“It’s really important to connect with as many people as possible,” says Renaissance woman Mary Northmore-Aziz. A Brit transplanted to Asia, Mary believes in the power of personal contact to break down stereotypes and help people realize their common humanity. Her eye for opportunity and enthusiasm for helping people be the best they can be has inspired two non-profit organizations. Seniwati Gallery has now been supporting Balinese women artists for two decades. Yayasan Senyum provides technologically advanced surgeries for Indonesians with craniofacial disabilities.
All of Mary’s work is informed by the idea that people who receive help are more likely to recognize themselves as part of a chain of interdependence and to pass along the good will. Those network effects flow beyond the impact of individuals. Her life in Bali began, as for many, with a love story….
What brought you to Bali?
“The first time I came in 1983, I was working in Hong Kong, so it was quite near. Lots of my friends in Hong Kong used to come here, and they were all a bit shocked that I’d never been here because I’d traveled a lot, traveled all over Asia, but I never came to Bali. Then I was leaving Hong Kong, and they said, ‘You’ve got to go to Bali.’
And I said, ‘But I don’t surf. I don’t drink beer…’
‘No, no, no. You have to go to Ubud. It’s the artistic village. You’ll love it.’”
Were you an artist in Hong Kong?
“No, I was an English teacher. I used to work for the British Council, so I’d sort of made a career out of it. Teaching English is a really good way to travel. So I’m not an artist, unfortunately.”
What drew you to art or to artists in Bali?
“Well, I’ve always loved art. I’ve always gone to look at art galleries and collected art in a very small way. I lived in Italy, Venice and Milan, as well as London, so art’s something I’ve always looked at and appreciated. So that was an attraction to Ubud—its reputation as a center of art.”
When you arrived in Ubud, did the art here strike a chord with you immediately? Did it strike you is the same as European styles of art or was it something entirely different?
“It’s a very specific story [smiling]. About my second day in Ubud, I was told that there was a museum that opened, and maybe I should go have a look. That was the Neka Museum. I saw some art there that I thought was just unbelievable. It rang all sorts of bells, connected to Italy and European art history, and it was clearly superb. It was of such a high standard.
There was one particular artist…I didn’t specifically marry him because of his art, but it just blew me away. I thought it was just extraordinary. When we were introduced, it wasn’t wedding bells at first sight, but I thought that he was an exceptional person.
There was one particular artist. That was 1983, and I married him in 1988. I didn’t specifically marry him because of his art [laughing], but it just blew me away. I thought it was just extraordinary. When we were introduced, it wasn’t wedding bells at first sight, but I thought that he was an exceptional person.
We were talking in that little house there, which is now the women’s gallery [Seniwati], and it was extraordinary to walk into this tiny little room that was crammed with musical equipment. There was a piano, there were keyboards, there were violins, guitars, Indonesian flutes, Western flutes. There was just all this music and recording equipment and videos and books, books, books, books, and these unbelievable paintings… and there was this man sort of in the middle of this whirlwind of activity that he got so excited about. He was sort of the fulcrum for all of it. So that was intriguing. I’d never met anybody like him.”
So was this a romance built on a similar sense of art? Or an energy that he had about him?
“We took it quite slowly because neither of us was going to jump into a relationship that was not going to work. I went back to England. I did a masters in teaching English as a foreign language, and then I came back here and took some time out. People don’t like you to say you’re taking time out. You’ve got to have a reason. You know, you’ve got to say: this is what I’m doing. So some people say, ‘I’m writing a book’, and some of them say, ‘I’m studying mask making.’ Whatever story satisfies their need to have a reason.
At the end of that period, when I ran out of money, I got a very nice job in Bandung, West Java, so I spent three years there, but I was always seeing Aziz. He would come to Bandung; I would come to Bali. We saw each other over that period, and then we decided to get married. Then I moved here [to Bali].”
Did the gallery for women take off at that time?
“Shortly after that and as a direct result of that. Having lived overseas for a number of years, I knew that there was a risk of always being an outsider and that all my friends would be foreigners. And I thought: I want to really meet Indonesian women, and I want to be friends with Indonesian women. So I discussed this with my husband, and he said, ‘It will be easy to meet the artists, the women artists.’
So I started asking the experts, Where are the women artists? They told me: ‘There aren’t any.’
I started asking the experts, Where are the women artists? They told me: ‘There aren’t any.’
Then I asked specifically, why? The first expert said that perhaps Balinese women didn’t have any sense of color. The second one told me that Balinese women didn’t like to get dirty. So I thought, these guys do not know what they’re talking about. That was 1990. In 1991, I opened the gallery.”
Were the women artists ‘underground’ artists at that time?
“They were practicing… What I realized was that the market was very male-oriented. The male sphere is outside the house, and the female sphere was inside the house, so while the women stayed home to paint, it was the men who did the marketing. Many of the men were artists in their own right and presumably didn’t really have the energy to promote the daughters and wives. And it’s also very delicate for women to go into male-dominated gallery with her work. There’s something not very savory about it, so I can completely understand that it would be very difficult for a woman.
The fact that the men just seem to think this is fine, I think just indicates the larger picture of Balinese society. But when I looked, I discovered, just as in Europe great artists who may have had a daughter, and the daughter ran their studio and did the painting. Then Dad came along and crossed the ‘t’s and dotted the ‘i’s and signed it. I suspect it’s very similar here. Two very prominent Balinese artists had daughters who helped with their work.
It’s necessary to remember, too, that until about the thirties, it was very unusual for Balinese people to sign their work. The work was really for religious use; there wasn’t commerce [in art]. That was brought by the foreigners in the ’20s and ’30s. So it’s part of the natural progression, I suppose.”
ABOUT SENIWATI GALLERY AND YAYASAN SENYUM
Seniwati Gallery opened its doors in central Ubud in 1991 to showcase the work of Balinese women artists. The name Seniwati derives from the Indonesian words for “art” and “women”. The gallery arranges workshops and activities for Balinese women to develop their art and enjoy a supportive sense of community, cutting across barriers of caste, class, banjar, village, and wealth.
Founder Mary Northmore Aziz told Expat Indonesia that the women’s art community in Bali has changed hugely over the past 20 years. She has noted considerable progress in the recognition of women artists, especially in the past decade. She attributes this in no small measure to political as well as cultural evolution in Indonesia—a growing appreciation of democracy, increase in democratic values, human rights and women rights.
Seniwati hosts art classes for young girls every Saturday and Sunday from 2 to 4 p.m. Around 3,000 girls have been through the art school since its inception, and 400 apply every year. Mary believes that reaching out to these younger artists and supporting their development is the best way to make change, “challenging the male hegemony”. There is also a Women’s Life Drawing Group every Thursday from 10 to noon.
Cok Puspa, a young woman artist affiliated with Seniwati, has recently won the Freeman Award, including an all-expense paid, two-month trip to Vermont, USA. Her mother Cok Mas Astiti was the first Indonesian Freeman Award winner, and Cok Puspa is the fifth in a proud lineage of Seniwati women who have been honored with the Freeman Award. Cok Puspa’s first trip to the USA was intimidating, but Mary says, “The thing that gave her strength to do it was knowing that there was a long line of women behind her.”
Yayasan Senyum, the Smile Foundation of Bali, began in 2005 to assist Indonesian people with craniofacial disabilities, which can seriously impair basic life functions like eating and speaking.
Surgery funded by Yayasan Senyum is completely life-changing for those who directly benefit. Patients are treated in Denpasar or transferred to Adelaide for surgery. Building local capacity among Indonesian doctors is an important goal of the foundation’s work. Approximately 500 patients have been helped already, and that’s just the “tip of the iceberg” according to Mary.
Craniofacial disabilities are not problems that you see every day because people tend to protect their children and loved ones from unwanted attention. Together with their partner organization based in Lombok, Yayasan Senyum aims to assist people across a wide catchment area of central and eastern Indonesia. One aim of current fundraising efforts is the purchase of a patient transport vehicle to reach remote locations.
Donors can contribute to Yayasan Senyum directly or by patronizing the Smile Shop, the foundation’s second-hand clothing and housewares store. There are currently two locations in Ubud, on Jalan Sri Wedari off of Jalan Raya Ubud, and Sanur, on Jalan Segara Ayu near the McDonald’s on the Bypass.
As in the case of Seniwati Gallery, community is a very important aspect of the organization’s purpose. People with craniofacial disabilities may feel like outsiders, says Mary, and may sense that no one in their home community knows what it’s like to have their experience. One’s face is difficult to hide and difficult for others to overlook. Smiles are so important for Balinese, so Yayasan Senyum aims to give everyone a good reason to smile.
Mary Northmore-Aziz was interviewed for Edition 5 of Expat Indonesia. The Seniwati Gallery website is at www.seniwatigallery.com; Yayasan Senyum can be found online at www.senyumbali.org
