real[i]ti

Karya I Nyoman Erawan

Curatorial Text for Exhibitions “real[i]ti,  at Vanessa Artlink Jakarta Indonesia

The art in Bali is showing symptoms of the development of realistic painting, mostly evident in the works by young artists. Looking back into the past, Balinese art has actually been showing symptoms of realistic art; as evident in the birth of the Pita Maha school of painting, and then in the works by Ubud painters who used the plastic anatomy of the paintings by W. Spies and R. Bonnet. The art has also led to the birth of such artists as I Gusti Nyoman Lempad, whose works reveal the plastic anatomy of the human body, although still containing the wayang-style and the use of outlines.

If one analyzes further the basic concepts in Balinese art, which derives its inspiration from the spirit of Balinese Hindu, there has actually been a spirit to “reveal” (realize) something that is abstract and imaginary; rendering it thus into real forms. This can be seen in the representative shapes pertaining to the Hindu religion in Bali, such as in the sculptures of the gods, barong, and rangda. These objects, which the Balinese consider sacred, have taken shape out of the Balinese effort to give shape to the abstract concepts in the Hindu religion of the Balinese. The forms are representative in nature and contain symbolic meanings. Therefore, the realistic tendency in the (traditional) Balinese art has not been based on the mimesis principle of Plato and Aristotle, which was the basis of the development of the realism tendency in the West.

The realistic forms in Balinese art play a role only as a path or mediator for the understanding of the religious concepts (in Balinese Hindu). In this context, the reality does not contain the concept about materials, but instead is the manifestation of the abstract and imaginary. It is this concept that forms the basis of realistic art in Bali among the Pita Maha artists and their followers. This is evident in how their works are mostly focused not on the formal awareness or visual language, but instead on the narrative contained within.

It is worth noting here the presence of Sanggar Pejeng under the painter Dullah, Sanggar Kamboja in Denpasar, and especially Sanggar Senin Kamis in Sanur led by the artist Chusin Setiadikara. They all constitute a phenomenon that can be understood as forming the initial symptoms of the emergence of realist painting in Bali, which applies the methods and techniques of (Western) realism—based on the mimesis theory: The awareness about the importance of human anatomy and proportion as well as of perspective, which in principle tries to reveal or transfer the reality in the nature to the plane of the canvas. They have a strong awareness regarding the corporeal reality in the nature.

In the subsequent period, the artists who are engaged with the realist paintings are mostly young painters emerging in the early 2000s. Their works betray the link between realist painting and the technology of photography and digital software such as the Photoshop program. These techniques become an integral part of the creative process of these artists. In this domain, the issue presented is that of the representation of reality rendered in the medium of painting.

Realistic painting initially served as a medium to present reality according to the mimesis technique (or realism). In its development, when photography came and progressed rapidly, the role of realistic painting shifted due to the technological development. Walter Benjamin in his essay, “The Work of Art and Mechanical Reproduction”, explained: “For the first time in the process of pictorial reproduction, photography freed the hand of the most important artistic functions which henceforth developed only upon the eye looking into the lens.”[1]

Photography has taken the place of realist painting; in reality, however, realistic painting was not truly replaced. In the subsequent development, realist painting precisely became affiliated with photography. Realist painters then used the technology of photography as a device that assist them in painting, and thus photographic realism or photo-realism, super-realism, hyper-realism, was born. In realist works that were based on photographs, photography replaces the role of the eye to capture the reality directly. The realist artists take advantage of the development of technology; they try to transfer the photographs into the painting. It means that the development of the technology of photography has not truly replaced the role of (realist) painting.

Realist painting then resurfaced in the development of contemporary art, presenting the problem of the contemporary culture. “Realist works that use as their bases photography and computer can be created with great sensitivity and details, resulting thus in a language of expression,” explained Jim Supangkat, a curator.[2] While previously realist painting revealed the reality captured by the eyes, now photo-realist painting represents the representation of reality. In short, photo-realist painting reveals layers of reality; and the layers bring new problems in the perceptions about the representation of reality itself. Dani Cavallaro affirms, “The idea that the world might be objectively understood and represented using one appropriate perspective has been recently made open to doubt thanks to the digital vision.”[3]

The works by Cundrawan and I Wayan Hendra Kusuma in this exhibition betray the role of the technology of photography and computer rendering by Photoshop software, which created certain effects to the narrative that they are conveying.

Cundrawan presented the problem of the urban reality of the city of Denpasar as he took pictures of the landscape of the city, which he then processed using the Photoshop program. In his works, Cundrawan dramatized two figures of a child and an adult in one corner of the city. The work, titled Green Sands, 2009, reveals the figure of a mother carrying her child, walking in the city. The background of the city landscape had been made blurred—by means of the Photoshop program—and the two figures were made to look more realistic and created in great details.

In a similar search, I Wayan Hendra Kusuma also presented a depiction of urban reality, capturing the activities of a group of people in a certain spot in Denpasar. Like Cundrawan, Hendra also played with the realistic appearance and blurred background using the Photoshop software. Hendra used a certain point of view, depicting such activities as people filling their car tanks at the gas station, or people at the motorbike parking lot.

Albeit presenting fragments of activities and location, their works are not entirely narrative. The background has been deliberately made to look blurred while the rest of the painting were created with a strong realistic approach—one can consider the juxtaposition of the different techniques as an effort to delve into the possibilities of realism as a visual language, which can be further explored following the progress of technology. This is all done without ignoring the content, which is still conveyed as a response of the artist toward the urban issues in Denpasar.

The realist painters in Bali have been continuously exploring the language of realism as well as the technical domain. Agus Cahaya is interested in the graffiti that he often finds on the walls in the area where he lives in Denpasar. He takes the free expression of the art of graffiti and presents it in his painting, overlapping it with the figure of a child as the representation of the urban society. Agus thinks that “my work presents the realistic representation, but the freedom to express ideas and emotions don’t restrict the painting techniques. The paint sprays and the marker lines become the focus in the technical exploration, liberating the painter in his effort to convey ideas.”

Meanwhile, I Nyoman Wijaya depicted cows, an animal that is highly revered in the Balinese Hindu faith and considered as the ride for the god Shiva. The Balinese treat the animals well, although they eventually sell the animals for consumption. Wijaya painted the cows using a rough technique of brush strokes and paint drips; he presented his memory about his childhood life as a cowherd. Agus and Wijaya presented anew symptoms resulting from the exploration of realistic painting, which has so far been known mostly for its fine lines. To them, realistic representation does not necessarily entail fine lines; more expressive techniques actually do not lessen the visual content of realistic painting. AS. Kurnia also often presented the effects of textures in his works.

In an effort that parallels that of those two artists, I Nyoman Erawan also combines the realist and expressive techniques; the latter of which has been familiar to him as a painter of the abstract genre. I Nyoman Erawan, whom we know better for his symbolic-abstract works, has shifted a bit toward realistic painting, although still conveying his focus of concerns: cultural symbols presented in unique brush strokes. The matter of the subject (the I) in Nyoman Erawan’s self portraits, which serves as the representation of identity, contains the social issues presented through such symbols as fire, water, wind, flowers, leaves, all functioning as metaphors. These are all the metaphors for the concept of a cycle in human’s life (as samsara or repeated birth) and the link between the buana alit (small cosmos or the human self) and the buana agung (the universe).

In terms of its context, the Balinese realistic paintings presented in the works displayed in this exhibition can be read using the frame of the identity discourse, or precisely how the (Balinese) photo-realist painting responds to the contemporary social and cultural issues that surround the artists, which they then represent in their works. The matter of identity has become a significant issue in Balinese painting. Due to the strong identity image that it has so far, Balinese painting is often seen as focusing merely on its same old domain (i.e. the domain of ethnicity). This image creates certain problems and makes it difficult for Balinese art to be included in the modern or contemporary art discourse in Indonesia.

It is through the photo-realist tendency that one can observe how the art world in Bali now has a different face. This development can be seen as resulting from the connection between the world of (painting) art in Bali and that of the contemporary painting in Indonesia. The world of art in Bali is often read differently and considered as something distinct from the general art discourse in Indonesia, but it is not because of its different structure or something that is specifically inherent in the world of art in Bali. Still, the visual signs in Balinese do show a highly characteristic content about the matter of the (Balinese) cultural identity.

This is obvious in the works by I Wayan Suja, who for the last two years have been focusing on presenting plastics as a part of the problems of the contemporary society. The material of plastics has become significant in the day-to-day life of the people, and in it lies the signs of the consumer culture, representing international brands that promote a consumptive culture among the public. In his latest journey, Suja explored the representation of the Balinese people in the works by foreign (tourist) artists who had resided in Bali and become inspired by the “exoticism” that the island provided. These artists were, for example, Adrien Jean Le Mayeur de Merpres, Rudolf Bonnet, and Willem Gerard Hofker. In his works, Suja depicted again the portraits that constitute the representations of (male and female) Balinese on the canvases of those “foreign” painters. Suja presented them in a layer of plastic. In the process, Suja explored the images and the plastic drapery, sometimes using paint drips. He made the images overlap, with the help of the Photoshop software. In his works, Suja tried to convey the issue of identity, covering it in layered meanings.

Meanwhile, Ngakan Made Ardana presented the matters of the subject and identity. His later works depict anonymous portraits; the identity of each of the people he depicted is no longer clear. This is because the faces have been made up, created from a combination of parts of the face: eyes, noses, mouths, moustaches, and eyebrows were taken from pictures of himself, of his family, his friends. Photographs of faces (portraits) form a text with a historical dimension. The photographs present individual identity, as well as forming parts of other individuals within the social, cultural, and political domains, and in a historical time. The manipulation of portraits in Ardana’s works is linked with the shift of perception about identity in this era of digital technology.

For the last two years, I Made Alit Suaja has been focusing his attention on the representation of the young women of Tenganan, a Bali Aga village (a region in Bali that is commonly seen as having been isolated from the impacts of the Majapahit expansion to Bali). The region of Tenganan has a unique tradition in which the people hold an annual rite, revealing their origin as a peasant society. They are also famous for their woven cloths. Alit Suaja portrayed young Balinese women in their traditional woven cloths, donning a certain expression, and standing in the midst of gold flowers. Gold flowers are one of the elements worn to decorate the hairs of the Balinese girls in certain ceremonies or in dances.

I Gede Arta depicted the old Balinese peasant, who is showing muscle lines despite his old age. The peasant is presented in close-up portraits. This is a representation that might yet again advance the long-held stereotype of the Balinese muscular prowess. Dani Cavallaro affirmed this: “Realist techniques hide the process of text or image production to urge us to believe that representation reflects the world…”[4] Gede Arta seemed to agree with this stereotype, as is evident in his work.

Metaphors in art works are visual metaphors. In linguistic, metaphors consist of phrases or terms that can describe reality using packages (or decoration) of words that do not immediately explain the reality. To understand the meaning of a metaphor, we must first uncover layer upon layer of the surrounding packaging in order to arrive at the essence.[5]

As the reality is turned into hyper-reality, a reality that Baudrillard mentioned as a simulation, what, then, is the role played by the visual metaphors? If one observes this further especially in ads, the reality that the ads present, which we then perceive as a true reality, is none other than mere metaphors. Metaphors about the beauties represented in the forms of thin, white, sexy women. To ensure that such beauties are indeed present in reality, we are bombarded by advertisements and promotions of products.

In the modern art awareness, the role of the metaphor has shifted in line with the efforts of the artists to grasp the essence of art. All packages and decorative elements in art are reduced, dispensed with, leaving only the visual element as the essence. As the manifestation of the autonomy of art, art is present as itself (art for art’s sake). It is later believed as “the absolute truth”, making the modern art to relativize any other development, considering it as ‘not art.’ As a form of achievements, the modern art “has been concluded” (“the end of art”, in the words of Arthur Danto). The development of postmodern art, meanwhile, returns to the socio-cultural reality that it is a part of a cultural entity.

The spirit of the contemporary art is to return to this reality, which means to be concerned again with the social reality surrounding the cultural domain in which the art grows and develops. Tatang BSP is acutely aware about the role that metaphors play in painting. Tatang BSP’s works are really simple, presenting a male figure seducing a female with a rose. “Say it with flowers is a cliché about the expression of love. The phrase is no longer sacred. The act has become a simple, lighthearted, and easy rite. ‘Do less have more’ has a parallel meaning in economic regulations, meaning we can get more results using a little effort,” explained Tatang.

In his works, AS Kurnia still responded to the issue of the “porn act”, which after being enforced is still triggering disputes in a variety of communities. His work, titled Banyak Menabung (Save Money) depicts an act of love-making using the metaphor of a piggy bank. Like Tatang, Kurnia is an artist who often presents contextual meanings through metaphors. Metaphors now play a significant role in the construction of a consumer culture that has made people drunk with simulations. Art, therefore, can use metaphors as an act of “resistance” (subversion) against the simulations. Metaphors in art now regain their role as something subversive, and they can again appear in “fearful,” “brutal,” “banal,” or even “sublime” manifestations.

For the last few years, Rediasa, commonly known as Polenk, often depicted female bodies in his works. To him, the matter of the body, especially female one, is never free from the exploitation of the consumer culture. The female body is a device of desire, touching the libido, creating images and desire to own and devour things, in relation to consumption. The body, in this case, is invariably victimized. Polenk deliberately presents stereotypical images of the body in a banal manner, naked.

A different case is presented by AA. Dharmayuda, who presents fragments of the body such as the clenched hand with muscle lines, which constituted an open text, unbounded by conventions. This work touches upon the audience perception and can simultaneously serve as a metaphor. Dharmayuda’s works do not bind metaphors to conventions, and therefore do not immediately construct meanings. Rather, he presented the metaphors as visual sensations. As a text open to meanings.

Realist art, for the Balinese artists whose works are on display in this exhibition, is not fixed. The artists believe that realist art constitutes a visual language that can always accommodate new developments in the era and adapt with them. From the works displayed in this exhibition, one can see how the artists consciously use the realist language to convey contents about the socio-cultural issues, as well as global and Balinese problems, as the domain for their creative efforts that they can always elaborate and explore.

Bali, June 2009

I Wayan Seriyoga Parta

Curator

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[1] Walter Benjamin, “The Work of Art and Mechanical Reproduction” in Art in Modern Culture edited by Francis Frascina and Jonathan Harris, Phaidon Press London, 1992,  p. 298

[2] Jim Supangkat, “Expanding Contemporary Realism”, in the introduction for the Akili Museum Art Award, Jakarta, 2008

[3] Dani Cavallaro, 2004,  Teori Kritis dan Teori Budaya, (translated from Critical and Cultural Theory), Penerbit Niagara, Yogyakarta

[4] Ibid. p. 73

[5] I. Bambang Sugiharto, Posmodernisme, Kanisius Yogyakarta

Point to Point

Curatorial Text  “Point to Point” Exhibitions at Elcanna Gallery Jakarta Indonesia.

Cundrawan

karya I Wayan Hendra Kusuma

Curated by

I WAYAN SERIYOGAPARTA

The Indonesian contemporary art scene has been bombarded by the presence of young artists working in variety of styles, with works reflecting the issues of their era. This exhibition attempts to assemble fifteen young artists from four creative areas namely Bali, Solo, Semarang, and Bandung.  These artists from four cities were selected not for political reasons or to form an axis, but the locations presented in this exhibition will provide a map that represents a overall view of the ongoing development of the arts in each of these areas.

First, art on Bali has so far been recognized as a representation of its cultural identity. However, since the beginning of the millennium a re-evaluation is taking place not only at the level of discourse but also in the artists’ awareness as presented in their works.  There was a period where Balinese art demonstrated its “Baliness” through iconography and its cultural symbols and became a trend followed en masse by Balinese artists. Today, however, representations showing icons and cultural symbols appear to have lost their appeal to the younger generation of artists.

Second, in the past the Indonesian art scene has not heard any resounding echoes from the Semarang art community.  Not many artists from Semarang have been seen in the visual art movements but nowadays the ripples produced by the art community are growing continuously stronger through the presence of young artist who bring forth new exciting ideas that appear relatively distinct from the general trends. This change came about through the emergence of several communities of young artists who regularly initiate, manage and organize exhibitions at their own cost. In spite of the small scale, these exhibitions that are held routinely have succeeded in producing a substantial impact and provided a meaningful contribution to the art dynamics in the city of Semarang.

Third, in spite of the existence of the Indonesian Institute of Fine Arts in Solo, that has for some time opened a visual art department, not many are aware of the emergence of young artists in this city. Upon delving deeper in the situation, however, one will notice that in the Solo art scene, too,  some new creative movements have emerged where young artist are actively gathering initiatives in visual art. Although they have to cope with infrastructural limitations in  fine ats, these young artists have initiated new activities.  The ideas they offer are quiet interesting and relatively capability of becoming alternatives in the discourse of fine art.

Fourth, Bandung paintings are presently going through an era of awaking from quite a long sleep from a stigma that was typical to Bandung, particularly because the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), said to be the “laboratory of the West”, has been producing formalist-abstract works in which one can sense the strong formal influence absorbed from the western schools of art. Since the last two years, however, fine art in Bandung has seen a new growth caused by the emergence of young artists with new ideas that have become a relatively strong reference in the discourse of contemporary art. It is indeed in line with Bandung’s character that finds its roots in the strong traditional discourse of its fine art educational system at ITB along with a change in orientation from the formal modernist discourse toward post-modernism. These movements in discourse and creativity has strongly colored the creative awareness of the young Bandung artists.

Repainted Objects

Made Muliana usually called Bayak by his friends, present paintings developed using a stencil or mimeograph technique using art objects that were his previous works.  His works entitled Made In China Toy (repainted the object series) and The Sounds of Penggorengan (=frying pan) (repainted the object series) are paintings of art objects he produced in the past. Those objects were constructed using material such as a doll made in China, a frying pan, wood, a nose mask and a helmet.

As with Bayak, Handy Hermansyah from Bandung also did the same thing namely produce paintings of his three dimensional art works which he constructed from fruits, vegetables, fish, tempe, tofu (bean curd), etc.  Before taking up painting, Handy produced three dimensional art works from food material from which he constructed a fish with fins made of vegetables or bananas, or a piece of tempe assuming a human pose, or a car made of tempe, and others.

In the two-dimensional realm Agung Fitriana also worked in a similar manner.  While Bayak and Handy are producing paintings of their three dimensional art works, Agung is painting scraps of words and sentences that were written on a white board and subsequently erased.  This resulted in images of colors, lines and text,  which he then painted back on canvas. In his works Agung shows indices that invite the viewer’s curiosity to read what was written. As a matter of fact, the objects that Agung presents in his paintings are things we often see, ordinary objects that may be considered junk. But in Agung’s paintings these neglected objects draw our attention, such as erased text that touches our memories together with the faint colors left behind by erased markers producing attractive aesthetic visual effects .

Kiki Rizky Soetisna Putri or Kimung as her friends call her is showing something else again.  She paints objects such as electricity cables and poles, such ordinary objects that we see around us, entangled in a mess, on the streets and buildings.  Things so ordinary, it would never enter our mind that a cluster of cables turns out to produce certain sensations in us.  Kimung again presents us with a series of electricity cables (that may have appeared to us merely as something that pollutes our view of the  sky above) that have become aesthetic objects reminding our imagination of certain past experiences.

Repainted objects (paintings of art objects) as produced by Bayak, Handy, Agung, and Kimung “present a dimension of interobjectivity in the relationship among the objects”  quoting Bambang Sugiharto.  It is almost unthinkable that those objects that are actually so common and ordinary in our daily life,  can contain such high aesthetic value. Repainting such objects may have a deeper meaning of “restoring the auras of those objects” (Bambang Sugiharto),and the relationship between the objects and their interrelationship with our daily activities. It appears as if being reminded that basically our relevance and relationship with those objects have become an integral part of our daily life.

Urban and Identity

Cundrawan presents us with a portrait of an urban city by painting a landscape of the city of Denpasar with its Balinese architecture standing side-by-side with shop houses together with their name boards and products. In his picture Cundrawan depicts two figures namely that of an older person and a child.  The two figures that appear photographed from the rear or from the side play a central role in Cundrawan’s paintings, in addition to the separation between a detailed realistic technique applied in painting the figures and a sketching technique for the colored background. In his painting entitled 24 hours” Cundrawan even dramatized the presence of the two human figures, where he presents the figure of a Caucasian holding his child in his arms while walking on the sidewalk in one of the corners of Kuta area. Next to the figure is a sketchy painting of a motorcycle riding around  whereas the name board of Circle-K, a 24 hour open shop, and various billboard are shown with realistic clarity while keeping the other parts blurred. Cundrawan is intentionally creating a depth between the figures and the urban city landscape showing, albeit blurred, Bali’s identity in its architecture.

Whereas Cundrawan’s paintings show two dramatized figures of an older person and a child while focusing on the urban landscape, a similarly searching context is presented by Wayan Hendra Kusuma in his paintings but within a different context.  Hendra focuses more on portraying the interaction of man within an urban space, particularly a busy main street without thereby placing importance to the identity of the city. Instead he emphasizes the interplay between the figure (object) painted realistically and a digital image in the background with a blurred and fuzzy effect. The focus that he takes does not originate from a photographic camera, but with the help of computer effects. An interesting emphasis in Hendra’s paintings is the focus of the picture such as an old female vendor walking next to her bicycle while being passed by a car and a motorcycle both intentionally painted blurry. In another painting Hendra presents a driver and his Dokar, a two wheeled, horse driven cab that are still found on the streets of Denpasar. This type of traditional transport vehicle is purposely allowed to operate in line with a city administration’s policy as part of the city’s cultural heritage for the benefit of tourism in Denpasar.

Gede Arta’s paintings are slightly different from Cundrawan’s and Hendra’s, the latter both focusing on representing urban life. In contrast Gede is more attracted to scenes in the rural areas.  In a village in Kintamani he portrays a figure of a Pekak or old wrinkled grandfather who still appears strong and fit. The figure of aon old grandfather whose face and appearance indicate that he is still productive and capable of working the land. Gede also realistically depicts the figure of the old grandfather while leaving the background blurred showing mountains that are characteristic to the geography of the Kintamani area. The picture of the old grandfather, strong and sturdy, portrays a  person who is still capable of performing productive work on the field demonstrating his capability of survival. Here Gede presents the simple and uncomplicated side of Bali’s beauty as an area blessed by being a touristic heaven.

Depth as presented by the three artists, shows the tension that exists to this day as a result of the urban conditions on Bali. This depth often presents a paradox between the modern and traditional both existing side by side with their own respective system of values, as well as a modified traditional in line with the growth of  tourism and its implications resulting from the social economical advancement.

Still around the urban problem, Ahmad Basuki from Semarang is demonstrating that with digital processing and manipulation of contrasting color compositions he can produce strong effects.  As to content, Basuki is portraying the activities of workers in a plastic factory where he is also working, whereas the other three artists play with sharp realism combined with fuzzy images to create depth.  Hence, Basuki’s works that are not entirely realistic – are not meant to show depth, his boldness in using a strong red in his painting Employee #3 can be considered rather as a search of visual effects than representing its content. The color red used to dominate the background abruptly has become central in this work, in addition to the artificial trickling intentionally added, succeeded in creating an increasingly attractive visual effect.

In his paintings, Adam Wahida is “playing” with visual symbols taken from the daily environment such as batik symbolizing the city of Solo (Central Java), a muslim head scarf and fashion, as well as other symbols. In his painting “Kudung (Ter) kurung” Adam presents a local cultural dilemma namely batik as part of the existing traditional garment (Solo) in its relevance to muslim female dress.  Adam places these symbols in a row and composes their relevance to issues which he is attempting to put forward, although those symbols do not directly speak about those issues.  Adam intentionally plays with a frontal composition wrapped in two different symbols positioned next to each other in order to find their relevance.  Adam presents a reality that we are facing today by showing the two symbol next to each other, regardless of their relevance and their differences, they both compete for recognition and demanding attention.

The World of Images

Singgih Adi Prasetyo presents figures which he names Okto, in the form of bees that in their course of life undergo an evolution.  During a certain phase hands and feet grow out of the body, and they even talk.  Okto can also perform various activities, they can play and can act like human beings.  In his works Singgih  is saying that “this is the initial stage in Okto’s life” an imaginary being he created following his experience of being stung by a bee. Nobody expected that this experience made such an impression on Singgih inspiring him to create the figure of Okto.

Mochammad Salafi Handoyo “Rido” shows images about the world of children, full of freedom and happiness. This was the most important feeling he experienced in his life when he had a child. This experience awoke an conscious awareness and aroused his imagination about his own childhood experience, which subsequently brought forward an awareness in his creations. Rido attempts to reconstruct his childhood experience through his position as a father. Slowly and one by one he compose those memories and realities into his paintings, ultimately resulting in collages comprising figures of clowns, little children, a ball, a bicycle, a dog, a cat, and a playhouse positioned side by side in his paintings. Adding bright and contrasting colors, he integrates them with a drawing technique using a ballpoint pen thereby creating a distinct character in his works.

Dewa Wirya obtained his inspiration from “melayangan” or flying kites according to Balinese tradition that originated from an agricultural culture and grew into a yearly festival.  Like most children raised in the Balinese culture Dewa used to enjoy playing with kites in the rice fields with friends of his age and even  with adults. In his further development, this kite flying tradition gave birth to a creativity and an art of its own. Kites are now seen in a variety of creative forms and during the festival this creativity is presented and evaluated for their creativity and subsequently given an award.  Dewa raised this artistic creativity of the kite-flying festival in his works, the artistic forms considered different from “serious” art. In his painting Dewa presents a conventional Bebean kite and also a creative kite in the form of Patrick, a cartoon character from the animation series SpongeBob loved by children.

Tri Wahyudi, a young artist from Solo presents sketches of stories about weddings and of loneliness that she tells through naïve cartoon characters of her own creation. Those characters she created although they appear quite attractive with their shapely bodies and wide eyes, in fact they do not look funny and even tend to come across as being satirical. Trough these characters Yudi means to present the issue of urban young children full of paradoxes with passion and joy in which another side is hidden containing fear and terror. If this is not clearly recognized it will culminate in negative implications for the future generation.  Yudi presents quite unique contents, unlike other paintings that contain strong contents. In her works Yudi is able to present form and content that together are no less in strength.

Rofikin from Semarang presents an apple, a banana and a mannequin in close interaction playing with the apple in entangled lines resulting from the effects of colored strokes. The effects of these strokes form a composition of twisting lines that cross and meet each other thereby creating imaginary spaces which sometimes appear real.

Tradition and the Digital Era

Irfan Winoto “Dechan” brings forward a traditional wayang (shadow puppet) story with its characters such as Hanuman (the white monkey from the Ramayana epic), Dursasana, and others presented in a setting of digital games.   He converts the setting of the story into the realm of a Sega computer game (the earlier 2D games version) and presents it on canvas. His painting about the wayang game is quite interesting as it provides us with images about what it would be like seeing them on a monitor screen. It is as if these static scenes shown as wayang games in most of his paintings are able to draw us into a limitless space of imagination, not our physical selves but our minds.

Close to Rido, Ratri Inayatul Basyarah also presents images from her childhood through cartoon figures describing scenes where she played with her friends.  Interesting about Ratri’s painting is that she shows the figures of children in overlays with ornaments that became the background of her work.  In her works Ratri shows layers, in which the first layer shows figures of children and the second layer ornaments. Ornaments are considered a decorative tradition and a crime in modern art.  The two layers are painted as overlays and emphasize the decorative character of her paintings.

The paintings of artists presented in this exhibition not only represent a search for visual effects and techniques, but they also show contents taken from issues they encounter every day.

Translated by: Eddie R. Notowidigdo

http://www.ProZ/com/profile/124234

Lokasi: Elcanna Gallery Jakarta Indonesia.