Truth, Lies And Senses

Body, Covers

€”If there was something essential that we could associate with Mella Jaarsma’s last two decades of work, that would certainly be the human body. This is inclusive of her work ‘Pralina-Fire Altar’, which she made for the people of Munduk village in Ubud, Bali in 1993, up until her most recent work, ‘Animals Have No Religion/Indra I,’ which was exhibited at ArtJog in July, 2012.

The bodies in Mella’€™s works during this time are human bodies which she places in tense situations. They act as gathering places for various tensions ranging from issues of self-identity to crowdedness, or even to the turbulences of everyday social relations. Mella’s works start out from the care and sensitivity she applies to her observations of the various social situations around her, or to the observations she has made on dedicated trips. This kind of attention is the anchor that connects the themes of her works with real-world social issues. While concurrently using materials and forms that are unconventional in the visual arts, she constructs new imagery for the bodies present in her works.

Mella has previously presented the human body in a number of covers and outfits, made of different objects and materials ranging from preserved animal skins to metal sheet. She has also placed the human body under the cover of structures that resemble small houses, or temporary shelters. Though her works always carry a theme or narrative aspect rooted in a specific social reality, formally and visually the works actually reject any single, definite position. This transformative characteristic evolves from works that are at one time silent as a pile of objects in a space, momentarily becoming part of an event, as a device that behaves performatively and interactively. Then, at another time, the work becomes a combination of form and matter that builds and fills the space on its own. An installation. Elements of this kind are present in the latest series of works by Mella Jaarsma which will be seen in this solo exhibition of hers.

Mella’€™s latest works still revolve around the human body. These days, however, most of her attention is directed to matters regarding the senses; the basic and common potential of the human body to know itself and the world around it. These works deliberately bring us to the perennial matters that have been the subject of thought and discussion among thinkers, philosophers, scientists, religious scholars and others: intelligence, reason, human self-awareness. What if the capability of our senses, our human sensory experience ‘the body’s mainstay in knowing itself and the world’ turns out to be easily deceived and deceiving and can no longer be relied upon to lead us to the altar of ‘truth’.

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Quotes on Senses

On Monday, 17 September 2012, before her trip to the Netherlands, Mella Jaarsma sent me an e-mail. She wrote to tell me about the length of her trip. There, she also invited me to continue our communication and discussion—via email—of the theme and plans for her exhibition here at Lawangwangi. At the end of her email, Mella began our discussion by quoting a Hindu priest, the Indian thinker Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902):

“The senses cheat you day and night.” (Swami Vivikandanda)

That quote immediately reminded me of Rene © Descartes (1596-1650), the premier empiricist in modern (Western) philosophy. I replied to Mella’s email with the following:

(…) The senses deceive from time to time, and it is prudent never to trust wholly those who have deceived us even once. (Descartes, Meditation on First Philosophy)

How curious that two thinkers separated by centuries, so unlike in their socio-cultural backgrounds, could arrive at a similar line of thinking: that the human senses cannot be depended upon to deliver us to the “Truth”. Certainly, we now know exactly that the statements by these two thinkers flow to different conclusions. Swami Vivekananda, followed the line of his thought to arrive at a typically Eastern wisdom: to prescribe self-control over the body and the senses, so that one may be able to reach an “Eternal Truth”. Meanwhile, Descartes prescribed us to examine anything our senses might communicate, by using our reason and logic to arrive at the ‘Truth’€.

This email exchange of quotes then sparked a discussion between Mella and me, until we arrived at the main, underlying theme of this exhibition: the senses.

This text is not to provide further explanation about this exhibition, or the works contained therein.[1]. “What I can offer is a set of quotes, fragments and excerpts from various sources, which I hope may extend discussions about the senses as wide as possible.” [2] Here and there, as I see fit, I will include my own brief annotations, alongside the quotes mentioned here. These various quotes and annotations should actually act as an invitation for you to enter into and become involved in our discussion, as you witness and ‘experience’ Mella’s works in this exhibition. I feel the need to reiterate once more: experience; because, phenomenologically, the human sensory experiences are usually not fragmented into individual parts, neither are they isolated from one another. Instead, they are together, even simultaneously, multisensory. Also, in some of the newest research and studies regarding the neuroplastic nature and the working of the human brain, it is believed that regions once thought to be specifically assigned to receive data from one sensory faculty can actually receive and process the information and data from other senses. Our brain is polysensory.

Even so, you will quickly realize that most of these annotations and quotes are only about one particular sense: the sense of sight, the eyes. This is a deliberate act on my part, certainly to emphasize that the framework or the region we are currently discussing and pursuing has a clear boundary: sight, eyes, the visual. We call them ‘seni rupa’, art or visual art. This is a type of human endeavor that (€”until now) €”is still targeted for and can only be enjoyed by sighted people, not the blind. At the same time, Mella’s works will actually invite you to question this ever-visual boundary. Certainly, I am here to invite you to expand your horizon to enjoy (or experience) €”these works within a certain discussion about sensory experiences, that is not limited to the visual.

Then, at the close of this discussion, I will invite you to enter into an evermore abstract contemplation, about sensory experiences and reasons, about intuition (rasa) and thought, about the body and soul.

William Paley (1743 – 1805) was an English theologian and thinker. Through his most celebrated book, Natural Theology(1803), he communicated his exposition about the universe and organisms. From Paley’s arguments and exposition, we are now acquainted with the analogy of the ‘watchmaker’€™. As though witnessing the complexity of a watch’s movement, Paley concluded that there must be a ‘Great Designer’, the artificer, who has created the complex universe and organisms found inside it. Borrowing and reversing this analogy, biologist Richard Dawkins published his book ‘The Blind Watchmaker’ in 1986, to counter Paley’™s ‘€œalmighty watchmaker’. He put forward an exposition based on the Darwinian principles of natural selection and adaptation of organisms. Darwinian tenets view that the complexity of life is merely the result of such processes. Dawkins opened his book by explaining the complexity of anatomy and the way the human eyeball works.

Natural selection is the blind watchmaker, blind because it does not see ahead, does not plan consequences, has no purpose in view. (Richard Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker).

Among humans, attraction begins from a distance, through the eyes. The remaining senses, such as smell, come into play with closer contact. (Isabel Allende,  Aphrodite, A Memoir of Senses)

In the New Testament, there are stories of Divine miracles, embodied in the acts of Jesus: the blind can see, the lame stands and walks again.

Now, through various research and experiments in neurology, some scientists believe that the nerves in our brains are not merely complex neural networks working in a fixed/static group or unit. Instead, they change, and adapt, to different situational and conditional demands. The human brain’s neural pathways are plastic, neuroplastic. With this comprehension, a number of scientists have tried to utilize the plasticity of our brain to overcome various acute impairments in sight, balance, and other motor skills.

Norman Doidge, M.D., has traced the development of these research and experiments, and has complied new discoveries about how our brain works in his book The Brain that Changes Itself (2007). Prefacing his book, he wrote of his experience when meeting some scientists who were, or are still involved in the fields of (cerebral) neuroplasticity:

In the course of my travels I met scientist who enabled people who had been blind since birth to begin to see, another who enabled the deaf to hear; I spoke with people who had had strokes decades before and had been declared incurable, who were helped to recover with neuroplastic treatment; I met people whose learning disorders were cured and whose IQs were raised; I saw evidence that it is possible for eighty-year-olds to sharpen their memories to function the way they did when they were fifty-five. I saw people rewire their brains with their thoughts, to cure previously incurable obsessions and traumas. I spoke with Nobel laureate who were hotly debating how we must rethink our model of the brain now that we know it is ever changing.

One of the scientists he met, Paul Bach-y-Rita, a neuroscientist at the forefront of neuroplastic research and experimental treatments, was able to develop a device that can convey visual data to the blind via the tongue and skin (not eyes/sight), thus enabling the person to “see” again. He stated:

“€œWe see with our brain, not with our eyes.”

In the midst of a bustling Indonesian art market a few years ago, someone once said: “Indonesian collectors evaluate artworks not with their eyes, but with their ears”.

In relation to [cerebral] neuroplasticity, this statement may not be entirely wrong. It is commonly known that the blind will sharpen, or heighten, his sense of hearing ”far above the average seeing human’€™s ability €”to recognize the situations around him.

Visual Cortex: Part of the human brain that receives and processes information from the eyes. Also known by its technical name: Brodmann Area 17 €”based on a ‘map’€™ of the human brain, first conceived in the early 20th century by the German neurologist / anatomy researcher, Korbinian Brodmann.

The following invective €”used by the Javanese people often conveys a person’€™s exasperation with people who are thought to see or evaluate carelessly, who draw hasty conclusions, and act rashly without thinking things through: “Matamu!!” (lit. Your Eyes!)

S. Sudjojono, as though continuing the Kantian concept of ‘the conscious subject’ €”supposed that what an artist sees must still be processed by the “soul”, so that the artist may arrive at an ability to express his sightly-experiences into a work of art:

To be clearer: suppose a painter decides that he wants to paint a bird. The painter must look at the bird with the intervention of his eyes. Through his eyes, his soul is left with an impression of the bird, then it undergoes an internal psychological process. Only after this process is completed, can he paint with the intervention of his hands. This is the way: bird—eye—soul. Soul—hand—image of a bird.

Although the eyes have a similar function to the lens of a camera, this does not mean that our soul is just a dark room, surely? (S. Sudjojono, Menuju Corak Seni Lukis Persatuan Indonesia Baru [lit. Towards a new style of a United Indonesian Painting])

The connection between reason, soul, and sensory experience often places human senses as subordinate to the others: it must be constantly tested and checked by reason, controlled by a disciplined way of life, even compelled to embark upon an ascetic lifestyle, as exercised by certain circles. All of these are intended to ‘cleanse’€™ the body in order to become united with the Divine spirit lying inside the human self.

Optical art is a method of painting concerning the interaction between illusion and picture plane, between understanding and seeing. (John Lancaster, Introducing Op Art)

Optical art deliberately utilizes a variety of illusive forms to trick our eyes. Along the way, in the realm of Psychology research, a diverse array of visual illusions is used to show common tendencies found in the easily-tricked human visual perceptions.

Bindi, or tilak: Indian women tend to beautify themselves with the addition of a red dot or circle on their forehead, exactly between both eyebrows. This sign is believed to have the powers to protect against evil. The placement of the ‘bindi’ and the shape of the ‘bindi’ are often connected to the meditative teaching that aims to focus one’s life energy (kundalini) on a person’s third eye. This eye can see within, to the place where people can find their identities.

Hindu cosmology about the third eye, seems to be connected to the one’€™s ‘rasa’ (in this case, essence). In their study about art and the human brain, V.S. Ramachandran and William Hirstein stated thus:

Hindu artists often speak of conveying the rasa, or ‘essence’€™, of something in order to evoke a specific mood in the observer. But what exactly does this mean? What does it mean to ‘capture the very essence’ of something in order to ‘evoke a direct emotional response’€™? The answer to these questions, it turns out, provides the key to understand- ing what art really is. Indeed, as we shall see, what the artist tries to do (either con- sciously or unconsciously) is to not only capture the essence of something but also to amplify it in order to more powerfully activate the same neural mechanisms that would be activated by the original object. (V.S. Ramachandran and William Hirstein, The Science of Art A Neurological Theory of Aesthetic Experience, Journal of Consciousness Studies, No. 6-7, 1999.)

Did S. Sudjojono not express the same issue, only in a different way?

€”

Jim Supangkat once elaborated upon ‘rasa’ in Javanese culture, in connection to the ‘moral’€™ contents found within works by Indonesian artists:

In Javanese ethics, there is no tendency to look for an absolute, eternal truth (in the philosophical sense). Instead its fundamental premise is the discussion of ‘€˜rightness’ within the problematic of good and bad.

This search of rightness, which tends to explore the tensions between good and bad, is based on ‘rasa’ (sensibility) and ‘akal budi’ (wisdom, prudence). The result is a sophisticated way of feeling and understanding rightness, in depth, and not just the sense of knowing what is good or bad, right or wrong. (Jim Supangkat, Upside-down Mind: The Art of Heri Dono, Prince Claus Fund Journal #10a)

This almost essentialistic view of the Javanese ‘rasa’ can also be seen as a problematic of occupying and behaving in a social environment. Compare Jim Supangkat’s views above with the observations and analysis of Niels Mulder who wrote about the practice of mysticism in a particular Javanese community (kejawen) €”on the same issue:

Often Javanese juxtapose ‘rasa’ and ordinary common sense (nalar; akal), or the instrument for understanding the phenomenal world and its mundane affairs. Such rationality, though, cannot reveal the essence of the phenomenal world; this can only grasped by the personal intuitive inner feeling.

Up to this point, both Jim Supangkat and Niels Mulder are still on the same vein regarding ‘rasa’. However, in a different part of his examination, Niels Mulder stressed upon the following: 

In the kejawen frame of mind, rationality always combines with intuition, it is ‘rasa’-thinking grounded in the recognition that there is always something nonexplicit and irrational within almost every phenomenon and experience.

Javanese reasoning, in contrast, is more inductive, analyzing experience and necessity while grasping the essence, the rasa phenomena intuitively, that is to say directly, without tortuous theoretical construction and tedious research. Perhaps, this is one reason, too, why science fails to flourish in Indonesia and why there is little indigenous cultural input as far as the social science branches are concerned.

Systematic, disciplined abstraction is hard to comprehend, and so truth remains derivable from experience and pleasant speculation.  (Niels Mulder, Mysticism in Java, Ideology in Indonesia, 2005).

Views and thoughts on how a person can, or as best he can, work/develop his sensory experiences and abilities to achieve a ‘Divine’ knowledge and experience is wildly yet beautifully revealed in one of the classics of Javanese literature: Serat Centhini. Due to its wild nature, this manuscript seems to have been set aside or distanced from other Javanese literary manuscripts considered nobler and grander.

In her plaintive preface, Elizabeth D. Inandiak tried to explain the reluctance of many people in Java to once again read and review this extraordinary literary work, written at towards the end of the 19th century, in the Palace of Surakarta:

(…) for some Javanologists, Serat Centhini is too pure a work to be translated. Meanwhile, other experts see Centhini as entirely soiled. Therefore, it is apparently either lofty spirituality or depraved lust that has deterred the translation of this tome, so worthy of respect.

Such is despite the reasoning held by the writer of Serat Centhini, Anom Amengkunegara III, where this paradox is imperatively needed to achieve ‘Ilmu Kasumparnaan’ (lit. the Knowledge of Perfection):

“We must recognize evil at the threshold of our spiritual road€”€” (Elizabeth D. Inandiak, “Centhini, Kekasih yang Tersembunyi” [Lit. Hidden Beloved], 2008)

Serat Centhini is certainly filled with exposures of the wildness of humanity that listens to the desires of their bodies, following the siren song of their senses to an empty border, in their attempt to arrive at something ‘€˜divine’€™ within themselves.

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If not subordinated, sensory experiences and abilities can then be placed in a balanced situation alongside the abilities of reason: such is an ideal supposition about a human’s ability.

In “The Prophet”, Kahlil Gibran penned his verses on Reason and Passion:

Your soul is oftentimes a battlefield;

upon which your reason and your judgment wage war,

against your passion and your appetite.

Your reason and your passion are,

the rudder and the sails of your seafaring soul.

If either your sails or your rudder be broken,

you can but toss and drift

or else be held at a standstill in mid-seas.

For reason, ruling alone,

is a force confining,

and passion, unattended,

is a flame that burns to its own destruction. (Kahlil Gibran, Sang Nabi, Pustaka Jaya, 1981)

The senses are and are not of this world. By means of them, poetry traces a bridge between  ‘seeing’ and ‘believing’. By that bridge, imagination is embodied and bodies turn into images.€” (Octavio Paz, “The Double Flame, Essays on Love and Eroticism.)”

Like poetry, Mella’s works are like bridges that connect the senses and our consciousness, providing physical figures for the imagination, changing bodies into a series of images; providing our sensory experiences with the challenges of shapes and forms.

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Enin Supriyanto | © 2012

Link to Works:

• The Senses Cheat You
• The Senses Cheat You Day and Night