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Featured Artist
I Wayan Suja
The ‘Plastic’ Man
The latest artworks from Suja are aimed with greater affinity, yet they have expanding power. Suja stated that being a ‘correct Balinese’ is a most troubling matter. Troubling, in the sense of accepting the concept and trying to solve it. Bali is, and will always change; and so does her people. The most obvious aspect lays in the change of lifestyle and patterns, with more complex impacts: in consumptive attitudes, in habitual and environmental changes. Creative and productive Balinese have become consumers. “Ceremony materials, for instance, use imported fruits; and accessories for these ceremonies are more and more the products of mass production,” said Suja. Whereas, according to Suja, Balinese people could still sustain to all of the elements that they used previously, if they want to. Malls, which are now spreading all over Bali, have also contribute to change. Plastic, too, is an important tick in the box of becoming modern.
Yes, plastic! You, I, we go to mall, and shop, or simply buy something of a particular brand (a product, at a counter or a store) – its brand printed boldly on its plastic wrapper. The shapes vary; there are thin plastic bags, rustling away. People here call it a rustling bag (tas kresek). There are also fancier versions, with stiff, thick paper, on which the brand is glitteringly printed and laminated, finished off with strong ropes. Then we would carry it proudly, shopping receipt stapled to it. Along the way, we discover a unique sensation, however brief; the feeling of being a consumer, of being affluent, of having taste, and enjoying a different social status. The bag (whether it is plastic or paper) is a tick in the box of luxury, or something lavish (plush) that we can afford. The impact of this thing is actually very complex: rubbish, pollution and lifestyle of disorder.
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