Born in 1957, Made Djirna studied painting at the Institut Seni Indonesia in Yogyakarta. He lives and paints in Ubud, where his proximity with the fabric of Balinese life and culture conditions his work. By his own admission, his works “- whatever their forms and motives – reflect the magical –ritualism of the rich Hindu-Balinese culture.” “Life in my Surroundings” and “New Nature” may be considered as belonging together although they are independent of each other. In imagery they both employ the landscape as an allegory of change, in each case, change brought about by modernity onto tradition and to the traditional ways. The canvas is pierced, with foreign/found objects such as twigs or thick branches, or raised from the back to create reliefs, such that the canvas is much like a three dimensional landscape (albeit vertical).
