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In 2006 Artists working in Arte Moris the free art school in Dili had already begun encouraging their students to paint on the tais. For those familiar with the culture of Timor and the tais the motifs in the paintings and drawings will be easily identifiable. For those  who are unfamiliar with the tais you can see a good selection of tais in our story about the Exhibition and Forum held in St Kilda in 2008 where there are many great examples of tais several from Suai Covalima and an article.

In the paintings and drawings shown here, sometimes the tais is used as a canvas in others the strong history of patterns that appear in tais and the stripe are prominent either as background or patterned into the figures.

In one painting by Gibrael it is painted as the thorny skin of a crocodile that floats on a background pattern depicted with geometric lines similar to those found in Covalima tais. Also there are the familiar traditional grass roofed houses above a man and a woman doing a traditional dance with cloth. In another work by Natalino a collection of traditional icons such as the golden buffalo horn head-dress are layered in oil on to a reed mat, a Biti that is used for sitting on the ground for conversation, hospitality and meetings.

Interestingly the majority of portraits in this collection that include the tais in some form are of women who are the primary producers of tais. In the portraits the transformation of  Timor’s culture is undeniable if you compare the view of Senora Pires in the black western suit and white shirt  in front of a bright tais featuring the synthetic colours of Indonesian cottons frequently used today, to the portraits of women clothed in tais or cotton sarongs or surrounded by tais in the more muted and subtle natural dyes of the traditional tais. Mari has created an interesting portrait of a man titled ‘The Culture Face’ in which he has used a variety of traditional pieces including the tais as the material of the head.

In his paintings Mari has used the tais to create political narratives. In the work ‘Together’ Mari has used the stripe, the crocodile symbol and a generic traditional house  woven together. In another titled ‘Imperialism’ he has used the tais to section the canvas in to nine areas at the centre of which are houses with varying shaped roofs that signify they are from different districts in East Timor. At the centre bounded by the tais is a rectangular Portuguese style house with the buffalo horn laid on the ground before it in the foreground.

East Timor’s tragic history is poignantly represented in Natalino’s tragic and poetic painting ‘Tragedia’ in which a traditional house is patterned entirely with red tais while a shredded red tais drips like blood from fragments of structural pieces in the background.

Rius has used the tais in more abstract form in his beautiful pieces titled ‘Timor Nabilan’ (2008) and ‘Rai Hamutuk’ (2007) but the influence of the tais on Timorese life is very clear.

Included in the slideshow is the work of Mari, Gibrael and Rius also from Suai. Unfortunately since Gabi just gave me copies of her files during a very busy visit, I don’t have the surnames of Mari Gibrael or Rius, so apologies to them we will put that right as soon as we can.

You can see the work of Natalino featured in the Arte Moris Exhibition in Melbourne recently and read more about him here.  All the work of the artists is for sale by contacting Gabi through the Arte Moris website.

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This work is part of a wider exhibition of artists from the Arte Moris, the free art school from Dili Arte Moris

Anata’s work reflects his interest in the traditional life of his village which is still alive and well, colonialism, and independence and their impacts on the lives of the Timorese people and his family.

‘Bush telegraph’ iha Suai sai hanesan mei (sonu) ida. Hau hanoin ami iha Suai loron ida tiha ona ba oras (quandu) Sergio mosu mai iha Centru Communidade. Nia lori pintura bot ida tebes maka nia pinta kona ba uma lulik Lautem (Los Palos) no maka nia halon/espera atu faan. Pintura nee naruk meter ida no luan centi-meter 75. Ami hakara liu kultura tradisional Covalima. Lautem dook liu iha loro sae hosi Timor Loro Sae, iha “lafaek nian ulun besik’ ou iha ita nia ‘nai bei nian ulun besik’. Uma lulik Lautem dadi tiha ona simbolu Arquitetura Tradisional Timor nian no hau hanoin tan nee Sergio pinta uma lulik Lautem. Pintura nee caru liu no difisil liu atu hetan fatin bodik tara nian iha uma laran tan nia bot tebes. Ferik Desleigh Kent hosi Belun Suai, maka mos iha Suai durante nee, hasai tiha ona foto ida kona ba pintura nee no ba pintura seluk sira maka rai iha pinta bot nee nian ohak.

[Nota: Clicar ba retratu ida bodik halo mosu sai “gallery”, hotu tiha dada tetek gallery usa butan ‘Next’ no ‘Back’ besik iha leten karuk no kwana]

Maibe Mana Pat Jessen horan impresaun (rasa kagum) tebes ba Sergio nian pintura sira. Tan nee Pat fo commisaun ba Sergio atu halu pintura ida kona ba ema katuas ida kaer manu aman hanesan mosu sai iha pintura uma lulik Lautem nee nian oin (latar muka).

Mana Pat Jessen (Coordenadora Belun Suai nian hosi Port Phillip), Simao Barreto (Coordenador Belun Suai nian hosi Suai) halo tradusaun bodik Sergio (latar muka/primeiru planu no nian belun)
Mana Pat halo discusaun kona ba nian comisaun no husu Sergio atu bele halo pintura kiik hira kona ba juventudu Suai bodik demonstrasaun ba loron exposisaun iha St Kilda. Mana Pat mos husu ba Sergio atu fo aula balu kona ba arte nian bodik juventudu seluk sira iha Suai.

Kraik nee: Sergio halo pintura kona ba Mana Pat nian comisaun (Retratu maka membru YoMaTre hasai).

Mana Desleigh horan imnpressaun tebes (merasa sangat terkesan) no tan nee fo komisaun ba Sergio atau halo pintura ida ba nia nain duuk. Nia fo ba Sergio retratu hosi ema feto ferik ida ho feto nurak ida maka nia hasai tihan iha Suai Loro durante semana nee.

Stencil Art and Graffiti are art-forms highly valued by young people the world over. Youth who often cannot find any other places to have their voices heard express themselves through stencil art and graffiti.

[Note: Click on a photo to get the 'gallery' to pop up then scroll through the gallery using the 'Next' and 'Back' buttons near the top on the sides.]

This Portrait of Melancholy on the wall of a lane way in Suai in 2000 led me to Sergio da Costa and the beginning of a friendship that continues today. This portrait conveys more about the feelings of the young women of Suai at this time than anything else I’ve seen.

I find these informal artistic expressions that change dynamically over time exciting – because they are ephemeral, but also because of the passion that takes a young person into the street to express themselves without thought of financial reward. Sometimes these works reflect resistance or aspects of the underbelly of our neighbourhoods, sometimes it is just an expression of artistic spirit on display or a mark representing an identity in the form of a tag. Which ever it is it makes our lives more interesting.

In the public art in Suai I have found a freedom that is often not evident in work on canvas or paper and I guess you could say the same for Pt Phillip. See video the ‘Art of Healing’(Dur:7 mins) .

Domi & Friend in front of Sergio’s Wall art 2000 & Sergio’s House 2000

Something that is different in Suai, is the habit of artists to not only paint on walls in public places but to paint on the walls of their own homes. I was first was taken by a small boy to Sergio’s home in July 2000, I was surprised to see the outside wall painted with Disney characters alongside a provocative portrait of a woman. I met the little boy when I was photographing art that I later discovered was painted by Sergio. That little boy’s name was Domi and I reckon that is the same Domi who has been painting in the art class in Suai with Pt Phillips art materials.

In Sergio’s bedroom/studio, the walls were covered with his paintings. I guess this is not so surprising when one considers that materials can be expensive and hard to come by – but it also points to the values of the artists’ families. Why not allow our children to decorate our homes with their art? Another important function for this kind of ‘art on the house’ is that strangers are drawn to these homes that are obviously the homes of artists and this frequently leads to assistance, sales, or work in the form of commissions.

Almeida’s House and the painted door.

Sometimes in Suai the graffiti is directed to Australians working there and it gives us insights into our relationship with the young people of Suai where the right to freedom of expression is new and often hard to find.

For insights into freedom of expression under the Indonesian regime see the interview with the lead singer of Galaxy the top Timorese band in the video Hangover. Two of the artists featured in our Art category are prolific art in public places artists too: Sergio da Costa and Almeida.

Which ever way we look at it is part of a public conversation, and you will find more in Graffiti.

During the hectic time that precedes a trip to Suai I got a phone call from Pat Jessen, (Co-ordinator of the Friends of Suai), to chat about art materials she wanted to take to Suai. She ended up taking some small canvasses, some quality art paper, coloured pencils, charcoal pencils, crayons and oil paints. When she got there Pat enlisted my friend Sergio da Costa to find some artists and these portraits are what they came up with.

All the artists live in the centre of Suai except Atoy who lives in Suai Loro. The first two paintings in the gallery top left are by Atoy. Rumour has it that Atoy studied at Arte Moris (Birth of Art). in Dili for a while. Atoy’s portrait Boy 1 particularly, is embued with the colour and tonal qualities of his environment and I’m sure he has painted his portraits using his friends as live models.

Suai Loro is a lowland area by the beach, about ten to twelve k’s from Suai but the trip is a 40 minute drive from Suai, because the road is deeply deeply rutted and damaged by the hundreds of trips made along it by armoured vehicles in 2000 that left behind potholes that have grown into massive muddy sections of road that remain wet for many days between rains. I first visited Suai Loro at that time with Veronica Pereira. It was devastatingly poor then and still is very poor. The villages are close to the beach overlooking the Timor Sea, near the mangrove swamps , and the houses, built from traditional materials are built high above beautiful deep brown sand, to protect them from flooding.

In Suai Loro people are still living together with houses placed near each other and facing into each other in groups. Simao, the Friends of Suai Chefi told me that the Portuguese introduced straight roads and living alongside roads to East Timor. This kind of change makes a huge social impact but I’m yet to understand what difference it has made in East Timor.

Sergio dashed off his pencil sketch (centre bottom row) in about ten to fifteen minutes while I was watching him when he was first commissioned to do the portraits. Two of the portraits of the young women have been painted from photographs while the first of his in the gallery third from left in the top row above, of the young woman with the blue top, looks a little like his sister Julia, so perhaps Julia modeled for that one. Indrey has sketched they guy who was working as security at the Community Centre and I don’t know who drew the girl on the chair. I will try and find out.

The artists range widely in age. Idrey (I hope I have spelt his name correctly) is about ten or eleven, Sergio and Atoy are both in their twenties.