Page 10 - Momentary Lapse

MOMENTARY LAPSE

After more than twenty years of adventure in Yogyakarta, I Made Arya Palguna has returned to
Bali, to drop anchor and walk in the land of the gods, to feel the heat and chill of the Balinese
sun. Returning to start life anew in Bali is a very special moment for this artist—a phase
reconnecting the trail of memory of things left behind and encountering a changing reality. The
exploding emotional turmoil and leaps of energy are transformed beautifully into painting and
sculpture.

In the solo exhibition entitled “Coming Home: Momentary Lapse,” Palguna shares his experience
of resettling in Bali. Palguna was born in 1976 in Ubud and raised in this village with its brilliant
history of art in the 20th century, where revolutionaries in the field of art emerged in the modern
Pita Maha movement. Here Palguna enjoyed his childhood and adolescence. In 1996 Palguna
continued his art studies at the art institute ISI in Yogyakarta, which became his second home.
This city not only taught him science in the art field, but was also a place for him to ripen, to
grow a budding heart which split a small family. Dreams and hope for the future ran high in this
city, but as a Balinese it was “as far as stepping across the ocean, across continents,” and in
time he would definitely return to Bali.

For Palguna, returning to Bali is spiritual practice, returning to the land where the placenta is
planted at birth and fertilized every day with offerings, a land that certainly has its own aura. Old
interrupted memories are connected again—playing in rice fields with the breeze of the Campuhan
hill refreshing daily life. “Ten Lion Power Tiger” is a slogan taken from a favorite cartoon series
to be the title of a work featuring a child who is releasing a magical form in the form of a ten-
headed tiger. The comic Kho Ping Hoo gave birth to the work “Three Warriors (Espionage)” which
displays a rural atmosphere in China. Memories of his adolescence in Ubud are illustrated in the
work “Serial Killer,” which features three teenagers side by side with large glasses of wine, with a
backdrop of river views adorned with twin mountains ready to be explored.

To come to Bali as a Balinese is, of course, different from coming to Bali as a tourist or foreign
visitor. Palguna finds that reality has changed. Childhood friends are now grown up, and
he returns with the responsibility of being the head of a family. Much in Bali looks different
and changes are under way, creating in Palguna deep impressions that provoke anxiety and
questions. This is the basis of the themes of Palguna’s recent works.