Spiritual Enlightenment Through Art

I Wayan Juniartha , The Jakarta Post , Ubud | Thu, 10/01/2009 11:46 AM | Arts & Design

It is quite obvious that the quest for spiritual enlightenment and the Buddhist path have always occupied an important place in the esthetic journey of Balinese artist Pande Ketut Taman.

As early as 2005, Taman had impressed both the curatorial board and art lovers at the prestigious Bali Biennale with his installation Menyentuh Langit (Touching Heaven), which went on to win the Bali Biennale's Excellent Achievement Award.

This visually and philosophically powerful work consisted of a semi-circular construction resembling an uphill road made of bamboo and rice straw. The road brimmed with human figures, made out of colorful traditional Balinese rice cakes. Then the road ended abruptly at its highest point, sending the figures at the topmost positions into a free fall back to the lowest point on the ground.

It was an enchanting narrative of the destructive nature of spiritual competitiveness - a race to be a self-righteous holier-than-thou zealot - as well as the cycle of rebirth.

It was as if Taman was saying that by the end of the journey, one group of humans would fall from grace because they assumed they possessed moral and religious superiority and another group would deliberately take the fall in order to liberate the masses who hadn't reached the top.

This notion of the latter group instantly raises the concept of the Bodhisattvas, the compassionate beings who refuse to enter Nirvana until all sentient beings have attained enlightenment.

The fact that the human figures were made of rice cake, which decayed after a short period of time, was Taman's acknowledgement of the ephemeral nature of our existence. That the whole installation was created collectively by members of Taman's native hamlet revealed the artist's longing for the communal creative process that characterized the creation of artworks in traditional Bali.

It also underlined his aspirations for the birth of a collective spiritual consciousness, one of the principal tenets of Mahayana Buddhism.

Similar themes of the personal quest for spirituality and collective consciousness have again taken center stage in Taman's current solo exhibition at Komaneka Gallery in Ubud.

Two tall wooden statues in the shape of stupa greet visitors as soon as they step into the gallery's exhibition area.

The conical lower and mid-section of the statues are carved with hundreds of human faces with different expressions, ranging from the joy, sadness and all commonly found expressions at the bottom to the higher expressions of tranquility and wisdom at the top. One statue - titled Fullness in a Void - is crowned with a golden dome, the other - Picking the Fruit of Heaven - with golden leaves.

To a certain extent, these sculptures are a recent development of the theme Taman explored in Touching Heaven.

This time, however, the reference to and symbols of Buddhism are more evident than before. One painting bears the distinctive geometrical shapes of the Mandala, the ritualistic geometric designs commonly used to aid meditation practices in Hinduism and Buddhism; another painting, titled Finger Pointing at The Moon, is a clear reference to the saying of an illustrious patriarch of Zen Buddhism.

Interestingly, all the shapes and forms in Taman's exhibited paintings and statues contain within them hundreds of tiny human faces. From a distance, a spectator can see only the serene face of Siddhartha, the founder of Buddhism.

Close inspection, however, reveals that the face is made up of hundreds upon hundreds of human faces, and not all of them display an expression of serenity.

This method of portrayal brings to mind the core Buddhist teaching of pratityasamutpada, the interconnectedness and interdependency of every existing thing in the universe. The existence of a human being is dependent on the condition of everything else in the universe.

On the other hand, the existence of the universe depends on the condition of that single human being. In short, everything depends on everything else. Therefore, the enlightenment of one individual, be it Siddhartha Gautama or Pande Ketut Taman, is dependent on the enlightenment of all sentient beings, a collective spiritual awakening, which is a central theme in Taman's works.

As an adherent to Balinese Hinduism, Taman is no stranger to Buddhist teachings, as remnants of Buddhist principles, rituals and religious paraphernalia are still present in Balinese Hinduism.

In fact, Balinese Hinduism itself is the result of social engineering initiated by an influential Mahayana priest, Mpu Kuturan. He facilitated in the 11th century the amalgamation of nine competing Hindu sects into a unified religious belief system, which differs greatly from Hinduism in India. The system later came to be known to outsiders as Balinese Hinduism. The Balinese prefer to call it Siwa-Buddha.

Taman's decision to relocate in 2000 to Muntilan, Central Java, strengthened his relationship with Buddhism, as the area is rich with Buddhist archaeological remains and the majestic Borobudur can be seen from the veranda of Taman's house.

As art critic Panji Tisna said, "Muntilan provides Taman with an opportunity to find the path into self-realization. And Buddhism has always been identical with self-discipline and self-realization, hasn't it?"

The exhibited works, Panji added, represent Taman's efforts to give form to the spiritual realization and consciousness he has experienced in recent years.

"It is an effort to converse with his own self as well as to engage the other," Panji said.

Taman (The Garden)
Exhibition of Pande Ketut Taman's works
Until Oct. 25, 2009
Komaneka Fine Arts Gallery
Jalan Monkey Forest, Ubud
Tel: 0361-976090
gallery.komaneka.com