Paintings by Michelle Swayne
At Gaya Art Space, Jl. Raya Sayan, Ubud. Tel: 979252
Michelle Swayne is an American artist, now resident in Bali. Throughout her exhibition, ‘Delta Dawn’, Michelle shows a challenging and ambiguous collection of gritty works which are filled with self-expression, cultural icons, and intriguing implied narratives. There is an autobiographical element to these paintings. Michelle’s art is a process of creating a personal mythology which makes contact with something universal. A sense of the intimate in an epic unfolding human drama. These paintings are at the border between objectivity and subjectivity, reality and the imagination.
In a painting like ‘Big Red Me’, Michelle attacks her canvas with forceful, swirling brushstrokes intended to convey ‘a state of mind’. This is a rather ‘obvious’ and easily understood work, yet, in other pieces, such as ‘Orchard of Me’s’, the aggressive brushwork and paint application remains, but an intriguing subtext emerges. References to the human situation and its relationship with nature, growth, and spiritual fulfillment slowly emerge, and, eventually becomes the main underlying theme of the exhibition.
However, the iconography, or mythology, which Michelle is developing, is more evident in the canvases ‘Crowns’ and ‘The Polka Dot Murder’. Within these works diverse signs that appear to be based on children stories and even the ubiquitous Sinetron ‘murder mystery’ excite our subconscious to create a free association, or even a ‘narrative’, out of these discordant and eclectic mixtures of imagery. Michelle is relying on the ability of the viewer to subliminally comprehend the messages, and arrive at a ‘meaning’ which might be created out of a metaphor, our own imagination, or the human psyche. Maybe, the works suggest a state of heightened sensibility resulting from the disorganization and ‘poetic’ reorganization of our perceived reality.
As the accompanying catalogue shows, Michelle is also a talented writer:
“Thinking about something is not the same as feeling it and feeling it is not the same as being it, and being is not the same as anything else, like action or god, because we are far too close. Are we thinking feeling being or doing. No one can tell me. We cannot shake the body off, or the mind without leaving it. And well then you are looking at something else”.
“I patchwork pieces of songs and features, lengths of lines, marks of color, (I feel like monkeys and rabbits and rats. Lions to be generous, lechers too) because my bones live in wet things. I am free to know myself above all others. No one can know the monkeys or lengths in me, my lineage is mine. This bit of time, my life, like this line feels forever all mine. And only I think this is true”.
As these excerpts demonstrate Michelle also likes to play ‘mind games’ with the written word. Her writing works together with her visual art to carry hints of communication in a language that is ambiguous but yet immediate. Perhaps the most interesting painting in the show is ‘Ocean’. Within this work panels, somewhat like a comic book, combine to imply a narrative based on the moods of the ocean. It’s a fascinating piece that conveys a subtle story purely through the visual medium. Do the visuals exemplify the story, or does the story exemplify the visuals? This is an intriguing question.
Freedom and Beauty
Sculpture Exhibition from B.I.A.S.A.
(Bali Indonesia Sculptors Association).
At Kamandalu Resort, Jl. Tegallalang, Banjar Nagi, Ubud. Tel: 975825.
B.I.A.S.A., or, Bali Indonesia Sculptors Association, is a group set up to encourage, promote and sponsor indigenous Balinese sculptors. Currently, in the gallery space at the Kamandalu Resort, the association has mounted an exhibition of the work of the groups’ members, which runs the full gauntlet from traditional to modern contemporary sculptural styles.
Sculpture, these days, is unfashionable. It doesn’t get the same ‘press’ or attention as painting. Much sculpture is concerned with installation, environmental, or massive conceptual pieces, which makes the works difficult to exhibit, and, quite frankly, sell. It’s refreshing to observe that in the B.I.A.S.A. show the majority of the works are on a small scale, which makes the pieces most amiable for the serious private collector.
There is something like fifty pieces in the exhibition, all of which are very well crafted. Some of the highlights include Komang Ardika’s fiberglass sculpture ‘Simpul’. Komang’s voluptuous curves bring to mind the work of British sculptors Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore. Made Sutama displays a delightful hi-tech ‘Fire Ant’, created from amusing pieces of discarded metal objects, suggesting a ‘special effects’ monster from a B Grade horror movie. Meanwhile, Carola Vooges presents one of her superb tactile and slightly surreal pieces, carved from Suwar wood, and entitled ‘Shallow’. The presence of Dutch artist Carola Vooges in the show demonstrates that B.I.A.S.A. is not only for Balinese sculptors, but, long term Expat artists living in Bali are also able to join the organization, and partake in its activities. Finally, renowned Balinese mask maker, Wayan Muka, exhibits a fantastic piece of painted Pule wood in the form of a phantasmagorical Sea Nymph, entitled ‘Mormoine’. The piece is a fine example of traditional Balinese arts ‘updated’ with a contemporary ‘feel’.
The entire show has been well conceived. It presents a comprehensive look into the current and multi-diverse state of sculpture within present day Bali. A visit to the exhibition you will find extremely illuminating and rewarding.
