Page 47 - Inner Gazing

According to Nano, “Not For Sale” was not intended to tell people not
to sell land—Nano felt he did not have that capacity. He also does not
believe in blaming people who sell land. For Nano, the art concept
comes back to yourself without blaming anyone for anything.
He says “Not For Sale” is an expression of anxiety about social
conditions in Bali. Through his work, he wants to build awareness, at
least starting with himself, to be better able to maintain and care for
what has been inherited for the next generation.

In early 2014, Nano again launched an environmental art idea, which
he gave the title “Planting Water,” an activity in which Nano planted
trees. Surrounding each sapling, he made a work in the form of a
tree in woven bamboo whose function was to protect the young
trees. He explains that the bamboo work is only temporary: one day
when the planted tree has grown large, the woven bamboo ‘tree’
would fall away and be replaced by the tree he planted. Nano began
doing this Planting Water activity at his house, then increasingly at
the homes of friends who requested it and provided good land in
their own yards, as well as on other land. Nano has now carried out
the “Planting Water” art activity in various places in Bali, starting
from several cultural spaces, campuses, and other public spaces
in Bali and even in Yogyakarta. Nano views “Planting Water” as an
art activity to build awareness of the vital role of water in nature:
growing plants plays an important role in maintaining the availability
of water in nature because growing plants accommodate water
reserves.

Thus Nano, an artist who consciously places art in the midst of life.
Art is not only for its own sake but also a medium to care for and
strengthen life itself. Nano, in addition to painting in his studio, has
also come out in the midst of the public, voicing anxiety, trying to
build awareness through the language of art of the problems of life
happening around us.

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