Naivete liberates the paintings of Erica Hestu Wahyuni<\/p>\n
By R. Fadjri<\/p>\n
YOGYAKARTA (JP): Children's sketches and drawings, whether put
\ndown in disorderly strokes or in sweeps of merry colors, have an
\nhonesty of infinite dimensions in the leaps of fantasy they make
\non canvass or paper. Personality and intellectual development at
\nan early age liberates children from expressing themselves in
\nsophisticated ways. Simple strokes to build simple forms and the
\nuse of basic colors denote a plain line of thinking. On the other
\nhand, a child's dream world may emerge in the fantasies arising
\nfrom colors and forms.<\/p>\n
Children's drawings are a response to their surroundings. The
\nchild's empirical and psychological world should hone his or her
\ninstincts to play around in the world he or she knows, or even in
\ntotally strange environments. It is how they learn to know their
\nenvironment, or learn to communicate within their environment.
\nThis phenomenon in children does not differ from those of
\nartistic adults. The only difference is that adults put the
\nexperimental and psychological world in a more complex frame. The
\nresult? Creative expressions arising from complex minds.<\/p>\n
Erica Hestu Wahyuni is no exception. She deploys a childlike
\ntechnique as a deliberate choice of expression. Her solo
\nexhibition to be held at Purna Budaya building, Yogyakarta,
\nfrom Sept. 21 to Sept. 27, has added to the number of painters to
\nthis naive genre. A few names include Eddie Hara, Herry Dono and
\nFaizal. The expressions of childlike images on canvasses of these
\npainters were inspired by simplicity, merriment, the dream world
\nand the playful spirit of children.<\/p>\n
However, the childlikeness in the works of adults is a
\nfabrication, the result of complex engineering of various
\nelements.<\/p>\n
However, it looks as if Erica has decided to follow her own
\npath. The mother of one, she has no intention of letting
\nadulthood or her education at the Arts Department of the
\nIndonesian Art Institute in Yogyakarta, engineer her childlike
\nimage into a complex creation.<\/p>\n
Erica's works appear more as paintings of children in an
\noptimum processing stage of development than that of the works of
\nan adult exploring childlike images. The source of Erica's ideas
\nare closely connected with her family and environment. Her
\nromantic relationship with her own self, her child and her
\nhusband, is repeated in her association with a TV set, a jar, a
\ncupboard or a painting.<\/p>\n
Inanimate things come to life in her paintings, diffusing a
\nwarmth or arousing a wave of emotion. Here the things are no
\nlonger merely objects. They have become objects with strong,
\nprivate and emotional connections for Erica.<\/p>\n
We are reminded of how children treat their kin or everyday
\nobjects. We have heard a child talk to his or her bear or toy
\ncar, as if these objects have a soul of their own. The items are
\ntransformed into close friends.<\/p>\n
Erica's family is her world, which is an infinite source for
\nher works. Erica has experienced numerous incidents in her daily
\nlife as a housewife, all happening within the restrictions of her
\ngarden fence in Yogyakarta. Her work Watching Television (1992)
\nwas inspired when the family sat together in front of the TV. Her
\npainting Home Sweet Home I (1993), is of her husband watching TV
\nwhile her child kept her company. Home Sweet Home II (1993),
\ndepicts her busy in the kitchen and watching the TV at the same
\ntime while her child whined for something.<\/p>\n
Fly To The Gold Space (1993) shows a flying man carrying a
\nchild and a woman on his back. There is also a painting showing a
\ncouple and a small child on TV as another female of more generous
\nproportions appears to scrutinize fragments spread over the
\ncanvass through squinting eyes. This narrative of happiness and
\npleasant family life might be a fragment of Erica's own
\nexperience, or a psychological part of reality.<\/p>\n
All her paintings are done with simple lines in prime colors,
\npossibly obtained from a felt tipped marker or crayons. We do not
\nmeet shade mixtures in Erica's paintings.<\/p>\n
The naive style in modern art was started by the late
\nSoedjojono, an authority on modern painting in Indonesia who
\nendeavored to preserve the Indonesian character in the art of
\nIndonesian painting.<\/p>\n
Soedjojono's advice to young painters at the time was to paint
\nas someone who had never painted before, or to draw as a child
\nwhose expressions are still uncluttered and pure. The purity
\ntypical of children could be the medium by which genuine purity
\nin the Indonesian painting art may be reached.<\/p>\n
Nearly all the special traits found in children's drawings are
\npresent in Erica's paintings. For instance, painted objects are
\nmade transparent, showing the inside of the house and all its
\ncontents. Her paintings may also take the space concept, for
\ninstance, where the nearest item is placed at the bottom part of
\nthe painting, and objects further away are found in the upper
\nregions of the work. Aside from this, plain forms in Erica's
\npaintings resemble the efforts of a child, rather than a deformed
\nmodel made by adult hands.<\/p>\n
This is the difference between Erica's works and those of
\nother artists who follow the naive style as a form of expression.
\nIt was not at all surprising that Erica's works were chosen as a
\ntherapy for mentally handicapped children at the Bergen Institute
\nin Schoorl, the Netherlands.<\/p>\n
Erica's approach is like a strong emotional display refusing
\nto let go of the romantic period of her childhood. It tells of
\nlife lived in honesty, a simple life colored with beautiful
\ndreams. It is life which should rightly be owned by toddlers,
\nthough people have the right to mind them and possess them to the
\nbest of their ability.<\/p>\n
Erica's childhood may have been a simple one, as simple as a
\nchild's expression. In adulthood, however, it is this childhood
\nthat casts a richness over all her paintings.<\/p>",
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