I was literally driving around Bali, on the main road which makes a ring around the island. Near the northern tip, around Campuan, I practically wrecked my motorbike while instinctively pulling over when I saw Symon’s Art Zoo.
Brightly colored paintings, statues, things dangling from here and there followed my every step as I ascended into the interior open area of this cacophonous carnival of creation. A man, who I would learn was the Symon who had erected this cathedral to his and others’ art, was sitting on a hammock under a veranda inside. I asked him about the place.
“Well, you’ve gotta have a palace. It’s good at the end of the night to be able to say ‘let’s go back to the palace.’ So I built a palace.”
He gave some instructions to a couple Balinese guys who were moving a two-meter-tall statue of a violet- and crimson-colored penis. They scurried under its weight towards where it was to go.
“You see that up there?” He pointed to the second level whose floor, directly above us, was made from rustic wooden planks. “That’s the boardwalk. You know why I did that? Because now I get to hang out all day under the boardwalk. You know, like the song. Isn’t that nice?”
It is odd to say that there are pieces of art everywhere (although there are) because the whole place really is one big piece of art. A several-meter-long blue Buddha statue reclines on the front lawn next to a pool which, despite its quirks, could be taken from a house in the Hollywood hills. Paintings adorn most every square foot of wall space, or wherever they can be hung. There are statues at every turn, many with erect, but sometimes just tumescent, phalli of all different colors, shapes and sizes, but all with the same recognizable stamp of artistic authorship.
“I bought this place years ago from the rajah. I wanted to create a haven of art here in Bali, something like the East Village in New York, where I’m from. Have a look around.”
There are many fascinating places to see on the Island of the Gods, countless temples and sacred springs and galleries. Symon’s Art Zoo stands alongside any of them as the most interesting to visit.
Just having a stroll through the grounds is present enough for the trouble of getting there; but bring some cash and support this remarkable project by buying a painting or statue. Bali will be the better if the Art Zoo is there for years to come.