The amazing aspect to this is that Gusmao is self taught.
As he explained to me, he was at the time imprisoned by the Indonesian
government in Cipinang prison in Jakarta for his role in leading Fretilin, the
Timor independence militia. Fellow
prisoners were encouraged to yell abuse at him in his cell, and one day his
food delivery flap opened but instead of the usual tirade, it turned out to be
a friendly warder asking what he was spending his time doing in the cell.
Suggesting he might like to try painting, the warder gave him a blank canvas, a
brush and some paint tubes. When Gusmao protested that he had not a clue as to
how to start, the warder told him to just try it out and if he didn't like the
result, he could just paint over the top again.
Thus began an artistic journey that was quickly
encouraged by his Australian wife, Kirsty Sword Gusmao, who sent Gusmao various 'how to' books. Given the time he had on his hands, and
progressively relaxed conditions allowing access to materials he became
increasingly skilful.
He decided to draw images of his early life growing up in
Timor, but also to illustrate the pain of being separated from his wife. He did
this by painting Kirsty from behind looking into a mirror, creating a new image
with a further mirror as each year of
separation passed (see image below). In all he painted six of these highly evocative
images, a series of paintings now known as Gusmao's 'Tunnel of Time'.
Last December the restored paintings were placed in their
permanent position in the new Gusmao Reading Room in the cultural centre in
Dili, unveiled by his sons (see image below) , where they rightly have now become
part of the artistic patrimony of this young nation.
For the full
story visit http://delindili.wordpress.com/
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