FRAGMENTS

IMPRESSIONS OF BALI
CushCush Gallery
www.cushcushgallery.com

Project made in collaboration with Balinese craftsmen
during the ADIR residency at Cush Cush Gallery

^{The concept of the collection is that of the travel diary, this space of expression and personal narrative recounting the strong moments

experienced in an “elsewhere”. A space in which the text, drawings or images meet in a free, hybrid and rarely linear form, thus offering an exploded and lively reading.

During her research, Marta Bakowski collected and inventoried images, shapes, silhouettes, colors, materials, patterns, words and typographies, thus creating a repertoire which enabled her to constitute a starting palette that she later translated and played with to create her own narrative. Conceived as a three-dimensional travel diary, a succession of polaroids, fragments of memory illustrating key moments experienced by the designer throughout her Balinese journey, the collection creates a multi-dimensional narrative in the form of a series of three cabinets, referencing elements from everyday life as well as local religious beliefs and folk traditions. Kites made of subtle palm leaf marquetry and motifs inspired by offerings and local art forms painted by hand or delicately carved in wood meet illustrations typically found in street markets in a resolutely colorful atmosphere. A playful and free ode to Balinese craftsmanship and know-how.

The collection features characteristic imagery and details found in traditional Kamasan-style paintings, which depict stories and characters from epics such as the Mahabaratha. All the delicately wood-carved ornaments and reliefs were chiseled and painted by the expert hands of master mask maker Cokorda Raka Sedana and his team of mask artisans, while the typical Kamasan-inspired ornaments were hand-painted by master Kamasan painter I Made Sesangka Puja Laksana.}