Every culture in this world knows what a mythological creature is and how the image of a monster always colors the journey of human culture, which later becomes one of the interesting parts in the visualization of the development of human civilization.

In Bali itself, there are so many visuals of mythological creatures in the development of Balinese Hindu culture that we still inherit to this day, all of which have an implied or explicit meaning. The symbolization is so complex and complicated, all of which have been extracted from various knowledge by our ancestors and even scattered in a lot in our archipelago, as well as in all areas of common culture such as in Asia, America, Europe and Africa. Human memory is so close to what is called a monster, even in some cultures the images of the monsters have a slight resemblance, one of the most popular is the human imagination of the form of a dragon. In Balinese culture, the dragon is a symbol of water/river, its tail is on a mountain or lake, its body stretches along the land towards the mouth of the river to the sea, the flow of water and the bank of the river that bends and turns is a place with high soil fertility where human culture was born and developed rapidly. , that’s a brief description of a water civilization, so that in the Balinese Hindu worship ritual procession the water element is one of the main ones, that’s why it’s called the tirtha religion/water religion/glorification of the source of life.

I was born in a small village in the Tampaksiring area, the name is, where there is an ancient Balinese water civilization in the Pakerisan river area, there are abundant water sources, relics of ancient human civilization to ancient Bali are along the Pakerisan and Petanu rivers, water emerges from the ground with discharge The large water flows through the subak/rice fields in the area, there are many forms of worship and glorification of water in rituals in the village.

Along with the rapid development of the times, the rivers are starting to be polluted by humans themselves who are not aware of the importance of water in our lives, they throw garbage into the river, not less than 300 meters from the water source. , then "new" images appeared in my mind about alien creatures/monsters/mythological creatures wrapped in plastic waste, they are now "inhabiting" ravines, rivers and ending up in the ocean, cosmology or the natural cycle is being disturbed by the presence "new" plastic and synthetic materials and participate in "coloring" human civilization and culture (in my installation work at the Jogja biennale I gave the title Plastiliticum/plastic/synthetic era)

The initial plastic/synthetic invention certainly had a very good purpose, namely as a substitute for the excessive use of paper, causing exploitation; many trees were cut down for paper raw materials. The discovery of new materials, automatic plastics/synthetics has had a huge impact on the development of human culture to this day with the cheapness of materials and practicality in their use making this type of object a new domination.

Anything that is overexploited always seems to be accompanied by new problems, plastic which turns out to be able to replace paper on the other hand because it has not been handled optimally after use (post-consumption), the waste also becomes very dangerous for the environment.

Bhuta kala in the Balinese Hindu concept is the power of space and time, often identified with the visual of a spooky creature that is mischievous and likes to disturb humans, but in Balinese Hindu rituals there is the term caru / member ceremony for Bhuta kala so that from a destructive nature it can be the other way around. Now, I make an analogy with this plastic case with Bhuta’s nature at that time, we now cannot avoid plastic and synthetic materials, but if used properly and wisely plastic/synthetic materials will be very useful for supporting human life, but become so destructive when wrong management and lack of information, carelessly disposed of and polluting the soil, air and water sources, that’s why many forms of visual imagery in my work make a series with the title Bhuta kala (monster) plastic.

In this series of works for this competition, I present images of monsters that are more universal, slightly out of visuals of the Balinese cultural roots that became my background as an artist like in the previous series. The idea is that environmental problems and plastic waste are not only a regional problem (Bali), the problem of dealing with plastic waste is a global problem, almost all regions experience different problems in tackling it.

The two monsters from this series use clean plastic waste media that I collected from various places. The original shape of the plastic material was then responded to by a cute monster with 2 or 3 heads, more than 2 big eyes, with bright colors. The use of natural colors, recycled paper and 24 karat gold is a paradox, between plastic/synthetic materials side by side with natural, luxurious, as in this life, all side by side. One monster, whose body is filled with QR code (bar code) is original, I made it with a code generator, can be scanned using a cellphone camera and will be directly connected to a short video documentation of a plasticology art project that I have been working on since late 2010. In the video there is important information about the plasticology art project in its entirety, direct education programs to schools and communities through the media of art and creativity that became my commitment as an artist when creating this art project from the start.

Monsters as symbols of post-consumption, consumerism inevitably coincides with economic progress and the rapid development of technology. Today's human existence is more measured than how many new goods or objects he consumes. He feels that he becomes more existent in the social environment when he consumes the object. more, latest and branded than other humans. It’s still rare for anyone to leave a little space to think about the problem after consuming it, how much waste/garbage do we produce, where did it all go, who do we hand over the responsibility to manage it? This basic question can really be a reflection at this time, where problems become overlapping, cross-challenged getting more complicated. Case in point, disposable mask waste (synthetic materials) nowadays, the amount of which is already unimaginable and coupled with human behavior that throws it away carelessly, has started to pollute the environment as well.

Plasticology is a concept, idea and term that was born from the combination of the words “plastic” and “ecology” which I formulated at the beginning of the launch of the exhibition with works made from plastic waste in late 2011.

Through this special art project, I try to consistently promote ideas/ideas and deep messages as well as techniques and creative processes through art exhibitions, workshops, presentations and education in schools, universities and communities in Bali, Jakarta and even lucky to be able to reach several countries. Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, America and Australia, the aim is to spread this idea to the younger generation, if it is instilled from an early age, hopefully concern for the environment can grow and how to act with creativity in finding solutions to a problem can be instilled early on.