Gajah Gallery (Singapore) and Sangkring Art Space is proud to present Made Djirna’s (b.1957) latest exhibition at the Sangkring Art Space in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

In his latest exhibition, Djirna investigates the reality of contemporary Balinese rituals. He has noticed how Balinese people senselessly purchase fake Chinese coins only to satisfy this innate need to demonstrate their devotion at rituals. This prompted Djirna’s collection of these coins which he gathered after the rituals and re-interpreted them into his works. Djirna creates and formulates the optical sensation of his works simply by attaching together ritualistic subjects such as the Chinese coins into a collage.

“Balinese buy fake Chinese coins (coins with holes/perforations being produced in Balinese home industries) only to fulfill the requirement of ritual props and offerings. There is hardly any critical questioning about this practice. Excluding Chinese coins from the offerings seems to be more sacrilegious than spending a lot sum of money to buy fake Chinese coins,” Djirna reflects.

Djirna believes that presently, studying a Balinese ritual is no longer an anthropological story but about an interesting sociological phenomenon. Quintessentially, it can be further read as a subject of art sociology, where ritual conditions engage artists as active participants. In his acetic studio in Kedewatan-Ubud, Djirna steeps himself in raising reflective questions; being close and simultaneously taking an emphatic distance with the unending rituals. The Divine messages, which in the past were sung melodiously and with full devotion, are now amplified raucously through loudspeakers. The ritual path is converted into popular fashions. Numerous commodification of artistic ritual props take place, such as the production of incense sticks plastered with powerful mantras; fashion competition on best temple dress; and poorly-reproduced old Chinese coins.

Image: © Made Djirna, Gajah Gallery