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Original Artwork for SaleAfter being exhibited in Bali and Jakarta, the original artwork used to illustrate Toety Heraty's book, Calon Arang, were auctioned, but only a few bids reached the reserve price. The artworks are now for sale at the reserve price. Please contact Saritaksu with your offer using the link provided next to each work of art. |
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Artist & Art | Painting |
The Artists' Interpretations | |
Ni Ketut Ayu Sri Wardani |
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I have used black and white to capture the abject misery of women at the loss of their male ‘protector’, the bearer of their hopes. Women must be strong and rise above grief to create a new life; they become protector and source of safety to their children. In today’s life so much suffering occurs, regardless of who we are. It afflicts the rich and the poor, the healthy and the ill, those who live in the mountains and by the sea. Nobody is free from suffering. The more I look into suffering the more I understand that it is a noble thing, teaching us, bringing hope and victory, bringing us closer to God. |
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Ni Ketut Ayu Sri Wardani SOLD |
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Indonesia has had the freedom of independence for 61 years already. But what does this mean for the women of Indonesia? This idea of independence remains unclear, nothing but an indistinct reflection. So much unfairness still exists and so little respect is paid to women’s rights, still ignored. We feel ‘colonized within our own country’. This has become more apparent lately, with even more limitations on creativity being imposed—by the proposed Anti Pornography and Pornographic Action Bill—it is as if we are being haunted and hunted by the law. |
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I Gusti Ayu Yasning SOLD |
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Calon Arang is a story that is very well known to the people of Bali. In my painting I have imagined the two main protagonists, the priest (symbol of good) and Rangda (symbol of evil), in a village setting. It is the moment when the priest is protecting himself from Rangda with a sacred keris, and he waves it in the air, challenging her to come and fight him. Rangda accepts the challenge, and the battle begins. |
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Dewi Tjahjati |
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Dewi Tjahjati sees Calon Arang as a village child, small and innocent, who grew into a beautiful and charming maiden. She was a faithful and wise mother to her family. But once she became a widow and faced old age slowly she became more a symbol to be feared than a person. Dewi has painted her as the child, the maiden, and also as a crone who is frighteningly evil. Could this be the truth? She wishes society to decide on Calon Arang and leaves her face blank in this painting for viewers to make up their own minds about her. |
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Ni Putu Eni Astiarini |
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In reading the story of Calon Arang, Ni Putu Eni Astiarini was inspired as an artist to paint the part of the story which most moved her...the story of the limitless love of a mother for her daughter. The widow Calon Arang was willing to sacrifice everything for her only daughter, who nobody was brave enough to approach or wed as Calon Arang was an unsurpassed magician of black powers, a perpetrator of evil deeds. The widow allows her daughter to marry a young noble unaware that he only seeks to marry her daughter in order to find her weakness and destroy her. The devoted mother is willing to sacrifice everything for the happiness of her child, even her soul. |
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Tjokorda Istri Mas Astiti |
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As Rangda means ‘janda’ or widow (Walu/Balu in Balinese) Tjokorda Istri Mas Astiti sees Calon Arang as a divorcee - a woman suffering under the combined constraints of economic and sexual pressures as well as emotional stress. She has painted her with eight other women who share her angst in an atmosphere of wild darkness. As with all other human beings, women under stress seek guidance from God, and it is Dewi Durga to whom these eight desperate women express their emotions, predominantly anger, in order to attain the strength they need to prevail over the men. She wins the war, but for the happiness of her daughter, Calon Arang sacrifices everything, even to her own defeat. She is a symbol of how Indonesian women always put their children’s interest above their own interests. |
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Sri Haryani SOLD |
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All the stories of Calon Arang display the misogyny of patriarchy, exposing what little justice is available for women. Men hold on to the power and make all the decisions for the family. As a result of the many misunderstandings between men and women, a theory prevails that the role of the man is to be the main bread-winner, and if the woman works, it is only to supplement his contribution. Women are considered weak, soft, in need of protection, not strict enough, emotional, irrational and only capable of doing domestic chores. In contrast men are regarded as strong and rational, decision-makers and protectors for the fairer sex, who are therefore often treated without respect, tricked, raped and abused. This points to an incredibly unfair gender bias, which requires a change of perception and the deconstruction of gender as it exists now, both socially and individually. |
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I Gusti Ketut Oka Armini Make your bid (Set of Four, One SOLD) |
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Prabu Erlangga intended his kingdom to be divided into two: one in Java and one in Bali so he sent Mpu Baradah to Bali for the consent of the powerful Mpu Kuturan. However, Sri Mpu Kuturan refused him, as he planned his grandson would rule Bali. Not only did he fail in his mission, Mpu Baradah also encountered great dangers on his journey home. At that time (the Majapahit Kingdom) Bali and its territories was under the power of Java. The king is depicted riding an elephant, being welcomed by his people. It was considered an honour for his queen, the princes and princesses of the royal family to serve their Raja. |
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I Gusti Ayu Natih Arimini |
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I Gusti Ayu Natih Arimini has painted Calon Arang in a meeting with her followers, at the time when she gave them instructions to carry out her evil rituals. In traditional Batuan style, Calon Arang’s disciples and their assistants are surrounded by nature, flowers and watched by the creatures of the underworld. They face the four cardinal directions and Calon Arang takes the central position as she weaves her spells for destruction. |
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I.G.P.A. Mirah Rahmawati, S.Sn |
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Mirah’s painting tells the story of the treachery of Calon Arang’s daughter, Ratna Manggali, to her mother. This happens on Ratna Manggali’s honeymoon, when she has been seduced by Mpu Kebo Bahula, the student of the priest who had been given the task by Mpu Baradah to separate the mother from her daughter and obtain the secrets of her power. Mirah visualises this in her painting: the young woman is in love, unaware that her love-making is a betrayal of her mother that will result in Calon Arang’s sacred book of magic being stolen and used against her, an act of treachery that will be the cause of her death at the end. |
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Ni Wayan Warti SOLD |
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Mpu Bahula seeks Ratna Manggali’s hand in marriage. Her mother, Nyi Nateng Dirah is delighted to receive his proposal to her daughter, and accepts it unconditionally. At the request of Ratna Manggali she also lets Mpu Bahula stay at their home for several days. Mpu Bahula charms Ratna Manggali until she will confide in him about the source of her mother’s magic powers. She shows him her mother’s sacred things in her holy room, and Mpu Bahula steals everything that he considers could have magic powers. Dirah is aware of his treacherous act of stealing her things, is consumed by anger, and wants to take revenge upon him for his betrayal. |
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Yanuar Ernawati |
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In her retelling of the story Toeti Heraty describes Ratna Manggali and Mpu Bahula on their honeymoon. This is the fatal moment when Ratna Manggali entrusts the Lipykarya script to her husband, who passes it on to the priest. She becomes a victim to her vow of honesty to her husband, who she loves. Once she is back again with her mother the flowers fall one by one from her hair, while the crows circle the head of her mother, Calon Arang, signaling her life is nearly over. Yanuar painted this sad ending, with the title of: “Love’s seduction brings endless grief”. |
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Ni Nyoman Supini |
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This classical Wayang painting tells the last part of the Calon Arang tale, the war between white and black magic The priest Mpu Baradah, practitioner of white magic, versus the evil Rangda, the widow of Dirah. Magic can also be used for good, but Rangda applies it to evil purpose, so it is considered ‘black’. With this magic her powers are limited to destruction, hurtful action and murder, whereas the ‘white’magic of Mpu Baradah can, as well as destroying, also revive the dead and send their souls to heaven. Nyoman Supini shows Calon Arang as the angry Rangda: flames consume her, pouring out of her eyes, mouth, nose, ears, personifying evil. Fire scorches the plants around her as she endeavours to burn the priest alive. But his white magic protects him: he destroys her, then brings her back to life. Once she repents he guides her to forgiveness before she leaves the world, releasing her to go to heaven. |
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Ni Luh Nyoman Sri Rahayu |
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These days in our daily lives many women still live under oppression by the opposite sex. This is what Nyoman hope to show in her painting of a woman who is living as if in a jail, being continually guarded, as can be seen by the bars, and the footprints of the boots along one side of the painting. |
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Ni Luh Nyoman Sri Rahayu |
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In the second painting Nyoman made the violence more realistic, as in the case where the woman cannot do anything but resort to anarchy, when she is faced with physical violence by a man. In the end the woman is always able to forgive the rough nature of whatever the man does....she comments. |
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Ni Putu Suriati SOLD |
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It is said that Ratna Manggali was an exquisitely beautiful young girl. This daughter of the widow from the village of Dirah, Calon Arang, was sitting dreaming about Prabu Airlangga, the handsome King of Kediri, imagining in her dreams that one day he would seek her hand in marriage. But what could she do, because she was the daughter of Calon Arang – a witch of supernatural powers who practised the darkest black magic, and would stoop to anything to get what she wanted. Beause she had such a frightening mother not one young man had ever been brave enough to approach her. |
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Moendy Astuti |
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This painting illustrates Moendy’s visualisation of a confession made by a woman who experienced a terrible fate because of her victimization by a man. The woman was so devastated that she found the conviction to go to the graveyard, play with witchcraft, and there, surrounded by skeletons, delve into dreadful and mystical things. Because she no longer believes in herself, and feels she is a woman that nobody loves, she has accumulated all the anger needed to take a terrible revenge. |
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Ludzy Usdianto |
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If we talk about the body, Ludzy Usdianto feels it must be protected, as the human body emanates a strong force of attraction and is considered to be a symbol of beauty. To depict this in her painting Ludzy chose to paint this body, as if made of newspaper, upon a background of sea coral, a material that is beautiful and yet harsh, symbolizing the hardships in life that have to be overcome, no matter what obstacles continue to get in the way, or traps of bogus prestige we fall into, as we have to survive the hardships of life. Women have no choice but to live their lives, ready or not, and submit to their fate. When asked why newspaper appears in many of her paintings, Ludzy replied that the media is responsible for forcing women ‘into a corner’ with their lack of awareness of women’s rights. |
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S.K. Hanny |
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The section on Reproductive Rights in Toeti Heraty’s prose reminded me how the life of many women seems to inevitably follow so many endless cycles. It as if women continue to go round in circles throughout their lives, unable to escape from the realities of pregnancy, childbirth, and taking care of their children’s existence until they grow up and finally become independent. And many women also support themselves and their families alone— there are even women who support their husbands and this creates even more tenuous circumstances in their lives. |
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Grace Tjondronimpuno |
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Modernisation influences all aspects of life, including lifestyle. Indonesian women must be thankful to their |
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Ni Nyoman Sani |
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The story of Calon Arang begging for help from Dewi Durga is until now given most attention. Why did she have to lower herself to such extremes? Nyoman Sani looks at it in another way: would a man stand up to a successful career woman, a woman with more advanced knowledge than him, without feelings of insecurity or fear? Who knows, it could happen… today’s successful career woman often dominates and achieves positions as high as men. Nyoman Sani loves to express the fashion style of women in her works using the language of contemporary fine arts, and with the portrait of a woman she showcases in this chapter it is obvious that the subject has assumed the position of “The Boss”. |
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Kerry Pendergrast Note: Closure (the first in this series) was SOLD in the auction that followed the exhibitio |
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Kerry Pendergrast chose to do the last painting in the series for Calon Arang after reading Toeti Heraty’s prose, and to expose the contemporary dilemma of the artist today in Indonesia. Why is the woman’s body thought to be evil? What will happen to the beautiful art of Bali, and the work of many of the artists who live and work here, which shows the explicit beauty of the female body, if the Indonesian Government continues in its plan to bring new laws into existence that will make this a crime? Part of her inspiration in Ubud has come from attending and organizing model sessions, and until today she continues to draw and paint nude models twice a week. |
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Gill Marais |
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Gill Marais describes Bali’s contemporary Rangda in ‘Bali Sacred & Secret’, (published by Saritaksu, 2006), as being associated with death and sickness. She looks beyond the story of a woman wronged, seeing Rangda as a manifestation of the powers within the subconscious and unconscious of the Balinese, represented in a drama of exorcism for both physical and psychic health. She describes the trance that happens when the empowered Rangda mask comes out of the temple: “No sooner does she come through the temple gates than the more sensitive in the audience begin to sway, connecting with a realm of spirit forces. No one can predict when this entrancement will take place.” |
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