Beyond My Back Yard

In an earlier entry I suggested that this blog would take you on a cultural tour of the enclave and  explain how things were subtly rearranged to allow for the establishment of an art forum in Borneo. This may have sounded a little strange to some of you and may have come across as an arrogant statement on my part, but if there is one thing I have learnt in the five years since I left the comfortable and care-free existence I was able to afford back home it is that the creative liberty most of us take for granted in the so called western world is far from being global. 




At a time when we are discovering that there are more and more opportunities and tools for us to take control of our careers there are still many places on this small planet of ours where artists must struggle against insurmountable odds to make themselves heard and seen let alone dream of making a living (and is this not, in the end, what we would all aspire to?). 

As an artist living in such a place I could not see myself focusing solely on my own creation - breathing-in inspiration without making some sort of effort to breathe something out that could be of value to those around me. Arrogance, again? Most probably, I won’t even attempt to deny it, but there seemed to be so much that could be done and nobody stepping up to the plate to do it... and oh how I sometimes wished [in quieter moments when I was sitting in my outdoor studio and the immensity of the jungle started to whisper things to me] that I could have returned to being the hermit I used to be and get on with my own work.

But you see I wanted this place to become a part of my life, part of my work. I wished to claim it!  How else could I account for those four years if I had remained in my studio without ever having tried to meet the artists who live here and hope to learn and be inspired by their experience and insights? We artists are builders of bridges [see previous entry]. How could I not grasp this opportunity to build one such bridge? That, I believe, would have indeed been arrogance, to have lived here for so many years, plundered at will the inspiration it could yield and return home with hundreds of paintings and mysterious tales of having lived in the enclave on the island of Borneo without ever having interacted with those who could have afforded me a deeper vision.

And so I decided very early on that I would have to seek out and engage local fellow artists despite the difficulties I knew I would have to face. I will never forget an insight a senior [western] diplomat to the enclave shared with me only days after I had landed, and a couple of others [also mostly western] nodded to in acquiescence [they can be charmingly condescending]: 



'Mr. Cruz, I’m afraid you will find this to be a very dull place. There are no other professional artists, there is not a single art gallery and cultural events are rare and confined to royal ceremonies. You might consider going to Bali, Cambodia or… '



  but I didn’t hear the rest, I was determined to discover things for myself beyond my own new back yard.



I was rewarded for my stubbornness shortly before the New Year. First by the discovery (absolutely buy chance as it was never promoted) of a magnificent exhibition hall at the Arts & Handicraft Centre of the Brunei National Museum and secondly by the announcement of an exhibition of contemporary Bruneian Art to select the representatives to the ASEAN Art Awards to be held in Bali in 2002.
 But then an extra unforeseen difficulty arose out of nowhere, I was white (the orang putih, not to be trusted and a once most cherished trophy amongst the shrunken heads displayed in the vicinity of villages) and I was an infidel (even less to be trusted, a source of contamination and not to be seen with). I visited the show repeatedly but not once did any of the artists I encountered dare speak to me beyond a polite initial greeting. I knew then that I would have to be cautious, utterly sincere and, especially, uncommonly patient and crafty if I wished to break the ice.

Before going on I must add that the intention of the art forum is by no means to disseminate western models of thought, aesthetics or process in a part of the world that is rich enough in tradition and culture to circumvent the morass into which much of western artistic production has fallen (and this is an even greater challenge because, as you will gather from my next entries, the fascination with the west – especially it’s garbage – is tremendous and voracious in appetite). The idea of the forum which was officially launched in January 2004 will, I hope, turn out to be the beginning of something new… at least in the enclave.