He laughs a lot. Like a free spirit. And the lost generation with no strings attached. Kuncir Sathya Vikur is a young, contemporary Balinese artist whose traditional roots are transformed into pop art. “Sorry, I don’t have a sketchbook to show you. Everything just happens here on the final canvas and I let it flow”. He uses a traditional Balinese colouring technique called sigar, the selection of contrasting pop-cartoon-like colours.
Kuncir experimented a little with bamboo pens and ink, but soon moved on to modern pens and brushes. He has a very small studio in Tabanan, an average Balinese mini-apartment converted into an artist’s studio, paint-stained tape on the wall, beer bottles left over from last night’s party, a couple of assistants smoking vapors and colouring the large canvas drawings.
Having visited many masters of the older generation who grew up in Bali before electricity, it’s quite a shock to meet this new generation after the rise of mass tourism. “It is crazy what is happening in Bali now. We are in the middle of a magnetic field”. His inspiration is no longer the epic wars of the Mahabharata, but those of the present day. On this bumpy road to the future, he lost his faith. “I’m just a human being. No strings attached to this religion thing”.
But it all started very differently. He is the son of a Balinese priest (Balian) who was passionate about supporting his child’s journey into the arts. Kuncir attended traditional dance classes and learnt gamelan. His father noticed his son’s talent in art and taught him to draw the magical signs of rerajahan. His son learnt all about it and was soon drawing the visuals, his father adding the sacred mantras. But then modern life kicks in.
What is No Longer Sacred
Growing up in the suburbs, the kids were into skateboards and rock music. “My mum and dad worked for a government thing.” Not a peasant’s life. “For me, it is no longer sacred.” But what is “it”? Kuncir refers to the rerajahan, for example. But it is also nature, the traditional way of life. The new generation sees rice fields being turned into concrete buildings, with foreign investment, while most Balinese families remain poor. So this is the new Mahabharata war, but with fewer heroes. “So I learned to draw rerajahan and noticed its similarity to comics. It is a kind of pop art, popular folk art. Kuncir studied at the Art Institute in Denpasar. “I saw a lot of urban art during my studies.”
“But Lempad was also one of my inspirations. Clear lines, single figures, satire, gestures”. Lempad began this style during his friendship with Walter Spies, a Western artist who encouraged him (and sold his work for good money). Spies brought Lempad paper for the first time, which was previously unknown in Bali and a good trading commodity, as opposed to the sculptural architecture that Lempad had previously focused on. The hype about Balinese art was a bit funny for Lempad, it suited his satirical spirit. The same is true of Kuncir today. The satirical element goes deeper, back to the Wayang Kulit theatre and the popular comic characters in it, the Panakawan. They are a key element in Wayang Kulit.
A Clownish Translation
The gods and heroes speak an old Javanese dialect that hardly anyone understands anymore, and their divine part of the story is highly ritualised. The clowns are the translators, translating not only into today’s language, but more importantly into today’s life, often vulgar and surprising, with satirical wit. They are like magical time travellers, immersed in ancient history and at the same time witnesses of contemporary life, connecting the two worlds. Going deeper, there is a satirical aspect even in the gods and monsters, for their facial expressions are artfully exaggerated, highly expressionistic ancient pop art – an unsurpassed superlative of its kind. An energy that reaches deep into the human soul and beyond.
The Wayang Kulit theatre is also the origin of the Balinese painting style, Kamasan. Clear black lines, figurative, narrative, dramatic, sometimes surreal and grotesque.
“You are much more spiritual than you think,” I said to Kuncir. He admits how deeply rooted he is in these old traditions, “it’s still in my DNA”, but at the same time he is super sceptical about ‘spirituality’ so corrupted by Western mass tourism, but also sceptical from within Balinese belief. So he is a romantic disbeliever.
There is still a world of interwoven spirits in his work. It is an It is an out-of-balance balance. Reconnecting. Dissolving. Reconnecting. “My generation struggles with anxiety. I think it’s a result of capitalism.” The power of foreign money devalues local identity. “So it is no longer sacred. I like to make fun of it.”
To Live Means to Act
Young people in Bali are now looking for jobs on cruise ships. “To live means to act, we can’t just stay under the Bodhi tree like Siddharta Gautama.” The new generation is changing, “and they are becoming consumers”. Inspired by Hieronymus Bosch’s “Garden of Earthly Delights” he created the Garden of Edan series. Edan means crazy in Javanese language. “In Hinduism, this era where we are living in is called Kaliyuga, the last and the worst in the cycle of the world”.
Every time Kuncir tries to cut his strings attached to tradition, he renews them in a strange, unintended way. His work explodes with a different kind of spiritual energy. Sorry, mission failed – in a good way for an artist.
Playing God an Act of Creation
And a little bit dangerous. “The artist is like playing God….There is nothing wrong with creation,” he says. . So he is a kind of dalang. The puppeteer who does all the voices and moves all the characters. “There’s nothing wrong with creation”: that’s why they had to flee to Bali in the first place, a few hundred years ago. Exile on the island of a thousand gods. Coming home.
Kuncir Sathya Viku was born in 1990 in Tabanan, where he now has his studio. His gallery is in Jakarta and he regularly participates in the Jogyakarta Art Fair.
