Artistic Courage on Bali

Yesterday, I was walking along the main road, in the town of Ubud, on the island of Bali, in Indonesia, when I stumbled on Bali Tirta Art Gallery. What drew me in was a colorful painting of a child sleeping on a bed of newspapers in front of a pile of boxes. As I slowly walked around the one-room gallery, I noticed a dozen or so paintings of the traditional landscape/beautiful women/ market scene genres. But what captured my attention were the large, brightly-colored acrylic paintings which, like the one of the sleeping boy, explored the underside of paradise. Tightly-cropped like a photo, with simple compositions and minimal but telling detail, these paintings were completely different from anything else I saw on the island.

A woman’s hands outstretched to receive a single 100,000 Indonesian rupiah note (worth about $11) from a man towering above her. A young boy with a cell phone looks down at the image on the screen of a man and woman having sexual intercourse. Two men standing next to each other, one of whom is picking the other’s pocket. A young child intently looking at a magazine, on the back cover of which a woman is posing suggestively. A girl sprawled on the ground, her eyes closed, face and arms lacerated, a teddy bear and torn bag nearby.

Mesmerized, I took a couple of photos to jog my memory, and called the number on the shop sign. A young woman offered to meet me the next morning at the gallery. When I arrived, she was already there with her husband and small son. The paintings were the work of her 21-year-old brother, Tirtayasa, who is still a student at the art institute in the island’s capital, Denpassar. The brother-in-law mentioned that the gallery would only be open for a few more months as the rent was so high.

The piece I was most drawn to was called “Girl with Pepsi,” which subtly comments on the changes global capitalism has had on the traditional way of life. A woman in Balinese dress holds a flower-filled offering basket made of coconut fronds and a Pepsi bottle, which is labeled with the words “holy water” in Balinese.

As a lover of beauty, I appreciate the talents of those who create traditional scenes of life on the Island of the Gods for visitors to take home. But it takes not only talent, but also courage and vision for an artist to depict those aspects of life which are less than idyllic and far from picturesque, especially when there is little or no financial incentive, and perhaps substantial financial risk, in doing so. And yet, this is what we expect of artists: an individual interpretation, an authentic expression of the larger truths that affect us all.

I hope that Tirtayasa and other artists like him receive the support they need to continue.