pining for more wood carvings

It’s like a malady. I’m hooked on wood carvings, particularly those from Bali . My particular addiction dates back almost 10 years now and my collection is growing.







When in Bali, I also make it a point to visit workshops to personally select which pieces I would like to bring back. As wood is heavy and luggage allowances are limited, I am finicky with what I buy.







In my next trip to Bali next week, I probably would visit this particular Denpasar shop. I’ll be ordering something big and probably would have it shipped to Cebu. Call me excited.

Pasar Badung, part 2

To conclude Pasar Badung, part 1, here are more pics of the biggest flower market in Bali.


a sleepy vendor tending a flower stall in Pasar Badung, Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia



mussaenda flowers for sale


In between, I’m sharing a lesson in language which I learned when I was studying Bahasa Indonesia on my own 16 years ago.


vendors selling canang offerings



an old lady selling flowers in Pasar Badung


Then, I discovered the intertwining relationship of dialects in Southeast Asia. Take the case of the Indonesian word for flower which is bunga. I always confused bunga with buah (pronounced bu-wa) which means fruit. You see, in Cebuano, fruit is bunga while flower is buwak. Somewhere, sometime, during the centuries of direct contact between the archipelagos that are now the Philippines and Indonesia, words jumbled and blended.


baskets of exotic fragrant flowers



varieties of Lombok peppers that are also on display in the flower market


Somehow, it doesn’t really matter much. The flower and the fruit are interchangeable in a biological sense, both being bearers of progeny of the plant. First, the flower blooms, withers and ultimately becomes the fruit. One can’t be without the other. You might as well mix them up.


petals of pink and red roses that are sold for Balinese offerings

Ukiran Bali- reaching artistic heights

A cursory look may make one think that Indonesian wood CARVINGS are the same. They are not. Motifs vary from one place to the other and the level of skill is not the same among regions. For deep reliefs, the top carvers are in Bali, Cerebon (West Java) and Madura (East Java).







If I have to play favorites, I would gravitate towards Balinese ukiran or carving. Whether the piece is partial relief or full figure sculpture, Balinese carving is distinctive, intricate and stylized. Over the years, I have collected numerous panels and reliefs and obviously, I could not get enough.







Witnessing the carvers in motion is fascinating. Like art guilds in the past, these workshops offer a ready lesson of dedicated artisanship to those who are willing to stop and observe.

Bali Arts Festival 2008- part 7

Last week marked my first visit in Bali for the year. I’ll be uploading new photographs soon. I need to catch up on my affairs first. Meantime, I am finishing off the remaining pictures in my archives of last year’s Bali Arts Festival.


Canon EOS 350D Digital, 1/500, f/4.5, 100mm, ISO 400



Canon EOS 350D Digital, 1/2000s, f/2.8, 100mm, ISO 400, +1/3EV


As an exposition of Balinese culture, the festival showcases the best that the island can offer.


Canon EOS 350D Digital, 1/800s, f/2.8, 100mm, ISO 200, +1/3EV

Pasar Badung, part 1

I’ve always been fascinated by public markets. They are a generous window to the psyche of the people. Markets throbs of teeming humanity- crowded, noisy, smelly and flashy. Now imagine that the market is Pasar Badung, the city is Denpasar and the island is Bali.

In the last 15 years, I have visited or shopped at Pasar Badung several times. Reasons were mundane. I would not even want to recall what pedestrian items I was buying. This time however, I went there with another mind set. I brought my camera. Difficult it may be but I wanted to present in photographs the cacophonous sounds, the heady aroma and the clashing colors that unabashedly are Bali.

As in most markets in Southeast Asia, Pasar Badung is a hive of commerce all day long. However, it is busiest late in the afternoon stretching into the night. I was there at 3PM, a bit too early. The courtyards around the building were just starting to fill up with vendors setting up their stalls.


Canon EOS 350D Digital, 1/4000s, f/5.6, 155mm, ISO 400, -1.0EV
fresh produce at the Pasar Badung, Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia


We wandered around the four storeys of the building but most animated are the activities outside, in the open areas, and not inside.

There are lots of things to preoccupy me at Pasar Badung. But a market experience would not be complete without sampling local goodies. My friend sought out the local ice sundae. I sampled it too and it was appropriately sweet, replete with fruits and local homemade condiments.


Canon EOS 350D Digital, 1/200s, f/5.6, 18mm, ISO 400, +1/3EV
local ice sundae at the Pasar Badung, Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia


I preferred fruits though. I was looking for mangga manalagi but this terribly sweet mango variety is more common in Central Java. The Balinese version, the mangga harum manis (literally “sweet aroma”), was the one in season, so we gladly bought some. Price was cheap and was ¼ of the tag in supermarkets.


Canon EOS 350D Digital, 1/80s, f/5.6, 18mm, ISO 200
buying mangga harum manis (“sweet aroma” mango) at the Pasar Badung, Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia


As I roamed around the fresh produce section, I found myself gravitating towards my favorite vegetables: chillies. Plump and ripe, they screamed for attention. They are always highly photogenic. Eagerly, I tried to capture two varieties of lombok peppers in one frame to maximize the contrast of the deep red and the yellow orange.


Canon EOS 350D Digital, 1/1250s, f/5.6, 51mm, ISO 200, -1/3EV
varieties of lombok pepper at the Pasar Badung, Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia

Another particularly interesting and unique in Bali markets is the canang section. These are the offerings that every Balinese household offer without fail early in the morning and late in the afternoon at their altars, places of work or just about any place of consequence. Literally millions of these tiny cradles of flowers and food are offered and dispensed with on a daily basis so the commerce of flower petals, the preferred ingredient, is brisk everywhere.


Canon EOS 350D Digital, 1/160s, f/5.6, 55mm, ISO 400, +1/3EV
canang offerings for sale at the Pasar Badung, Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia



Canon EOS 350D Digital, 1/125s, f/5.6, 30mm, ISO 100, +4/3EV
rose petals by sackfuls at the Pasar Badung, Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia

The flowers are cultivated in massive scale in the highlands of Bali so they actually are reasonably cheap. Moreover, you would be hardpressed to see places where petals, in mind-boggling colors, are displayed by sackfuls. Color mad, the Balinese are.

Bali Arts Festival 2008- part 6

I find it hard to time my trips to Indonesia because of the demands of my job. Fortunately, I need to visit Bali quite often, at least 4 times a year. This frequency gives me plenty of opportunity to catch the Bali Arts Festival which is held every year for a span of 4 weeks, usually around July.

Even way back in the 90s, I was a fan. I would sneak out at night to catch the festival’s free cultural shows, view art exhibits and check out the handicrafts products in the trade fair (always on bargain).

My most memorable performance to date was the wayang kulit a popular form of shadow theatre featuring flat cut-out leather (=kulit) puppets mounted on sticks. Played for both art and entertainment, the wayang shows are often enactments of religious Hindu mythology blended with historical facts. The Balinese to this date patronize this old theatrical form even if they are played all night long in villages. I only saw an abbreviated version but I was totally enraptured. It was as pure, if not as primitive as I imagined it to be. A blanket of white was stretched as a white screen and coconut-husk lamp was used as the illuminating fire. Over gamelan accompaniment, the dalang or puppeteer chanted the morality tale in Balinese. I did not understand most of the story but I was entranced nonetheless.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a good photograph of the performance as this was way back in 2002, pre-flickr and before I knew anything about camera settings. The photo below is in fact only 26KB as it was taken from the most rudimentary of p&s digicams available during that time.


a wayang kulit performance at the Bali Arts Festival 2002, Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia
Olympus C900Z,D400Z, 5.6mm, ISO 100


Checking my archive of photographs, I also remembered that the following year, I was able to catch another performance. This time it was a free interpretation dance held at the ampitheatre of the Bali Arts Center in Denpasar, the regular site of the festival. The Festival does not just present classical but also new dance forms. Not surprisingly, the performances were well attended. There were a few tourists but the crowd were mostly Balinese, young and old. That is what is heartening with the Balinese as a people – they appreciate and embrace art. Local patronage is never wanting.


tari kreasi lepas performance at the Bali Arts Festival 2003, Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia
Canon PowerShot S40, 1/60s, f/4.9, 21.3mm


In the course of the month-long festival, performances from provincial cultural troupes outside of Bali would also be highlighted. They obviously keep the festival fresh with new ideas. Lucky for me too as normally, I would not be able to visit these farflung provinces but in Bali, I was able to watch authentic performances. In 2005, for instance, I enjoyed thoroughly a presentation from Flores island. I was amazed at the bulky costumes and large drums that the group transported all the way to Bali.


a dance performance by Flores dancers in the 2005 Bali Arts Festival, Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia
Canon PowerShot S40, 1/15s, f/4.5, 17.5mm


This being the main cultural exposition event of Indonesia, the Festival also attracts the guest performances from other countries. This year, the international representation came from the US, Japan, Taiwan and Korea. Too bad, I was not able to catch any as last month, I left shortly after the opening day of the Festival.

But again, there will be some other chances in the future. I certainly hope to see more in the years ahead.

*******
Here are more photographs from this year’s Bali Arts Festival opening day meped.


Canon EOS 350D Digital, 1/13s, f/20, 31mm, ISO 200



Canon EOS 350D Digital, 1/10s, f/22, 55mm, ISO 200



Canon EOS 350D Digital, 1/15s, f/14, 21mm, ISO 200



Canon EOS 350D Digital, 1/2500s, f/2.8, 100mm, ISO 400, -1/3EV



Canon EOS 350D Digital, 1/1000s, f/2.8, 100mm, ISO 400, +1/3EV



Canon EOS 350D Digital, 1/1000s, f/2.8, 100mm, ISO 400



Canon EOS 350D Digital, 1/800s, f/2.8, 100mm, ISO 200, +1/3EV

Bali Arts Festival 2008- part 5

black and white

I did the calculations. I have 21 black and white pictures to date in my flickr account. That represents only 1.3% of my 1,655 photos (public and private).

So I prefer colors. The wilder, the better. The more vivid, the more attractive. There are occasions – and they come few and far between – when I see photos in b&w light and I would then convert the colored originals into b&w.

Such sentiment came to me with these portraits at the Bali Arts Festival Opening Parade. I can volunteer three reasons on the b&w decision.

1. First is to eliminate the distraction of color. B&W allows the eyes to focus on the subject and the prevailing mood of the composition. All the subjects are male and I felt that masculinity is served in strong contrasts and almost inscrutable shadows.


Canon EOS 350D Digital, 1/100s, f/5.0, 230mm, ISO 100, -1/3EV


2. Second is to recreate timelessness. Time was when b&w was the norm so monochromes evoke nostalgia like no other.


Canon EOS 350D Digital, 1/500s, f/2.8, 100mm, ISO 400, +1/3EV


3. Third is a reason that is innately Balinese. In the island’s Hindu culture, the combination of black and white, as evident in the ubiquitous poleng black and white checked cloths which are draped all over statues, pavilions and even trees, represents cosmic duality. Light and darkness could not be more universal and specific at the same time.


Canon EOS 350D Digital, 1/250s, f/2.8, 100mm, ISO 100, -2/3EV