The daughter of a Balinese farmer from Tabanan was named I Gusti Ayu Kadek Murniasih--or Murni, for close acquaintances. One day, she had to join her father to Sulawesi, on a transmigration program. Naturally, the move brought hope for a better life--but when the better life failed to come, Murni decided to work as a maid in a Chinese family in Ujung Pandang (now Makassar). Luck was still around, however, for while she was working there the family sent her to a junior high school. Unfortunately, when she was in her second year, the Chinese family had to move to Jakarta. Murni came along with them. In the capital city, Murni did not continue her study at school but instead worked as a seamstress in a clothing factory owned by her employer. She did not stay long in Jakarta, for in 1987 Murni decided to go back to Bali. In her home island, she found job as a jeweler in a silver factory in Celuk, Gianyar, where she met the man she eventually married.Unfortunately, Murni's marriage did not go on smoothly. After being in the wedlock for several years without children, her husband asked for her permission to let him remarry, to be able to have children. Murni could not accept it and asked for a divorce instead. She then lived on her own.

Problems of marriage. Of male and female. Of reproductive organs. Of genitalia. Those are the matters that find forms in Murni's paintings. It is no wonder that when we mention the name of I Gusti Ayu Kadek Murniasih, the word “genitalia” directly springs to mind. Her paintings are forever-and-always about matters related to the genitalia.

Her painting Bikin Kesenangan (Making Pleasure, 2003) clearly talks about unrequited longings and shattered love. In short, it is about her own life and fantasy. And her three-dimensional work Trauma (Trauma, 2003) is actually a note on her childhood. This particular work is rooted in her childhood experience. When she was seven, Murni was raped by an adult male. The shattering experience has been forever with her ever since, haunting her mind and feeling. To say that Murni was hurt was an understatement. When viewing her work, we are actually reading her autobiography. About a childhood time that not only she did not have the chance to enjoy to the full, but also was cruelly destroyed. About a marriage that not only was broken, but also hurtful.

The female painter who had once learned about the art of painting from Dewa Putu Mokoh, a painter from Pengosekan, has been continually exploiting herself in her works since 1995. The body becomes the representation of her biography. Through the body, Murni is playing with her fantasy, linking various objects such as mattresses, mats, dining table, hats, shoes, paint brushes, masks, onions, fish, geckoes, and even knives and saws. Such objects, which surround the body in her work, are chosen and composed to give room for her biographical fantasies.

Hardiman

Born on May 21, 1966 .
Studies at Sanggar Seniwati Gallery (1995); Self-taught Artist.

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
1998 Nokia Gallery, Fringe Club, Hongkong.
1999 Estro Gallery Padova, Italy.
2000 Nadi Gallery, Jakarta.
2001 Internet Gallery, Japan.
2002 Numthong Gallery, Bangkok.

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
1998 Group Exhibition, Rudana Museum, Mas, Ubud - Bali.
1999 Group Exhibition of the SENIWATI at Nusantara Rain Forest, Vegal Park, Walarode, Germany.
2000 Group Exhibition of the SENIWATI at Gallery Cipta II, Taman Ismail Marzuki, Jakarta.
2001 Group Show at Sky Door Art Place Doyama, Tokyo, Japan.
2002 Group Show at Belvedere, 140 Hill Street, Singapore.

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