Witness an artist’s longing for purity in nature, a desire to become nature, in this one-of-a-kind solo exhibition by Satya Cipta. ‘When She Sings, When She Paints’, on display at Galeri ZEN1 until 19 May, is a gentle but deep visual experience, with pieces inspired by the poems of the Balinese artist’s mentor.
Balinese, but born in Lombok and spending much of her life in Lampung and Jakarta, Satya Cipta is at the crossroads of several traditions. A traditional opera singer who studied theatre at Institut Kesenian Jakarta, Satya is self-taught in Balinese art, a skill brought about from a visceral impulse. She learned the technique of legendary Balinese artist and undagi, I Gusti Nyoman Lempad, known for his impeccable line drawings, ink on paper –Satya utilises this “free line” to depict the raw immediacy of a woman’s lived experience, distancing herself from her peers and predecessors who were instead inspired by Balinese culture, mythology and philosophy.
Vulnerability, openness, raw emotion –both positive and negative– emanate from Satya’s art, certainly visible in this latest exhibition ‘When She Sings, When She Paints, curated by art historian and cultural author, Jean Couteau.
“Satya does not “speak about” being a Balinese woman in the analytical or political mode. She is not crafting discourse, nor making demands. Her work bypasses analysis altogether. What she offers is a direct, unfiltered emotional experience. This is not because she is incapable of discourse—she is no outsider—but because, for her, feeling comes before thought,” explains Couteau.
He continues: “When she paints a woman floating in space, with a man reaching toward her, it is the simple, almost naïve hope for an ideal connection with a gentle, sensitive man. At other times, she is the woman transformed into a fantastically exaggerated belly, exuding desire from the mouth and obscene fertility in form…But there is another side—rarely shown in this exhibition—where she rips herself open or retaliates against the men who have harmed her.”
Satya is not telling stories. She is revealing the conflicting demands of her psyche: the longing for purity in nature, the desire to become nature, and the pain, trauma, and inferno that lurk within it. She hovers between these extremes—not in argument or illustration, but as emotional release.
“When she sings, her voice reaches out to the void—
a call cast into silence,
a cry for the impossible, the vanished,
the lost human same.
Her voice unfurls, a boundless moan,
rising weightless in its sorrow,
a chant without end,
spiraling skyward until it dissolves
into the farthest hush of the cosmic rim.
And we—still earthbound—
we listen, in awe,
as if hearing the soul’s own yearning.
But O—when she paints,
her hand reaches for the infinite within finite paper.
Each stroke of her pen
etches a path through the seen and the felt,
as if chasing shadows of the self
across the skin of things and men.
Line after line, she drifts outward—
not to escape but to find—
to find, perhaps,
the same lost human same,
this time among flowers and roots,
among trembling leaves and human faces.”
In “When She Sings, When She Paints”, the audience will witness the artist’s outpouring of feeling. With pieces inspired by her mentor’s poems –Tjok Krishna Sudarsana from the Ubud Royal Palace– we witness the transformation between artforms, resulting in a visual experience which is as vivid as it is vulnerable.
On display from 19 April to 19 May 2025 at Galeri ZEN1.
Open 9am to 8pm, Monday to Sunday.
Follow the artist at @satyacipta
Galeri ZEN1
Jl. Purworejo No. 24, Dukuh Atas, Menteng Jakarta Pusat 10310
galerizen1.com
