling the meditative,
climate-controlled tranquility of the five star hotel boutiques for something investment
quality. And then there is suburban Ubud, one of the most gallerized villages in the
world, with an ARMA, Puri Lukisan, Rudana, Neka, Sika, or Agung Raka sweetly beckoning
buyers from every corner. But Galleri Ruko, a crowded city space in the midst of the noise
and traffic of Jalan Gatot Subroto, Denpasar, seems a world away from these engineered
environments. In Denpasar tonight, the room is a clash of abstract expressionist and
surrealist images and those consuming them are local poets, activists, bohemians,
journalists and Balinese yuppies. The guy with the long bleach-streaked hair and Hypocrisy
t-shirt is talking freedom of expression and the politics of aesthetics with the
handphone-wielding man in the baggy Indian linen suit and Gucci watch. But if the
atmosphere inside the gallery seems like a self-proclaimed warung demokrasi, the
parking lot outside tells a story of distinctions: on one side Mercedes, BMWs, Cherokees
and the latest Timor car, on the other a crowded tangle of motorcycles, helmets hanging
from the rear-view mirrors.
The appearance of contemporary Balinese galleries like Galleri Ruko and the Artists' Cafe in Kuta Square is a phenomenon inseparable from emerging discourses of "taste" and distinction, the ones that help you tell the difference between the offerings of the Sukawati Art Market and the products of the shops lining the roads of tourist areas. The consumption of art products in today's Bali differentiates between those who have taste and those who simply own things, distinctions similar to those between sculpture and carving, artist and craftsperson. What is it that makes a Garuda statue by I Wayan Susila from Tegalalang worth only a few thousand rupiah and a Garuda by Ida Bagus Tilem worth several million? Is it its quality, the precision of its line and color, the way it expresses the individual creativity or social vision of its maker? Or is it the space of the gallery that authorizes its value, that gives it a credibility, a personality, as well as just a cost? As one Balinese yuppie friend of mine says, "Anyone with money can own a BMW, but taste can't be bought." Not every buyer can be a collector, it seems
Above : Protective Charm, Ida Bagus Made (Nyoman Sumertha Gallery)
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