Budi Agung Kuswara reflects on staying afloat


"Floating Desires” is the new solo exhibition by Budi Agung Kuswara (Kabul), a young Balinese artist who finds inspiration in memories of growing up by Bali’s beaches.
Drawing on the Balinese tradition of storytelling and a flat rendering – stylistically reminiscent of another Balinese artist I Nyoman Masriadi – Kabul composes imageries that speak of a wide range of issues, but all told with a hint of satire and symbolic references.





To Kabul, “Floating Desire” is a metaphor for the struggle to stay afloat in our daily existence, resisting what pulls us down.


“Water has always been a key motif in many of my works,” explained the artist, adding the element is a vital source of life and an important part of Balinese ceremonies.


“Bringing this into art, I find it increasingly critical to discuss issues surrounding water as its scarcity and the pollution in many parts of the world become urgent matters to address. Not forgetting that in our social reality, water is also the body that transports cultures and ideas from one place to another,” he wrote in his artist statement.

“Floating Desires” will run at TAKSU Singapore, 11 - 25 October 2012.

As first published on ARTINFO.com