Pop up EXHIBITION – Bali x Darwin Neighborhood Exchange program

Pop-up exhibition opens Friday 27 October | 5 – 7 pm
UNTiTLED gallery+studio 3/1 Caryota Court, Coconut Grove

EXHIBITION CATALOGUE

From 23 October – 1 November Darwin Community Arts (UNTiTLED gallery+studio) is hosting three artists Ika, Adi and Dewa (and Dwymabim and Zolaa to exhibit works but not attend) from Indonesia (Bail). Together we plan to create long-term collaborations in the form of artist exchanges and residencies between Indonesia and Australia.

From this cultural exchange meeting, it is hoped that we will learn from each other and understand each artist’s potential and interests to be able to create collaborative programs. This cultural exchange program is very important in order to mutually understand and appreciate the culture of each entity so that there is an opportunity to produce new and hybrid works.

In the Bali x Darwin Neighborhood Exchange program, the Kulidan Art Project will display the works of five artists, namely:

• Dwymabim @dwymabim
• Zolalongor @zolalongor
• Pansaka @pansaka_
• I Komang Adiartha @ikomangadiartha
• Curated by Kulidan Art Project and Ika Yuliana @ikanation

The participants and Ika Yuliana Nasution were curators from the Kulidan Art Project.

The theme for this exhibition is embodying and elaborating Balinese ornaments, by presenting them in a contemporary feel.

After looking closely at the elements in Balinese ornaments, it was found that many adopted things related to grains, such as batun timun (cucumber seeds), batun poh in patra punggel, there is also taluh Kakul, etc. From these elements, we interpret them into seeds, is it possible that the patra elements in the ornament contain advice for protecting seeds, making efforts for food security and food sovereignty?

In general, Balinese ornaments are grouped into 3 large groups. The first is Pepatran, namely, ornaments that are stylized from plant forms, secondly Kekarangan, this is a stylisation of the shapes of animal heads or faces, for example there are Gajah coral, Kaksi coral or Guwak coral, Boma coral, etc. The third is keketusan, ornaments in the form of repetition such as taluh Kakul, batun timun, gold, etc.

What’s interesting is that Balinese ornaments have long been able to absorb and acculturate with the ornaments of other countries, this can be observed from the existence of Egyptian Patra, Chinese Patra, etc.