Guru Giri Solo Exhibition by Putu Sutawijaya

Essay by Agus Noor

Giri, in Old Javanese, is the name or term for “Mountain.” It also carries meanings of grandeur, majesty, and glory.

In this exhibition, Putu Sutawijaya treats the mountain as a semiotic subject matter. In many cultures around the world, mountains indeed hold special meanings. Mountains harbor many great, mystical, and mythological stories. They are often part of theological beliefs as well. This is what became Putu Sutawijaya’s awareness when he began painting Mount Merapi on the spot. He realized that Mount Merapi is not just a name or a place marker. It also contains natural, cultural, and sacred dimensions.

Mount Merapi has indeed inspired artists a great deal. There are many poems about Merapi written by poets. Paintings of Merapi have been created by painters such as Raden Saleh, Affandi, Basuki Abdullah, and Widayat, to name a few. In this context, Putu Sutawijaya’s work becomes interesting to study and interpret: how he processes Merapi within an artistic-historic context of fine arts, while also presenting a challenge to adopt a different approach and sensibility when working on his pieces.

For Putu, painting Merapi is not only an artistic matter but an effort to discover a spiritual experience. He does not just view Merapi from afar, nor merely place the mountain as a landscape. The mountain is a teacher with grand stories.