Nyoman's performance sculptural artworks; Cak Seni Rupa Latta Mahosadi (1996), Ritus Seni Ruwatan (1997), Pralayamatra (1998), and Ritus Seni Ruwatan Nawasanga (1999), show how he starts from the profane reality but expresses these concepts in a very religious way. His critics accuse him of making 'religion' into an art or making 'art' into a religion.

Erawan seems to represent the current status of the Balinese people, who appear to be feeling the cultural isolation after being faced with a range of heterogeneous cultures through tourism. Communities in Sanur, Kuta, Ubud, and Nusa Dua, for example, must be experiencing this 'cultural squeeze', having become isolated in their own villages. The locals' own houses and pura temples have become submerged in the sea of hotels, restaurants, bungy jumping establishments, discoteques, and motor traffic. An interesting form of resistance often emerges as a result, with the holding of ritual ceremonies on a large scale, which is possible because of the direct benefits of the profits derived from tourism.

Unconsciously, perhaps, Erawan has become the symbol of social resistance from an artistic point of view, as he can express the identity of his dynamic ethnicity through contemporary sculptural art. Erawan has become an artist who can communicate with the 'past'. In his village he is simply a regular villager, and is frequently asked to make 'burning ngaben cow' or to 'paint the wantilan wall', but he also becomes a Balinese traditional 'avant gardist' through his contemporary sculptures.

'I think that tradition will keep running through my works of art, but in a dynamic way, and I do not want to simply keep repeating tradition,' the father of two has said. That is the reason why every time he holds a performance of sculptural art, with very solid ritual associations, Erawan always gives offerings at Pura Dalem Sukawati, both before and after the performance. At the place of performance he also gives an offering, which includes a priest, so the ritual intentions are clear. Erawan carries out his contemporary art as if it were a traditional form of art. In Calonarang, for example, the feeling of a ritual is very intense.

Erawan is really a typical product of that collective culture that remains peacefully seated in it's own community's lap.

A Traditional 'Avant Gard' Form
'Traditional avant gardism' Nyoman Erawan style bears witness to a community that includes a number of Balinese artists. These artists turn back to the core values in Balinese culture aesthetically, visually, and philosophically - and attempt to interpret them with the language of contemporary sculptural art. Since the beginning, Erawan has taken the philosophy, form, and visual aesthetic from cremation ceremonies and a range of other areas that are waiting to be shaken and reinterpreted them through his sculptural works. The fabric colour of 'poleng' (black and white), forms of the 'tapak dara' (plus signal), Hindu ritualistic icons, and so forth, are the visual forms that can still be developed and function as expression.

At first sight, people feel that these young artists represent an individual spirit that is, of course, very different to the expressions of pre-1960s artists. The young artists of Pita Maha, Batuan, and Kamasan openly display the collective pattern that is generally still alive in agricultural custom. Contemporary artists continue this 'traditional avant gardism'.

As long as traditional culture continues to grow fast, there will always be another 'avant gardist' who declines to follow the customary traditions. There is a carver named Cokot from Banjar Jati in Gianyar, for example, who makes statues from rotten wood and shapes other demons in accordance with his imagination, without starting from the common mythology.

Another painter, Gusti Nyoman Lempad also a carpenter and, purportedly, a shaman has a lyrical painting style, and does not follow the well-known 'Pita Maha' tradition. A further example is the carver Wayan Cemul, who sculpts very simple statues in the ancient Neolithic tradition. There are many others who yield brilliant ideas that start from having a critical attitude towards the traditional restrictions, or perhaps it is a critical attitude towards external modernism.

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