The Liberation of I WAYAN SUDARNA PUTRA, ‘NANO’

In the midst of the covid-19 pandemic, with its stifling impact on tourism in the village of Ubud, Komaneka Gallery has not been silent. In October 2020 they held a very interesting art event conceived by the Ubud-born artist, I Wayan Sudarna Putra. Entitled Living Gallery 24 hours, this is a very unusual art event: Komaneka provides a gallery as a residence as well as an artist’s private studio to produce 25 paintings within 24 hours.

I Wayan Sudarna Putra, known familiarly as Nano, was very excited about this project. He emphasizes that the idea was not to create a sensation or to set a record for the most paintings in 24 hours. His intention was deeply personal — he wanted to test himself, challenge himself in producing works of art in the face of constraints on space and time. In creating art, Nano does not want to be imprisoned by the choice of painting as a medium; rather, he enjoys working through a variety of other art mediums, such as installation art, environmental art, performance art, and so forth. Nano often finishes a painting in as little as three days. Now in the Komaneka Gallery showroom, however, he would be faced with 25 blank canvases as well as several spare rolls of canvas waiting to be made into paintings within 24 hours.

Nano visited the Gallery the day before this activity took place. He brought along his little family, his wife and two sons. Like his private house and studio, in this gallery room all the tools and materials needed for painting were fully prepared. He wished to move the atmosphere of the house and studio into the gallery space. The Living Gallery 24 ours would be held starting at 8 a.m. (WITA) on Wednesday, October 21, 2020 and end at 8 a.m. on Thursday. He says he did not know what would happen within those 24 hours. Anything could happen, whether he would be able to realize 25 works or not at all. He brought no initial designs or sketches to used as reference in painting. What occurs, in fact, is the all the worry, anxieties and questions about himself, his family, making art as a profession and the making of art as pleasure.

This performance is unique and very interesting, an experimental art event that confronts the creative work of the artist with the power of space and time. Space here can be understood to be all matter or memories that exist within the self (microcosm) or outside oneself (macrocosm) which are intertwined and connected to the artist. Time is a marker and a boundary between the past, present and future. The time limitation allows one to measure the acceleration and deceleration of motion of the artist’s productivity. Given this time limit, Nano seems to want to test himself, test the image and aesthetic standards of his work. Will he be able to pass this test and how will the work be produced?

Second by second for 24 hours, all activities and everything that occurs in the gallery room are recorded by a camera watching in every corner.

After 24 hours, the 25 blank canvases leaning against the wall are now displayed as paintings. Not even the walls of the gallery escaped Nano’s brushstrokes. He feels satisfied with what he produced. In those 24 hours he has conveyed all his anxiety onto the canvas. The canvas area is filled with soft, simple strokes of color, revealing a number of fields that lead to abstract and spontaneous forms, combined with a clear line and flowing, streaming paint. A number of texts, a chatter of words and sentences, adorn his field of work. This further strengthens his paintings as a medium of contemplation, a medium for dialogue in questioning, criticizing, and at the same time offering answers. Then in a number of his paintings, the chatter and text do not appear, but instead there emerge pseudo spaces and multi-interpretative forms with meditative nuances. The works produced over 24 hours are in fact a complete work whose elements complement each other. They narrate the process of dismantling, liberating and rearranging the visual elements of painting and the process of Nano’s evolving self-awareness.

Nano, with all his ideas and courage, has been able to overcome the challenges and conquer himself. Confronting the power of space and time, he managed to free and respond to all the restlessness and anxiety within himself. His struggles about love, about life and art that were always ringing in him have now been poured into the medium of painting. Now he has found new energy and awareness.