Antonin Artaud and his essay “le theatre balinais” are at the origin of Bruce Carpenter’s first visit to Bali. This happened in 1972 when his attention was caught by the fascination of Artaud for the Balinese performance he had witnessed at the colonial exhibition held in Paris in 1931. Shortly afterwards an exhibition of Balinese painting in Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts emphasised his curiosity for the far and foreign island. When he finally stumbled upon a performance, at the Joffrey Ballet Theatre in New-York, by the very same Balinese troupe from Peliatan, Ubud that had enthused Artaud and his contemporary in Paris, the decision was made to journey to the glorious island of the gods.
This would happen in 1974 when to escape the oncoming Amsterdam winter, he got on a plane, with a friend, to Bangkok and then gradually descended the Malay peninsula, crossed over to Sumatra and work his way through Indonesia until he finally reached the shores of Bali. Kuta at the time was little more than a coconut grove bordered beach with no real roads and few simple losmen. His previous work as a film maker provided a financial cushion that allowed him to stay in Southeast Asia for the next year and a half, experiencing the “paradise” world popularised through the travel tales of the time.
The East was, or seemed to be for many a place where to find solace and truthful meanings. A haven for a youth in search of a freedom and spiritual answer to the alienation perpetrated by the conservative government of the West, the Vietnam war and the deception arising from the unanswered promise of change that had been so vibrant in the 60’s. Bali most particularly, imagined and portrayed naively as a place where angels lived.
As many Bruce was compelled to follow in that belief, naively believing such claims that the Balinese were so innocent that there was no word in Balinese for theft. A few years later he realised that this was true for in fact there were scores of words to precisely describe various genres of stealing! This makes him smile today, admitting that much of these propagated belief were more projection of fantasies and desires for purity rather than a true appreciation of the land and culture visited. These later understandings, however, have not lessened the love and fascination he has held for the place and its inhabitants, culture and art since his first discovery of an island he now calls home, without forgetting he is but a guest. “Bali will always cater to illusions and fantasies”, he states, “since it is cultural rude for the Balinese to answer questions negatively or try to please their guests. Some will return home delighted in their ignorance, others frustrated and disappointed.”
From that first trip he and his friend brought back to Europe a series of Surrealistic photos that were printed in various magazines and included in a group exhibition that toured Europe from Madrid to Moscow under the auspices of the Canon Gallery, Amsterdam. Though his focus was on the creative arts in the following years, during his many subsequent trips to Asia he also began collecting Asian and Indonesian art.
This grew out of a passion for the art itself. Through it he found himself able to better understand people, cultures and history. Born with a good eye, his collection also caught the attention of others. Offers to purchase his treasures combined with the financial needs of supporting two young children resulted in regular sales and eventual requests from collectors to search for certain items on their behalf. Although art would eventually become his main source of income, it never suppressed his thirst for knowledge.
As time passed a growing circle of friends, acquaintances and scholars took note of the budding scholar. In 1990s after leading a series of pioneering tours to traditional healers, he was invited to research and co-author a book, Psychiatrist in Bali, on the subject by doctors Denny Thong and Stanley Krippner. This was followed by another invitation to write the first major book on an expatriate artist in Bali - William G. Hofker (1994). Two years later he would produce another major book on W.O.J. Nieuwenkamp, the first European artist on Bali. Interestingly Nieuwenkamp also played an important role in making Bali famous and promoting Balinese and Indonesian art.
Then in 1992, Carpenter was asked to develop a new concept for a high quality art gallery at the soon to be opened Four Season’s Hotel in Jimbaran. First of its kind, the high level, art gallery was to promote the recognition and enable the more affluent and sophisticated tourist clientele of the hotel, access to original, selected quality tribal or traditional decorative Indonesian art. The success was immediate and the gallery praised the world over.
The concept spread quickly through the island, and similar galleries opened actively in most tourist destined areas. Though it positively expanded the market possibility for what may be the world’s most fantastic, skilled and talented carvers, artisans and crafts people, it also quickly lowered the quality of the product to be found. Indeed with most expanding market comes a “need” to provide in greater quantity at lower cost thus lowering standards to a more common denominator ultimately attractive to the mass tourist market. Several years later he would conceive and together with the Four Seasons set up the Ganesha Gallery, a non-profit institution dedicated to the promotion of art in Bali.
Nowadays Bruce continues to support the traditional arts and artists actively in his private, by appointment only, gallery. He also dedicates more and more time to research, publications and exhibitions, and holds great hope that the arts will continue to flourish in this small but very blessed island for many years to come.
- Posted by Stephanie Robert |
