Paintings by Kun Adnyana
at Gaya Art Space, Jl. Raya Sayan, Ubud.
Tel: 979253
Born in Bangli, in April 1976, Wayan Kun Adnyana is a young Balinese artist, and a passionate writer about Indonesian art and culture. He is a lecturer at the Fine Art and Design Faculty of ISI Denpasar, and he is currently continuing to pursue a Master’s Degree at ISI Yogyakarta. In his exhibition, ‘New Totems for Mother’, Kun presents an exotic mirage of images that, on the surface, seem to hint at mysterious pagan practices and ritualized eroticism, or even an exploration of erotic sadomasochism. Human genital organs, drawn at a very large scale and stylized as elegant curves and spheres, are pierced with safety pins. To fully appreciate the work it requires a knowledge and understanding of the works’ context, possible symbolism, concealed meanings, and, most importantly, an exploration of the artist’s intentions. All of which are not noticeable, or understood, at first glance.
In the accompanying catalogue, the art critic Putu Wirata Dwikora explains how Kun arrives at the ‘visual execution’ of his artworks. “In the context of eroticism, Kun investigates Desire, Love and Mother, or Mother Earth. The originator of life and fertility. The erotic genital symbolizing objects, which are presented as new totems, spring from Kun’s knowledge of how Mother has been revered and given significance by human civilizations since time immemorial. The piercing safety pins symbolize trauma, pain and cynicism, and can be seen as sarcastic objects emerging from Kun’s wild obsessions”.
Clarifying this even more, Kun himself states that the ‘New Totems for Mother’ artworks act as a paradox to the practices of many civilizations that venerate Mother, not because he disagrees with the veneration of Mother or Mother Earth, but because the veneration has been mostly ceremonial in nature and does not translate into real actions. Therefore, the works ‘New Totems for Mother’, in Kun’s opinion, contain art objects expressing the whole gamut of his emotions about Mother rooted in ideological obsession, symbolism, or re-interpretation of ancient iconography that signify Mother.
The exhibition opens with Kun’s homage to the famous Venus of Willendorf in Austria. This is a grossly distorted female figurine with huge exaggerated genital organs and big breasts, and culturally represents an archetypal image which people who lived around 30,000 BC visually used to express their concept of Mother and Fertility. In his works ‘Mother 1’, ‘Mother 2’ and ‘Mother 3’, Kun presents a stylized interpretation of this archetypal figurine, pierced by safety pins. However, Kun’s implications appear to be that if Earth is the symbol of Fertility and Mother, why are human beings so intent on destroying the natural environment? Kun goes further, and also implies a political meaning to the works, and asks why the “destruction of the forests, and their illegal loggings, be allowed to proceed without any real attempt to enforce the law”? Elaborating on Kun’s point, Putu Wirata Dwikora asks: “If it is true that our culture, and the Indonesian nation, does indeed revere Mother, why hasn’t this supposedly agrarian country any wisdom to allocate justly its national budget to develop agriculture, thus possibly halting the ‘agricultural involution’ that has been disempowering the farmers along with the sinking agricultural economy”? Accordingly, the message behind Kun’s simple re-interpretation of the Willendorf Venus is actually a rather sarcastic and contradictory reflection on how we venerate Mother, or Mother Earth, only ceremonially, while, in reality, we are continuing to ‘torture’ her.
As the exhibition continues further political points are suggested in the artworks. ‘Legacy from Mother’, which depicts the female genital organs pierced by a safety pin, is a reflection on the oppression and exploitation of women. “As representations of Mother, women continue to be exploited. The most contemporary form of women’s oppression and exploitation is the trading of women, while the more subtle and civilized one is the scenario of Capitalism to package women’s beauty in a way that traps women into consumer patterns where they then willingly hurt themselves to appear beautiful and adorable”. Additional works, such as ‘Tiga Lingga’ and ‘Lingga-Yoni’, explore the intense pressures and domination of masculinity, which frequently creates chaos and disorder, and they also assert the endless nurturing and fostering roles of Mother. Kun’s study of Mother concludes with the canvas ‘The Ancient Spa’. Here, Mother is depicted as “picture perfect, ideal, a seamless ocean, selfless, drained, depleted, subdued and taken for granted without ever asking for a return. She is the source of ‘nurturing’, and she raises children without ever calculating profit and loss, except for embracing and showering them with endless love”. Kun’s images raise some very intriguing political and philosophical questions, which may not be evident at first viewing. The responsibility for teasing out meanings from the images is placed on the viewer. Thus, viewing the exhibition in conjunction with the catalogue notes will result in a stimulating experience.
The concept of ‘New Totems for Mother’ is, in essence, a contemplation about form and abstraction, and body and spirit. The works cleverly explore eroticism, the human libido, desire and contemporary interpretations about Mother, the source of all life. Expressed differently, the exhibition speaks about love, since the human libido and desire essentially points toward love. The Gaya Art Space, in Ubud, presents an extremely challenging exhibition.
