Crossing the Red Line –
Living in Gallery with Ketut Suwidiarta

After three days of non-stop painting, Ketut Suwidiarta presents ‘Crossing the Red Line’ with 13 works painted and displayed at Komaneka Fine Art Gallery. Part of the Living in Gallery program, this residency provides a space for artists to paint at the Gallery’s airy second floor within a total of 24 hours, divided into several days. “I thought I could do it all in 2 days. But the very first day I noticed that I had no yellow paint, which is quite an important color for me” confesses Ketut.

During his residency Ketut was greatly inspired by symbolism and meaning. The ‘Red Line’ from the exhibition’s title are visible on his paintings and taps into what we know and assumes of the color- of imminent danger, a point of no return. To cross it is to go through something that is forbidden.

At the same time, this ‘line’ is used to tie opposites together. Ketut juxtaposes his visual styles and symbolic figures to stress the shifting and changing of one realm to another. As Ketut focuses on the red line, so has he focused on portraying both sides of the story.

These subject matters are both multifaceted and yet uncomplicated, all a reflection of today’s reality that has been reconceived by Ketut. The boldness in colors, lines and objects express meaning and emotional experience rather than physical reality. Crocodiles, (black) horses, fishes, weapons, are all hinting at something familiar yet mystical. “Ambiguity adds more to my work” Ketut adds. The figures are placed at the center of the canvas, like a coat of arms or a crest floating through endless space.

This residency was an outlet for Ketut to experiment with painting away from his current style. He was able to be adventurous, exploring different techniques and mediums like charcoal. Just last year he presented his current works at Komaneka at Tanggayuda. These works were inspired by the positive and negative spaces that are found when making traditional Batik especially with block prints. Traces of that style is present in the paintings at this exhibit.

Suwidiarta has had a prolific life as an artist; growing up in Bali he did his Fine Arts degree at ISI (Institute of Arts Yogyakarta). At the time he lived at the Museum Nyoman Gunarsa where he was exposed to a great collection of contemporary Indonesian art. He then continued his studies at the Rabindra Bharati University in India which was located in the ancestral Tagore home. There Ketut was able to study further of Rabindranath Tagore and the santiniketan where Indonesian maestros Affandi studied. When I saw his work, I knew that it referenced an ethnic discipline of painting that I was unfamiliar with. It was in fact that- his studies in India opened up to a world of modern artists in Asia that were studied academically yet were outside of the Western Academic art canon.

Ketut’s constant experimentation exemplifies his need to create his own visual language and expression. To use a quote by Rabindranath Tagore that he referenced to me after his residency; “The traveler has to knock at every alien door to come to his own, and one has to wander through all the outer worlds to reach the innermost shrine at the end.”

April 2022
Gek Sri Pande W