bamboo

Eko Prawoto’s Leng / Lung bamboo exhibition

Please excuse me for wandering off the topic of disaster response, but on the subject of bamboo I can’t resist posting a few images and a text from Eko Prawoto’s current Leng / Lung (Inside / Outside) exhibition, exploring space, soul and Javanese tradition. I’ve been continually amazed this year seeing what can be done when people play with bamboo; it is an exceptionally strong and versatile material. It was gorgeous to see a number of artists play with it for this exhibition, concurrently held indoors at Cemeti Art House, and outdoors at Bangunjiwo village, Bantul, south of the Jogyakarta. Leng / Lung is a celebration of Eko’s 50^th birthday.

Eko Prawoto is an internationally recognised artist and environmental architect, who has created some fascinating installations exploring the local environment, place, and community as a visiting artist to a number of festivals around Australia, including Common Ground at Lakes Entrance and Shepparton, at which he built a huge temple/performance space out of fruit crates.

Our personal connection with Eko Prawoto is even more grounded than the Australian connection: he designed the house in Tembi at which I’m staying (here are some photos from a recent IDEA magazine photoshoot).

In addition to his artistic pursuits, Eko is a lecturer in architecture at Duta Wacana University, Jogyakarta. He also ran a successful post-earthquake shelter reconstruction project in a nearby village in 2006 (using a design of coconut wood-truss houses, similar in design to the Tembi house).

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Leng, Lung

A present dedicated to Eko Prawoto

If human is a caliph, then his presence is not only for vacation. There is obligation that every body has to do. Thus, birth will mean the beginning that should be marked and age can be read as the period of service.

The most important thing from anniversary is not how joyous the party is but how we give meaning to this moment with reflection and self evaluation. Then, we will get the answer of “What we have done?’ and explain who we are at once.

A series of events have been prepared to celebrate Eko Prawoto’s 50th anniversary. There will be architecture book publication, documentary movie, sketches book launching, cultural oration, art performance, installation exhibition, and discussion. These events has been carefully prepared and organized by artists and workers as appreciation for Eko’s works which show his concern to the environment, harmony of nature, and social harmony. Parts of the anniversary program have been started at Cemeti Art House, Jogjakarta since August 7, 2008 and will last until September 7, 2008. Some events will also take place in a garden at Bangunjiwo Village, Kasihan, Bantul.

Eko himself does not want to be the ‘centre ‘of the whole celebration. Through his book entitled “2 (Eyes) + 50 (years) = 100 (Sketches)” and two bamboo installations named Leng and Lung; it seems that he wants to represent the form of ideas and attitude that have become the base of his creativity.

Spiritual experience, also personal and social ones, can be associated with Leng. The word, which means lubuk in Bahasa Indonesia or deep pool in English, is a natural room in him which keeps a number of paradoxes. He exists for something which is not there. To be of the not to be. He assumes limitation and hides boundless, or unpredictability.

‘Something exists as the result of other thing which has gone’ probably is a certainty in life. From this depraved world, we can learn a lot about this mutual relationship. Leaves fall for its flowers. Then flowers fall for its fruits. Same thing happens in culture and human activities; each achievement requires the willingness of loosing of something. Always. The willingness of loosing something can also be interpreted as the requirement, compensation, effort, or even sacrifation.

Creativity - ‘establishing’ something which is ‘not yet exists’ can be related to Leng. The whole process did by the creator basically is establishing and accepting the lost at once. And so for his creations. This causality existence is harmonious with Javanese wisdom about integral relation between the creator and the creation; ananingsun marga ira, ananira marga ingsung, I exist since you exist and vice versa. The creator and the creation is inseparable and supporting each other.

Meditate upon the cramped room but unpredictable, leng, we will find equivalent understanding with creativity essence; realizing limitation and transform it into power, to be something new and unpredictable.

As leng, hole that deepening inside, realizing limitation, implying introspection, also the capability to look beyond oneself, what lies deep inside-the imaginary room which its depth cannot be compared to the dept of the ocean. Unpredictable. Old aphorism said “the depth of the ocean can be measured but no one knows what lies in someone’s heart”, this also explains the boundless potential of ‘inside universe’ in every personality.

People’s action (including creativity), therefore, marks its presence and meaning. Meanwhile, all effort to be present, to establish, is nothing else but self projection which assume bigger and spreading movement. Like lung, spiralling upward of plant.

We know that lung is the lengthening of the beginning; its presence asserts the basic and prime existence. It is the form of the capability to manage plasticity, moving to approach the light, but still be aware and willing to flexibly wriggle when something stiff and hard blocking the way or even crash. Plasticity is the ability to adapt. Lung sticks outward, like extending hand-not to ask but to give. Since lung is also sinom, ulam, the mark of regeneration continuity, the birth of new entity, the young and fresh one, like hope.

Lung movement is not rebellion. It does not break and damage. It is the continuity, continuing the existing by adding something new, taking care of the old and cracked one and adding freshness which is great to see, balancing the stiff one with flexible ambience.

A Javanese contemplator, Ki Ageng Suryamentaram, once used lung as the symbol of adaptation life attitude: genah wayah, empan papan — how we act and put ourselves properly in the right time and place. His teaching about mulur-mungkret beside contains the advice about the irritability ability, can also be interpreted as sceptical behaviour which always questioning about the existing and the coming ones, for the sake of mind and action maturity.

In the creative process, mulur-mungkret means the capability to mobilize and restrain. Creating can only be accomplished by mobilizing one’s capability and on the other side creativity also requires the awareness in the right proportion. If it is so, then the capability to restrain becomes an important factor in creative process, so that the creating desire still stays in its track, humble, and properly.

From leng, the world’s womb, we were born, we walk, and we look for direction. Then, adopting the lung dance, lengthening and getting bigger, we act and worship. As lung we are yearning for the light, realizing our petty minded while longing for the perfection of The Great Enlighten. Thus, we will never forget that the goal of our journey is going back to the beginning. Like the cycle of the sun, always gaze at the east when afternoon comes.

- Text by Sitok Srengenge

© Kim Williamson 2008