I Wayan Wiri and the Art of Elongation

Female figure (Dewi Sri?) by I Wayan Wiri, between 1950 and 1976, 73 cm, private collection

At 73 cm in height, this sculpture is the tallest in my collection. What does it represent? I have no certainty on this point, but it may depict the goddess Dewi Sri. Dressed in a long gown, the figure holds a fold of fabric against her breast with one hand. Resting on her left forearm is a fragrant pudak—the inflorescence of Pandanus amaryllifolius, a plant widely cultivated in Indonesia and regarded as a symbol of fertility. Female figures carrying a fragrant pudak are quite common in Balinese sculpture. The creation of an anonymous carver reproduced below, more traditional in its treatment, illustrates the same motif. One notices that the pudak is carried in both cases with a gesture that seems to express delicacy and care—much like one would hold a child.

Female figure (Dewi Sri?), between 1930 and 1960, 26 cm, private collection

The sculpture by I Wayan Wiri was probably created between 1950 and the mid-1970s. Like other tall and slender sculptures produced during this period, it is fitted into a base that stabilizes it. This base, carved from a different type of wood, bears on its underside the carver’s signature: “IWAJANWIRI MAS BALI”*.

I Wayan Wiri appears to have been a prolific carver. His figures are distinguished by a pronounced elongation of the silhouette. This piece shows how, using a process that could be described as mannerist, he delights in combining elongation with a spiraling twist: from bottom to top, the figure turns around its vertical axis, so that her feet and her face end up oriented in opposite directions. The arms have a slender, delicate appearance. The face, long and narrow and triangular in shape, displays a slightly smiling mouth and markedly slanted almond-shaped eyes. Certain details—smile lines near the corners of the mouth, a line emphasizing the upper eyelid, strokes doubling the folds of the garment—are rendered through incisions of remarkable finesse.

This carver, who invented a personal style recognizable among all others, belongs in my opinion to those whose talent is sometimes underestimated by collectors. It is true that not all his pieces are of equal quality. Although his output includes an abundant series of small seated figures of fairly good workmanship but somewhat simple, his talent is fully expressed in his tall and delicate representations of goddesses or nymphs. The present sculpture is a significant example.

* The use of the spelling “Wajan” indicates that the piece was created before 1976, the year in which a spelling reform led to the replacement of “j” with “y,” thus transforming “Wajan” into “Wayan.” I am grateful to Balinese sculpture specialist Soemantri Widagdo for this valuable information.