Page 9 - Coming Home • Soundsibility • Putu Bonuz Sudiana

intensity. Fast, powerful brush strokes, splattering paint splashes, the atmosphere. Thus, the wildness and spontaneity of abstract
and sharp color contrast, synergize to create a tempestuous and expressions that dominate the painting field do not end up as mere
turbulent imaginary universe. It is the image of a very dynamic noise, but are transformed into music. Reminiscent of the crowds
universe, where matter cannot be distinguished from energy. in traditional Balinese celebrations, the abstract image in Bonuz’s
Everything seems to flash, meet, touch, collide, separate, break or painting suggests a harmony that arises from disharmony.
melt.
Like the paintings of Paul Klee and Jackson Pollock, two
There is an acute sensation of speed in Bonuz’s works. master painters greatly interested in music, Bonuz’s paintings
Especially in large paintings, there is often a strong impression show layers of images that can be read as reflecting layers of
of something exploding—an image of splendor with the dance of musical structure. The areas of color in Bonuz’s paintings are
colors and shapes on the canvas that seems to emerge from a like the chords of a musical composition. On the surface of the
terrible explosion, like the universe that was freshly created after painting, areas of color overlap to form the background, lines glide
the Big Bang. The field of the canvas looks as if the sky is staging in curves like a melody. In Bonuz’s paintings, a musical effect
a cosmic drama. spreads from the combination of dynamic background plane
structure and imaginative linear components.
Bonuz acknowledges that when he paints, he tends to
rely on spontaneity. He almost never thinks beforehand about It is not surprising that music permeates Bonuz’s
what he will paint. Everything happens at the moment of painting, paintings. Many activities that involve sounds or sounds, including
without preconceptions. Artistic considerations remain, but are not music, are indeed an important part of Bonuz’s life. Besides being
decisive. Indeed he avoids intervention or mental calculation in the a painter, Bonuz is also a pamangku, a traditional Hindu-Balinese
process of painting. This is why he likes to paint while chatting or priest, who of course often recites prayers or mantras. He likes to
listening to chat. “The aim is to divert the mind from the painting write poetry and to recite poems on the stage accompanied by
process. The mind is in the chat. Feelings and hands are focused music. He is a music lover, is friends with many musicians and is
in the painting. If the mind is busy with considerations about color often involved in their music projects. So it is entirely natural that
or composition, for example, the painting becomes rigid. Because Bonuz, consciously or unconsciously, bases his painting practice
I paint abstract, starting and ending the process of painting is on the search for and exploration of the essential relationship
more determined by a decision of the heart,” he says. between sound and form, between aural and visual.

Although the paintings feel explosive, like the character of
this expressive artist, they do not speak about mere chaos. On Translated by Diana Darling
the contrary, Bonuz’s work implies an aspiration to give chaos a
structure, a harmony. In Bonuz’s paintings, there is almost always
an element of order in the midst of disorder. There are regular
elements in the midst of an irregular landscape. The element
of order is often in the form of parallel lines or dashes that can
be very neat, right angles that enclose space, checkerboard
patterns and other repeating structures. These regular elements
provide rhythm, as well as inserting pauses into the uproar of

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