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On the fourth day after a powerful earthquake struck an area around Padang, West Sumatra, on Sept. 30, West Sumatran-born artist Stefan Buana flew home to the province.

Asked if his family members and friends were safe, Buana said: “That question always makes me uncomfortable. Everyone in West Sumatra is part of a big family.”

And so, even though no one in his immediate family had come to harm, Buana, whose homeland has often served as the inspiration for his paintings in the past, felt compelled to raise funds for the victims of the earthquake.

“I’m too tired of grieving,” he said. “One old saying goes, even though half the sky has crumbled, life must go on.”

Stefan proposed his Art-for-Padang cause to the gallery that represents him, Tembi Contemporary.

Located in Tembi village in Bantul, Yogyakarta, the gallery is located in one of the few buildings in the village that was spared by an earthquake in May 2006.

Tembi Contemporary put the idea to one of its friends and supporters, Melba Pria, the Mexican ambassador to Indonesia, who is a collector of Buana’s works.

A consequent auction and sale of 18 of Buana’s works, plus eight works by Mexican artists Carla Rippey, Miguel Castro Lenero, Beatriz Castaneda and Lucia Maya, was held at the ambassador’s house on Tuesday and Wednesday evening.

The dark hues and stark images of Buana’s recent works are expressions of his grief. “Woman From Pariaman” shows an old woman in a white veil against a black background. Covering half her face with one hand holding prayer beads, she seems to be crying and chanting God’s name.

The most disturbing painting was titled “Sang Sakaku Kini 7.9 SR” (“My Honorable Flag Now 7.9 on the Richter Scale”).

Scattered on the dark canvas are images of dead bodies, their forms rendered in palette knife strokes.

Another piece, “Potret Diri Usai Gempa” (“Self-Portrait After the Earthquake”), conveys a bleak portrait of the situation in West Sumatra. The words “tetap kepala tegak” (“head still held up”) have been etched on a black square. On the coarse, gray surface all around it are deep, rough lines like stitches and scribbles of body parts.

Also displayed was one of Buana’s “broken blades” paintings, which were first shown at his solo exhibition at Taman Budaya Yogyakarta in 2006.

An illustration of a post-disaster problem, the work titled “Motif Batik Parang-Lindhu Antri BBM IV” (“Parang-Earthquake Queueing for Petrol IV”) adapts Yogyakarta’s broken blades batik motif into unique curves, which are actually cracks obtained from heated acrylic and look like people standing in queues.

The auction, which was run by Sotheby’s Art Auction House, raised nearly Rp 60 million ($6,400) from bids on three paintings, but private purchases are still being made through Tembi Contemporary.

Proceeds from all sales will go to the Los Baro community, which works with the Akumassa NGO in carrying out a trauma-relief program in West Sumatra

“Life goes on for people in Jakarta, but people died in Padang, and that’s already a tragedy,” Pria said.

“It’s a very small way of being there for the people of Padang.”

Tembi Contemporary
Jl. Parangtritis Km. 8.5
Tembi, Bantul
Yogyakarta
Tel 0274 688 1919
E-mail riestembi@gmail.com
www.tembicontemporary.com
www.stefanbuana.com