His hobby caught the attention of locals, many of whom were suddenly desperate for work. “Almost everyone in Bali depends on the tourism industry,” says Bayuaji, so he hired a few assistants, paying them out of his own savings.
“I had no idea what I was going to do with the plastic rope after we cleaned it, but then by accident, I saw how rich and how beautiful the colours were.”
Bayuaji was curious to know if the rope could be made into cloth in some way, so he hired a neighbor who ran a weaving workshop, Desak Nyoman Rai.
A loom is not designed to weave cloth from knotty plastic threads, so generating even a small piece of cloth proved to be a difficult task. Still, what he created sparked Bayuaji’s imagination, and the two began working in combination daily, putting pieces together. in combination the procedure that would be basic for Weaving the Ocean.
About that: their method involves days of hard labour. When you’re working with literal garbage, there’s going to be a lot of cleaning involved, and when Bayuaji finds ropes on the beach, they’re washed right on site — first in the ocean, and then again at his workshop using second-hand water from washing machines or whatever’s available. “We don’t want to spend too much fresh water,” he says.
Once clean and dry, the rope is untied. All this is done by hand. And since the threads are rarely long enough to thread as they are on the loom, they are knotted in combination and then wound onto spools (read: recycled water bottles).
After all this, the thread is in position for the loom and Bayuaji collaborates with the weavers, describing his vision of the chromatic composition and dimensions of the fabric. Subsequently, she decorated tapestries, drawing patterns with thread or adding small uncovered elements or samples of textured fabrics. .
“Basically, the textile is imitating painting work, like abstraction,” says Bayuaji. “It’s all about the materials. I really want people to realize that readymade objects — found plastic ropes — can be transformed into something really, really high art.”
As part of the exhibit happening at Biosphère, visitors may soon have a chance to unravel the plastic rope themselves. A rep for the museum says they’re planning to include a hands-on activity inside the exhibit, and Bayuaji will be there to lead a workshop on March 2. (Further info is to be announced. Check the museum’s calendar for information.)
The exhibition was produced with the Canada Council for the Arts’ Explore and Create program, and grants have kept Weaving the Ocean afloat since its second year, Bayuaji says. He is responsible for a team of 20 other people in Bali, totaling 12 full-time Assistants: other people who collect, clean, untangle and weave the rope.
“I financed the commission myself for almost a year, until my savings ran out,” says Bayuaji. Now represented through galleries in Japan, Singapore and Canada, he hopes the sale of Weaving the Ocean’s art will keep the commission viable in the long term. term.
She is careful to present Weaving the Ocean as an artistic endeavor first and foremost, one that also helps to keep local weaving traditions alive. Weaving, as a craft, is underrated in Bali, which has made younger generations hesitant to incorporate the tradition. .
“With the community — with my weavers, my assistants in Bali —I always talk about this as an art project,” said Bayuaji. “I don’t want them to treat what we are doing as a kind of factory.”
“I’m very transparent with them about how we market the art paintings,” Bayuaji said. “By explaining to them how the art sector works, other people are very happy to be working on this project and can be very appreciated. “
Beyond the existing exhibition in Montreal, which will run until September 2024, Bayuaji is already participating in two other foreign exhibitions of Weaving the Ocean. It will take on the commission at the Indian Ocean Crafts Triennial in Australia next year and is a solo exhibition for the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo by 2025.
Its popularity around the world may not come as a surprise. Weaving the Ocean is based on craft traditions that originated in Bali, but Bayuaji says its themes are applicable to each and every country on the planet. “I need other people to be encouraged through their environment,” says the artist. At their core, the paintings are a story of transformation and finding the perspective of something beautiful, even in the midst of a crisis.
Weaving the Ocean: In Ari Bayuaji’s Studio. Biosphère, Montreal. To Sept. 8, 2024. www.espacepourlavie.ca
Lead Writer
Since 2015, Leah Collins has been senior writer at CBC Arts, covering Canadian visual art and digital culture in addition to producing CBC Arts’ weekly newsletter (Hi, Art!), which was nominated for a Digital Publishing Award in 2021. A graduate of Toronto Metropolitan University’s journalism school (formerly Ryerson), Leah covered music and celebrity for Postmedia before arriving at CBC.
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