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Bali News
Monday, October 1, 2018
International
Activities
International
Monday, October 1, 2018
15
Women, tradition and art in Bali
Young painter Satya Cipta breaking ground Museum Puri Lukisan was established to maintain a high level of quality in the arts of Bali at a time when artistic production was shifting away from the purely religious into the realm of the commercial. Although art in Bali is no longer produced exclusively in the context of religious and cultural practices, the cultural and religious practices of Balinese Hindus are inseparable from artistic expression and also inform how art is viewed more broadly. Although what is today referred to as traditional Balinese art is certainly rooted in these cultural and religious practices it stands apart from them in certain distinct ways, including the relative freedom given to express a certain amount of personal impressions. Forms and techniques are also given a wider berth. How far the boundaries can be stretched before a particular artistic expression is no longer considered traditional is up for debate. While some consider that any art produced using traditional techniques and style to still be traditional, others feel that themes and subject should also remain within certain boundaries to be considered traditional. The works of Satya Cipta stand somewhere in this grey area of tradition -and perhaps intentionally so. Cipta was born to Balinese parents in Sulawesi where she grew up as a cultural and religious minority. After studying art in Jakarta and returning to Bali with her family she found herself as a new kind of minority as her experience with and exposure to other ways of seeing and being in the world, left her no choice but to question certain aspects of her own culture – most notably the role that women are expected to play in Bali. Cipta married a man from the village of Batuan, which is known the world over not only for the tremendous number of skilled artists of all disciplines who call this small village home, but also for the way that panting in particular has flourished due to the extending of traditional boundaries in the subjects presented, while still maintaining certain core foundations. In a very short time, Cipta learned to paint in the traditional style of
Batuan but soon felt that the wide berth given to artists here to explore different subjects was too narrow for here. She went on to explore the style of painting developed by I Nyoman Lempad and then found a master painter in Ubud whose style and subject and approach she resonated with. I Ketut Budiana is a truly masterful painter and sculptor whose works are distinctly rooted in the visual
and philosophical traditions of Bali, yet depart from conventions in an equally distinct manner. Although a great number of painters in Bali have been influenced by Budiana’s style and approach, few if any have studied directly with him – until Satya Cipta that is. In little over a year, this talented young painter came to find a visual and conceptual vocabulary of her own. In line with the Balinese tradition of learning directly from master painters by imitating their style, Cipta has taken key elements of Budiana’s work – both visually and conceptually. However instead of only minor personal additions or derivations from her master’s style and methods, Cipta has leapt into an entirely new field of enquiry. While, like Budiana, she focuses on expressing her own inner world through the lens of the lexicon of Balinese traditional arts, Satya has begun to explore her experience as a woman in Balinese society. This exploration ends up speaking of the role of women more broadly, bringing up some rather uncomfortable questions about the place of women including sexual violence, objectification and the silencing of the female voice both in terms of the subjects presented in her works and the manner they are presented. Perhaps if she had chosen to use a different visual vocabulary to express her feelings about such subjects, her works could be read as more personal explorations. However given the fact that the style of her works -though certainly not strictly traditional in technique and compositional style, they do contain enough elements of traditional Balinese painting to draw attention to the particular context that she is referring to. Satya Cipta’s works will be on display at Museum Puri Lukisan form October 6th to November 6th in a solo exhibition that presents her learning process. From the at times awkwardly self conscious compositions of her earliest works to her powerfully harmonious rendering of lines in her more recent ones, this exhibition represents a momentous shift in woman’s place in the art of Bali. Through her own personal explorations of her place, position and feelings about these within her own culture, Satya Cipta has perhaps unwittingly carved out a new way of looking at and being a woman in Bali. (kmb)
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IHG HOTELS & RESORTS IN BALI
GALVANIZE FOR GIVING FOR GOOD MONTH
IHG Hotels & Resorts in Bali (which includes six properties in prominent areas of the island: InterContinental Bali Resort, Hotel Indigo Bali Seminyak Beach, Holiday Inn Resort Baruna Bali, Holiday Inn Resort Bali Benoa, Holiday Inn Express Baruna Bali and Holiday Inn Express Bali Raya Kuta) held a
series of community-based activities throughout the whole month of September. Dubbed as Giving for Good Month, these activities are part of True Hospitality for Good - IHG’s new initiative for communities and charitable giving. Giving for Good Month will also be driving an effort for the Lombok Earthquake Disaster
Relief. On 5 August 2018, the neighbouring island of Lombok was struck with an earthquake measured at 7.0 magnitude on the Richter scale following its foreshocks that started in late July and with aftershocks recorded up until September. In an effort to support the disaster
relief in Lombok, the six IHG properties in Bali got together to help our fellow island communities through IHG’s new programme for communities and charitable giving, True Hospitality for Good. This initiative by IHG is aimed to change lives for the better through building skills and education in hospitality as well as to support communities when disaster strikes. With the local activities like Giving for Good Month, the programme provides each team member of IHG hotels as well as its offices around the world a greater say in how the company can contribute. This is done through each team member pledging to do a community-based activity under one of the three actions—Volunteer, Go Green, and Keep Healthy—where IHG will donate up to $4 for each pledge done by every team member throughout September to a team member’s selection charity partners. Here in Bali, IHG Hotels & Resorts in Bali held four communitybased activities involving all of the hotels’ team members. Starting with mangrove plantation around the Serangan Bay area on 7 September, then followed with a Blood Drive
at InterContinental Bali Resort on 14 September 2018. For the third event, Hotel Indigo Bali Seminyak Beach held a Keep Healthy action through Beach Morning Fun Run where it saw team members joined in either 4, 5, or 6 km run. Ending the Giving for Good Month on the Go Green note, IHG Hotels & Resorts in Bali held their final event at Kuta Beach which saw a great number of the hotel team members releasing Sea Turtle Hatchlings out into the great ocean. The team members of IHG Hotels & Resorts in Bali have chosen SOS Children Village for IHG to donate $4 for each of the team members working at the 6 IHG properties across the island. Globally we aim to engage 100,000 IHG colleagues to take part in Giving for Good month activities in September, for a total donation of USD $400,000 to our charity partners. In addition to that, IHG Foundation Fund has also confirmed to donate US$25,000 to the Lombok community, this amount will be channeled through its disaster relief partner, International Federation of Red Cross.