The origin of the Taxu group has been the young artists—most of them were still students at the ISI Denpasar (Indonesian Art Institute in Denpasar)—who initiated a movement that sought to fight against the hegemony of art in Bali. This movement created quite a ripple through the world of art in Indonesia, especially because of the searing backlash that they suffered. Based on the wish to create a more organized movement, in 2001 these young artists established a group under the name of Klinik Seni Taxu or the Taxu Art Clinic, consisting of thirteen member artists. Unsurprisingly, in the early years of the group, the works created by Taxu artists were rife with social and political issues, especially in the context of the art and social issues in Bali. Inspired by the working patterns of alternative spaces and artists-run space that had already been in existence in Yogyakarta and Bali, the Taxu Art Group developed a similar pattern. They had an exhibition space called the Taxu Art Space and published a simple journal, Kitsch. All their activities were held with the spirit of cooperation. The Taxu Art Clinic intensively created a strong network with the art world on Java. The year 2003 saw the emergence of a heightened awareness regarding their (artistic) careers, as some Taxu artists participated in the CP Open Biennale 2003. This spurred the other member artists to develop their artistic careers as well.

In fact, since the beginning there had been no aesthetic similarity that bound the Taxu artists together, aside from the critical attitude. In their early years, the critical attitude was revealed in the art movement that fought against the hegemonic force in the Balinese art world. The name of the group—Taxu—was a  pun of the term ‘taksu,’ a term that had been the mantra in the Balinese world of art, often used by Balinese artists to refer to the essence and profundity of their art. The young artists’ critical attitude was also revealed in their tendency to reject the stereotypes of the Balinese painting and their choice to create works in the tendency that I call the “post-Balinese-painting.” Although they were not exactly the ones who began this, as a group of artists hailed from Bali, their tendency to diverge from the dictates of the Balinese painting has given quite a significant impact to their existence as a group.

The Taxu Art Group and the painting discourse

When they were fighting against the hegemony, it was understandable that their works had a tinge of agitation and propaganda art to it, manifested in happening and installation arts. As the Taxu Art Clinic was established, however, their chosen language of resistance was painting itself. Two tendencies took shape: first, there were works that presented direct criticism toward the social and cultural conditions and toward the world of art in Bali at the time; second, there were also works that did not provide direct criticism, by avoiding the grand themes and stereotypes in the style of Balinese Painting. It seemed that petite narratives and counter-content have befitted the Taxu Art Clinic better. This is evident, for example, in 2003, when Ngk Made Ardhana started to explore the seemingly trivial subject matter of garlic. At the same time, Hendra presented his banal and graceless naked self-portrait as a counter-image to the highly touristic paintings of bare-breasted Balinese women.

The discarding of their Balinese signs of identity seems to eliminate precisely the potentials of local identity, which is actually important in the contemporary art. At a glance, it seems that the way in which the Taxu Art Group moved into the circle of the contemporary art has been quite peculiar: by rejecting the contemporary art potentials that they have precisely inherited. The contemporary art contains the principles of postmodern art, one of them being the rejection against the concept of universalism, to turn back to local or traditional identity or issues. For example, in “Tradition and Tension,” one of the most important exhibitions in the USA that presented the Asian contemporary art, one of the Indonesian artists selected by the curator Apinan Posyananda was Wayan Bendi, a painter who thoroughly embraced the approaches and methods of Balinese painting. It can very well be that the Taxu painters have deliberately abandoned their local potentials to enter the contemporary art realm in ways that are more challenging to them. On the other hand, their rejection of the traditional identity can also be seen as an effort to liberate themselves from the burden of tradition.

It is understandable, therefore, that the reference used by the Taxu painters has been the discourses of Western painting, whether those of the modern or contemporary art. One can safely say that they empathize with the modern and contemporary art figures. They have more or less been creating a synthesis of the two realms—which naturally is not an easy task. They also understand that in the contemporary art, although content is still considered important, the matters of “appearance” and method are also crucial—in some cases even more so than the content.

Their effort to abandon the identity of the Balinese painting has brought them to explore the discourses and theories of painting itself. Mahendra Yasa, who has been intensively learning about the history and discourses of Western painting, generally drives this effort forward. He needs the important painters from the riches of the history of the Western modern/contemporary painting as his “sparring partners.” One cannot deny the fact that Mahendra Yasa makes use of the appropriation method. One can say that the appropriation method has been the means or the vehicle for Mahendra Yasa to revisit painting itself. His intensive study on the realism approach and the concepts of the modern masters has taken him to a unique method of appropriation—an achievement that is evident in the works he has created so far.

In 2006, the member artists of the Taxu Art Clinic held a joint exhibition. The exhibition reflected their determination to abandon an actually invaluable asset: their Balinese identity. In general, the works by these artists do not look like Balinese paintings. As a consequence, the appearance of the works by the Taxu artists is not much different from that of the works by the contemporary painters hailing from Javanese urban centers. This provides a distinct challenge for the artists of the Taxu Art Clinic, as they move to a far larger arena of competition.

Today, the Taxu group consists of Made Dodit Artawan (Dodit), Ketut Moniarta (Moni), Gede Mahendra Yasa (Hendra), and Putu Sumiantara (Kacrut). Dodit and Kacrut, who were not present in the 2006 exhibition, displayed their works in the Taxu 2008 exhibition, which present the works of all the four member artists of Taxu. Apparently, the shrinking number of members enables Taxu to move in greater flexibility and speed. In 2008, the four Taxu artists have consecutively held solo exhibitions in different places. Mahendra Yasa even held two of his solo exhibitions abroad, in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. Besides these solo exhibitions, they often participate in joint exhibitions, too.

Activies as Taxu