Traverse
ISA Art & Design is honoured to present Traverse, an exhibition of twenty two Indonesian artists from three distinct generations: A.D Pirous, Agus Suwage, Arahmaiani, Bandu Darmawan, Dini Nur Aghnia, Dolorosa Sinaga, Eric Paurizi, Etza Meisyara, Handiwirman Saputra, I GAK Murniasih, Jeffi Kefas Manzani, Luh Gede, Marisa R.NG, Monica Hapsari, Oky Rey Montha, Septian Harriyoga, Sinta Tantra, Talitha Maranilla, and Yaya Sung. We are proudly contributing this exhibition for Art Moments Jakarta Online (AMJO), Jakarta’s first hybrid art fair.
Images : Fachrian Kusuma
Traverse will launch on 4 June until 30 June 2021, at ISA Art and Design, Wijaya Timur Raya No.12, Jakarta. This residential-style gallery provides a warm reception and comfortable environment in which the gallery visitors may enjoy the artworks. The semi-enclosed space means that the viewers will be able to completely immerse themselves in the exhibition, surrounding themselves with the creations of some of Indonesia’s finest artists.
This exhibition is a journey of sorts; the collection traverses the bounds of time, material, and convention. Each artist is multi-disciplinary and diverse in their ideas and talents both. A crossing of boundaries, Traverse provides a space to examine each artist’s practice, in which the public can analyze, compare, and therefore benefit from this exchange of ideas.
ISA Art & Design has curated the exhibition to highlight new-media art - combining technology with the fine arts. Indonesian contemporary artists are embracing this new form of art-making, no longer limiting themselves to what the convention dictates, expressing their ideas in new, ingenious ways.
Not only does the exhibition pay tribute to Indonesia’s established and iconic artists, but in addition, together, the artists of both the previous and current generations weave together a tapestry of beauty, activism, and self-expression throughout Indonesia’s modern history.
We aim to not only boost Indonesia’s reputation as the home of a rapidly growing creative industry, but the appreciation for individual local artists as well. We hope that Traverse will be a way for them to expand their network and improve their career trajectory in the art world.
Arahmaiani
Arahmaiani, (b.1961, Yogyakarta) is one of Indonesia’s most seminal and respected contemporary visual artists. She established herself in the 1980s as a pioneer in the Southeast Asia Performance Art scene, although her practice also incorporates a wide variety of media. Arahmaiani frequently uses art as a means of critical commentary on social, religious, and cultural issues. For the past 10 years, a particular focus of her work has been environmental issues in the Tibetan plateau region, where she has been actively collaborating on-site with Buddhist monks and villagers to foster greater environmental consciousness through an array of ongoing community projects.
In Bandung, she became active in the experimental art group Sumber Waras (Source of Wellbeing or Source of Sanity, 1988–89) with other ITB students and graduates. The creative exploration in Sumber Waras consolidated her development as a performance artist. Sumber Waras and similar performance art collectives that emerged in Bandung in the late 1980s and early 1990s, including Perengkel Jahe (1991–94), have been categorized retrospectively, since the mid-1990s, under the umbrella of the Sundanese performance art genre of Jeprut. Arahmaiani confirms that her career development is “the result of the seeds that were planted in the Jeprut era” and that its “development has not only brought personal benefit but has extended to the environment and the community”.
Agus Suwage
Agus Suwage is an artist born on April 14, 1959. As one of the most prominent figures in the discussion of contemporary Indonesian art, he is known for his unique ideas and his way of portraying them. Throughout his 25-year career Suwage has built a name for himself for addressing socio-cultural topics with both cynicism and irony. He jumps from material to material and from theme to theme, always keeping an eye out for things that can trigger his inspiration. He splices together common images, objects, and motifs through drawing, painting, installation, and digital art. The beginning of his exploration in the fine arts leaned towards social commentary, and in the most recent years he has been investigating existential questions, specifically regarding life and death. In particular, he uses the imagery of skeletons and skulls in a majority of his artworks, to explore the themes of existence, life, and death; Too Young to Die, Too Old to Rock and Roll uses this imagery as well, collaging a skull with two CDs. Suwage’s art, as well as he himself, "is largely devoted to life, its absurdity as well as its pleasures," as said by Jim Supangkat and Biljana Ciric, both art curators and critics.
A.D Pirous
A.D. Pirous (b. 1931) is best known for his calligraphy painting inspired by Islamic scripture and his exploration of textures through etchings, serigraphy and masterful employment of modelling paste. In his earlier works, Pirous experimented widely in styles, techniques and paintings elements, employing unconventional mediums like jute and wielding thick brush strokes with a diverse colour palette to preserve metaphorical abstraction.
Dolorosa Sinaga
Dolorosa Sinaga (b.1953, North Sumatra), is a female sculptor. Dolorosa Sinaga graduated from the Jakarta Arts Institute in 1977 and then continued her studies at St. Petersburg. Martin’s School of Art, London, Karnarija Lubliyana, Yugoslavia, and the San Francisco Art Institute and the University of Maryland, United States. Most of her sculptures tell stories about women, symbolizing illusion and loyalty, crisis, solidarity, multiculturalism, and women’s struggle against violence. Dolorosa has received several awards and recognition for her achievements in Indonesia, including the Cultural Adhikarya Image Award and the 2009 Art Award from the Republic of Indonesia’s Government. She was then appointed Dean of the Jakarta Arts Institute.
Dolorosa Sinaga already in her 60s, is involved in many social activities and meetings, teaches classes at the Jakarta Arts Institute (IKJ) and works on various sculptural projects. For her, art is her life, a way to express her emotions and ease her mind but most importantly, a medium for social advancement. Dolorosa is now actively organizing exhibitions that showcase the works of young sculptors which are based on research methodology.
Eddie Hara
Eddie Hara is a contemporary visual artist. He is mainly working with acrylic on canvas. His work — inspired by Street Art, children’s drawings and Punk music — is well recognized in Asia, especially Eastern Asia. Since several decades, he is living and working in Basel, Switzerland. Eddie Hara works is created as a response or a kind of reflections of his unique personality : humorous, a bit childish, trendy, friendly yet also very prominent and professional in making through his journey as an international artist.
At least that is what we can take as the clue in appreciating his works, especially the visualizations of metamorphic creatures, bizarre animals and monsters that sometimes can appear funny, happy but also can bring out anger.
Eddie Hara’s art is characterized as “colourful, layered works [that] are a clash between children's innocence and raw street life”. It is “a mixture of fresh wildness of children's mischievous fantasies and the more generic raw art in his works, eventually emerging to a new painting genre.” The street mural-like compositions retain a whimsical, childlike quality as he arranges cartoon, symbols, and bright colours on top of each other, tied together by bold lines and dripping paint. He deals with themes of contemporary culture and subcultures; the absurdity of daily life in the 21st century.
Eric Paurizi
Erik Pauhrizi is a Bandung artist who focuses on themes of post-colonialism and decolonialism, human representation in media and culture, and the relationships between eastern and western cultures, immigrants, and different nationalities. He uses a variety of mediums including text, drawing, painting, photography, video art, and installation.
Stating that he believes art should be beautiful in and of itself and free from the standards of Western culture, he aims to unravel “art colonialism” by continuing his own craft. The artist takes common symbols of Western art and media, such as characters from pop culture, and puts his own twist on them.
Handiwirman
Born in Bukkittinggi, West Sumatra, Handiwirman Saputra is a co-founder of the Jendala Art Group. Alongside Etang Wiharso, Christine Ay Tjoe, Rudi Mantofani and other colleagues from the Institut Seni Indonesia, these Post-Reformist artists adopted mundane materials as a basis for artistic exploration. Often seen as reactionary following the politicised production of artists under the Suharto regime, Jendala artists provoke formalist readings by critics yet have collectively addressed a range of concerns. Saputra himself works between installation and painting. His use of found objects are often suggestive of events, landscapes and images but in themselves resist any connotations of symbolism and metaphor.
The work emerges from Handiwirman Saputra's Pose series of paintings executed in 2004 where he explores the tactile relation between two objects - a recognisable and commonplace object and a unrecognisable amorphous form - that in real life would evoke broadly similar perceptions concerning their materiality. The painterly interest undertaken emerges from a purely aesthetic pursuit, a exercise constituted in itself to befriend and acquaint objects. Not prising into the social lives or buried histories of objects, instead, Handiwirman paints the objects in the picture plane with meticulous scrupulousness, seeking to evoke and enjoy their presences as simply objects - objects with a certain physicality and material presence.
Bandu Darmawan
Bandu Darmawan hails from Cilacap, Indonesia, and had studied Intermedia Arts at the Bandung Institute of Technology. He often experiments with a diverse range of mediums. His interest in variety means that he is not fixated on one particular medium, believing that every distinct message needs to be delivered through a distinct medium.
We are able to see when light enters our eyes and is captured by the retina. Though, not all light are captured equally; some are so important that they are framed as memories. In this work, Bandu frames shadows, inviting the audience to question why certain lights are considered more significant than others. Bandu maintains that using technology as a medium for art helps break people out from the role of passive consumers, who merely accept the progression of technology, instead of taking an active role to utilize it in some way.
Ella Wijt
Born in Jakarta in 1990, Ella Wijt began making art in 1993 and actively showing work in public shows in 2005. Her work explores topics on religion and womanhood that are expressed through painting, performance art, installation and photography.
Ella’s works are an interpretation of the people she meets, mythology, and womanhood, expressed through paintings and site-specific installations. In the studio, she may question, doubt, and come to conclusions through an intuitive process; an open conversation. This process of creating moves her between memory and possibility; her work then reveals its story as she lays out forms, lines, colors and composition. Ella also enjoys cleaning the home, cooking with friends, watching the grass grow, and rearranging things in the studio.
Gabriel Aries
GABRIEL ARIES setiadi (b. 1984) completed his studies at the Department of Fine Art, Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB). He then completed his master's degree also at the Fine Art Study Program, Bandung Institute of Technology. Gabriel focusing on explores the inclusion of new materials into his artistic practice that previously concentrated in stone carving. The inclusion of polyresin and acrylic sheets enables him to discuss contradiction and opposition, and the possibilities to establish balance and harmony from two contradictory entities.
Monica Hapsari
Monica Hapsari was born on 1983 in Jakarta, Indonesia. Currently, she is a part time illustrator, part time fashion stylist and a full time wonderer. In 2002 she studied in Institut Teknologi Bandung, majoring in Kria Tekstil. Monica Hapsari is a multidisciplinary artist, based in Jakarta. Her hand-embroidered objects and revolving kinetic installation traverse time by bridging the forgotten wisdom of ancient mysticism with modern scientific inquiries.
Oky Rey Montha
Oky Rey Montha was born into an artistic household, and had grown up surrounded by creatives. “The Yogyakarta-born artist is now part of a generation whose work is inspired by images from various media but is then provided with its own narratives that lean toward fantastic tales”.
He is especially inspired by both darker styles as well as “innocent” cartoons, and merges the two together in his unique artworks. Oky’s art style is defined by showcasing the polar opposite of semiotics or: contradictions of the popular icons that he often uses. He describes his personal style of work as ‘pop surrealism’. He also takes his personal experiences - issues surrounding personal relationships, family, and friends especially - and tries to apply them to broader, universal experiences.
Marissa R.NG
Born in Selangor, Malaysia in 1977, Marisa Ng is a full time artist who earned her Certificate Of Figurative Art from the National Academy of Art, Culture & Heritage, Malaysia. Marisa derives most of her work from the attachment that she felt towards her Ah Ma (grandmother) who suffered from cancer. Having a special connection with her growing up, Marisa describes her fondness of her abstractionist brush stroke as a personification of the way her Ah Ma cooked in the kitchen. 'Spontaneous but purposeful' and likes to get things done quickly. She values her leisure time to the extent that every line, dots and patches of color are poured upon the canvas with the intensity of the brush strokes aligned with the conversations and the emotional significance that she treasures in her heart and memory.
Marisa knows exactly when a peace is completed as she describes the quote by Robert Henri (1865-1929) 'The stroke which marks the path of a rocket into the sky maybe only a few inches long, but the spirit of the artist has travelled a thousand feet at the moment he made that stroke.' She currently resides in Malaysia and has exhibited her works in a numerous exhibitions throughout the country.
Septian Harriyoga
Septian Harriyoga received his B.A. (Bachelor of Arts) degree in Sculpture Department
from Bandung Institute of Technology in 2004. His works mainly use andesite stone, aluminum, duralumin and steel. Septian started to experimenting with kinetic art since 2009 and have studied its mechanic since 1998. Those aspects became his interest and influence for his kinetic works. sculpture artists who love biomorphics and mechanics, creating works as meditation. To pursue photography as an idea and process in creating works.
Sinta Tantra
Drawing strongly upon a vibrant palette influenced by her Balinese heritage, Sinta Tantra began her career producing pieces composed of intricately cut vinyl and painted designs. Reflection, symmetry and exotic motifs were common in her public artworks.
Highly regarded for her site-specific murals and installations in the public realm, most of her work envisions the concept of drawing and color. While color encourages us to become immersed into a world of otherness, drawing explores the slippage between the two and three dimensions – the clarity of line, its distortion, push and pull. The paintings examine the activity of drawing itself, physically linking the disciplines of painting together with architecture on a single canvas plane. Colored motifs stand, collapse, float – pictorial spaces move towards and away from the viewer. Tantra asks the question, can painting become architecture? Can architecture become a painting?
Musicality, rhythm and colors, dichotomies of masculine and feminine, direction and scale define Tantra’s abstractions. For Tantra, there is no question that “art feeds our minds, our souls and affirms identity. To support the arts is to support the very essence of what makes us human.
Yaya Sung
Yaya Sung (b.1986) A visual artist, born in Jakarta - Indonesia. She has been engaged in the contemporary art scene since 2006. In her work, Yaya explores areas such as: questioning her identity as a Chinese descendant in Indonesia that went through racial discrimination during Indonesia’s 32 years of dictatorship. Her works, Examining Kamisan acts (a silent protest held every Thursday outside presidential palace in Jakarta), Rediscovering history relate to Anti-Chinese riots in 1998, and the destruction of the women’s movement in 1965. Her medium of expression varies from photography, image/photo-based installation, videography, performance, to text and design installation.
She is keen to explore cross-discipline collaborations, experimenting with the limits and boundaries of being an artist. Yaya is determined to use fear and trauma as the first door to understand the meaning of her existence. Yaya actively participates in art projects, exhibitions, residencies (both local and international)
AY Sekar F.
AY Sekar F (b.1993), works as a part-time artist and full-time textile designer for her own clothing line as well as a freelance lecturer at Telkom University, with a focus on textile experimental and fashion manufacturing subjects. Having an education in fashion and crafts, textiles and a master of fine arts, Sekar often uses design and research methodologies as artistic ideas and practices. Traditional objects and social phenomena are often the subject of discussion in her art, which is expressed through media such as paper, textiles and installations. She became more well versed in Indonesian textiles, particularly with the traditional craft of batik.
Her work explores the relationship between static patterns and dynamic patterns abstracted into formal forms. With a background as a batik artist, she adapted the traditional scale in classical batik to create a pattern represented through dynamic ornaments to create a certain meaning. She encourages viewers to imagine through the forms that are created from the relationship of these patterns, opening the possibility of whatever impressions are shown.
Dini Nur Aghnia
Dini Nur Aghnia is an emerging artist currently studying at the Institut Seni Indonesia in Yogyakarta. Taking from bio-organic materials, she forms vibrant landscapes sculpted from discs composed of a mixture of corn flour and clay. Dini’s works are a discussion of familiar geographies around her and also a way of capturing the landscapes that she believes are often overlooked. Her brightly-coloured depictions of the Indonesian landscape highlight the small victories we should be grateful for each passing day.
Her artistic practice moves her to intensely observe the daily glories in her surrounding environment in Yogyakarta- from ruggedd mountains to sprawling fields. Which eternally change depending on the time of day. Yet, Dini expresses the natural environment she sees every day in a fresh, evocative way, forming textured, vividly colored landscapes comprised of myriad small disks made out of synthetic clay. She uses her medium to portray how each captured moment, from dawn to dusk, exist in her memory, and even in frozen pictures, only in fragments, pixels. Veering away from painting a complete, fixed image, Dini’s landscapes encourage one to become fully immersed in the subtleties of the present, knowing that the wonders of every moment can never be truly recreated.
Etza Meisyara
Born in 1991 in Bandung, Indonesia, Etza Meisyara is interested in art’s potential to express humanist values. Her foray into the visual art was through the Intermedia Art Studio program at the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), where she graduated with a Masters in Art in 2016. Etza continues to infuse her childhood passion in music through projects that combine sound art, installation and performance. She has participated in group presentations such as ARTJOG MMXIX ‘Arts in Common’ (Yogyakarta, Indonesia), ‘AURORA’ (Liverpool, England, 2018) and the 2016 KLANG KUNST Sound Art Festival (Braunschweig, Germany). In 2017, Etza was a recipient of the fifth Bandung Contemporary Art Award (BaCaa), a biannual art prize presented by ArtSociates and Lawangwangi Art Space. Past BaCaa winners include Aditya Novali and Syaiful Aulia Garibaldi.
Inspired by printmaking classes during her study exchange in Germany, Etza’s recent works explore the alchemical qualities of copper etching plates. ‘Pursuit of the Horizon’ (2018) is an example which combines photo etching techniques with chemical processes, to create a luminous landscape scene. For the artist, this oxidation process is akin to the release of emotions. The negative charge that produces vibrant hues on the metal surface is a metaphor for feelings of melancholia spurred by being away from home.
Jeffi Kefas Manzani
Jeffi Kefas Manzani a recent graduate from Prasetiya Mulya Business School, Active in art collective name Blanco Benz Atelier consists of Jeffi Manzani, William Samosir and Yura Kenn Kusnar. Collectively they create individual and collaborative work through the lens of digital images, virtual and three-dimensional worlds using Blender, Python and image compositing software.
Luh Gede Gita Sangita Yasa
Luh Gede Gita Sangita Yasa is a recent graduate from Institut Teknologi Bandung. Majoring in Fine Arts, she works primarily with oils, watercolor, graphite and sometimes resin. She often employs bold colors and composition in a juxtaposing manner. Her recent works struggle to create a perfect cohesive whole, an ‘ideal reality’ out of fragments from memories, dreams and mundane routines, a sensible narrative out of these divergent parts.
Talitha Maranila
Born and raised in Jakarta, Talitha went on to pursue her studies at Lasalle College International. Half of her childhood in the 90’s was spent with her grandfather, who was a doctor and instilled in her a strong interest in biology and science. Her natural inclination brought her to the fine arts, but his influence is still very present throughout her body of work. Talitha’s aim is to infuse and project aspects of science and spirituality through her art. She considers her creative work to be a manifestation of her spirituality. She explores the possible worlds we could create through the help of science and art, and what each discipline could do to reflect society’s issues and perhaps affect political responses.
Having engaged with diverse religions and cultures, her work is inspired by their visual symbols and cues -- yet rearranges them into new, conceptually layered installations. The choice of materials in her work is uncalculated. She often finds herself in avenues of the unexpected; adding an ironic twist to familiar scenes and provoking the spectator to new and perhaps unexplored territories. Her arrangements are schematic and invite the viewer to leave certainty and move into a space of speculation She relies on our innate desires for beauty, poetics and seduction. Since starting her professional career in 2012, Talitha has produced numerous commissioned projects in public spaces, as well as many commercial projects and Exhibitions both locally and internationally.
Text : Miranti Dian
Proof Read : Kekoa and Deborah Iskandar
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