Susi Johnston Bali Blog

Stereo.type, the subject of the current exhibition at Kendra Gallery, is one of the myriad projects of artist-designer-activist Ebon Heath. It consists of metamorphosed typography which transmits subtle messages about printed words themselves and their broadest meanings. The title Ebon selected for his website, “listeningwithmyeyes” voices eloquently the peculiar effect of freeing typography from its familiar context. Text moves from the page into the atmosphere, where it is more seen than heard-in-the-head, as one hears words while one reads them on a page. Released from the page, text can be sensed in new ways. Ebon is experimenting with a form of synaesthesia, which I suspect  he feels himself and always has, in relation to text and typography.

No surprise then, that Ebon has for over a decade been a pioneer in graphic design, exploring divergent paths in typography, and in other graphic means to transmit urgent and potent messages. His graphic work evidences an innate understanding of the prevailing conditions of his clients’ publics. He fathoms just how deeply we wallow in a surfeit of text, messages, text messages and constant clever clamoring after our attention.

Ebon seems to propose his mobiles as a means to float above the imperatives of prolific message making. They are not the products of an assignment to Ebon the graphic designer, requiring him to hit a target with a specific message shot from a grassy knoll into a cluttered world. Rather, they seem to be his own response to the nebulous nature of the printed word itself as a phenomenon. And equally, as an expression of Ebon’s own understanding of that phenomenon, or cluster of phenomena, after years of deployment on missions as a sniper on the battleground of printed messages. Me, I can’t help but like this stuff, as a veteran of the sharp-shooting message squad myself (JWT, O&M, etc).

I’m not sure that Ebon has achieved the full effect  he hopes to achieve with Stereo.type, yet. Nevertheless, his trail-breaking at this juncture still affords us access to paths that were not previously available. In other words, there is value in the Stereo.type project, and one would do well to follow its course and expect even greater work as Ebon conjures forth his word-clouds (as above, at Kendra).

The art products comprising Stereo.type are primarily undulating and exploding mobiles of typography which release printed words from the constraints of the two dimensional page. Words hang in the air. Words fly. Poetry floats. We are invited to feel in a spatial and physical way how real words really are. As embodied beings ourselves, we witness an analogous embodiment of the texts that fill our world. In this way we can begin to comprehend what the printed word is actually doing in our world, from religious texts to text messages to political campaign slogans. Everything written, printed, and distributed is hovering in the atmosphere around us, twisting and drifting like Ebon’s mobiles (above).

As text is decontextualised in Ebon’s artworks, so is the artist himself deliberately decontextualised. He drifts wantonly away from the orthodoxies of the contemporary art market, disregarding agreed-upon categories of fine art as we know it. He is colouring outside the lines that separate fine art from, say, interior decoration, graphic design, body ornament and indeed, activism. Ebon’s mobiles are “going retail” later this year as constituent elements for high-design interiors. As are other Stereo.type art products, including laser-cut typographic earrings, cuffs and belts (above).

Photographic prints are another form of art objects within the Stereo.type project (above, visible to the right of a word-cloud). A dozen or so of these these limited edition prints are avaible through Kendra, and several are hung in the gallery now. They twist the text-to-art story into yet another permutation, by first taking the printed page into three dimensions (mobiles), then intentionally flattening it out again (photographs of mobiles), but with its earlier 3-D state having transformed the text in disorienting yet salient ways. It’s all as twisted as the morphed, warping words whirling slowly in the air-con at Kendra, now through 16 May. Go. Spend an hour or two in the gallery if you are in Bali, and consider how words and text exist among us, take form, move, morph, move, and insinuate themselves into our very atmosphere.

Kim Randall, la femme chef d’affaires of Kendra Gallery, was radiant on the occasion of Ebon’s vernissage last Saturday, as she always is (above, with Chun Gee of Bule Fusion studio). She’s an object lesson in natural beauty, which has nothing to do with airs and everything to do with graces. That characterises Kim (below, far right), who was on fine form on the night. The artist, on the other hand, initially seemed to be on less than fine form, having not yet appeared until well into the second hour of the vernissage. Kim explained matter-of-factly, “Gosh, Susi, he’s been up for three days working on the installation. Now he’s crashed out asleep in his room!”

Kendra is situated at Uma Sapna, one of the few well-designed boutique villa hotels in Seminyak. It, and Kendra Gallery, were discreetly created by their ineluctable éminence grises, Bruno Wauters and his enchanting partner Sekar Warni (above, third from right, beside interior designer Laure DeGuillaume and architect Cheong Yew Kwan). Given the fact that Ebon was staying at Uma Sapna, he was understandably inclined to recharge – -  after three days discharging the painstaking duty of affixing innumerable strings of typography to walls and ceilings he had never seen before.

But lo and behold! The artist ultimately emerged! At the very moment the crowd reached maximum numbers, which were impressive numbers indeed (see above), Ebon Heath popped out like a rabbit from a hat, and proved to be remarkably personable, approachable, affable, relaxed, and generous in answering questions and discussing his work – - not to mention, beaming smiles for miles. I guess the mattresses and sheets at Uma Sapna are top-drawer, and the rooms are as serene as a Trappist monastery. It seems that a two-hour siesta there is equivalent to eight hours of shut-eye anywhere else.

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Brazilian diva Bebel Gilberto gave a surprise concert last Friday at Hotel Tugu Bali. The lovely Lucienne Anhar, la princesa de Tugu is always full of surprises. She and her mischievous friends Valentina Audrito and Abhishake Kumbhat cooked up the idea of the concert just three days in advance. Bebel was in Bali, taking a break from her Asian tour, when Lucienne, Valentina and Abhi proposed the idea, and of course, she said, “Why not?” Spontaneity is magic. Three cheers for spontaneity.

Tugu as a venue is magic, too. This time it was spiced up with the wild and whimsical furniture creations of Word of Mouth (Valentina and Abhi’s daring design nexus here in Bali). On the night, Bebel herself was decked out in Word of Mouth designs (Val and Abhi do innovative, wearable fashion as well as furniture, architecture, lighting and accessories). Bebel was so taken by her strappy slinky WoM outfit (above), she wore it again for a concert in Singapore, her next stop after Bali.

Spontaneity is very Bali. It’s how we live. So it was no surprise that despite the moment’s-notice nature of the event, over 300 Bebel fans turned up, buzzing with anticipation. Invitation was almost exclusively by word of mouth (pun intended). Valentina and Abhi tell us that this kind of synaptic networking is part of the Word of Mouth mission statement. Hence, the name. It expresses an unwavering faith in the interconnectedness of like minded people the world over, and in the ways that webs of inspiration work . . . without planning, without paperwork, like an ecosystem.

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This big apartment block is set to rise down in Kedongan, south of Kuta. It’s called The Donga. What’s a Donga? Normally, Donga is a district in Nigeria. In this case it seems to be a truncation of the name of the town where this semi-blobistic  fantasy will soon appear.

We have seen designs for The Donga by Yoka Sara, and more complete ones by Piter Gan. We don’t know who won the beauty pageant, or if it’s a collaborative effort. Superstar Balinese architect Yoka Sara for his version of the Donga drew on inspirations as diverse as M.C. Escher and the traditional Cirebon batik design megamendung (storm clouds). Gan’s designs, shown here, seem to have been more influenced by provincial airports of the 1960s.

Will there be one square inch of Bali left? Here’s a villa resort project designed by DPA Architects, Singapore for Jakarta developer PT Pancaran Kreasi Adiprima.

This multistorey modern complex will soon drop from the sky onto 100 meters of beachfront, bringing 100 more guest rooms and seven chalets, plus clustered residential villas, restaurants and a spa to sleepy Sanur.

Here’s a project on the beach out near Yeh Gangga in Tabanan.

Some interesting design development drawings by Yoka Sara, who is one of the most interesting architects working in Bali. And he’s Balinese.

Good news for textile scholars. The Rijksmuseum has an extraordinary vacancy. They are looking for a textile curator. Full information on the vacancy, in English, here. Application period closes 1 September 2010. Just think off all the beautiful, ancient and important textiles you will have the opportunity to work with. Shown above is a detail from a Coptic textile in the musuem’s collection, ca. 5th to 6th century CE. Image © Rijksmuseum.

Could Kuta possibly get any weirder than it is already? Yes! Here’s a new rubbery-looking condotel called the “Di3va” now almost complete on Jalan Raya Legian. It’s the first business project of a glam three-girl Jakarta music group of the same name (below, as seen on the Di3va hotel home page).

But how did this building design happen? Does anybody remember that kitsch sci-fi horror film, “The Blob“? This is it! In the film, the world was saved when the blob was transported by heli-vac to the arctic where it froze. I guess global warming is real, because the blob has apparently unfrozen and invaded Kuta. Beware! The Blob!

This place touts its proximity to “the glamour nightlife” of Kuta. Well, I for one would not want to come home to the wobbly world of Di3va after imbibing a bit too much at the clubs. Can you imagine anything more sick-making?

We must salute these lawyers in Bangkok, Tilleke & Gibbins, who proudly display their collection of Southeast Asian textiles online and in-office. They even put a “Textile Collection” page on their official website to show off their woven assets. The collection includes this marvelous antique head cover from Cambodia (above), as well as numerous other heritage textiles from Cambodia, Burma, Thailand and Laos.

The firm has garnered significant publicity related to the textile collection, including in-depth articles in the Asia Times and the highly-respected magazine of world carpets and textiles, HALI, which gave them four pages. Naturally, we would love to see law firms and other businesses in Indonesia follow suit.

Among the 149 lots offered at Christie’s South Kensington’s upcoming auction of Indian and Islamic textiles is this striking Egyptian appliqué wall hanging from the 1920s (detail above). The sale includes only two Indonesian textiles, a pair of “lawon” headcloths from Palembang, with the low estimate at a mere ₤1,000 which is well below the market price for good lawon these days.

This project has been on the website of architect Mark de Reus for a couple of years. But there’s no indication whether it’s going to be built or not. The master plan (below) shows a spa resort with 60 rooms, which are tree-housey. Sort of.

De Reus has been the design engine for much of the Kukio development on the Kohala coast in Hawaii. It’s a vast golf community where most of the villas have been bought by Silicon Valley and Wall Street über rich couples of a certain age.He also did work for Tommy Soeharto’s Pecatu Indah mega-development (see below). Read more…