A bride's interpretation of the apocalypse

A bride's interpretation of the apocalypse

By Chandra Johan

JAKARTA (JP): In contemporary art, especially in the genre of
installations, the work of art, the exhibition room, the artist
and the curator are inseparably intertwined.

Take the installation project of Pangaradeon Ni Oroan (The
Bride's Preparation), which is at the Lontar Gallery in East
Jakarta until March 17. The artist, Alce Ully Panjaitan, cannot
be separated from the exhibition room, the objects and the
curator, Jim Supangkat.

Asikin Hasan, a curator of Lontar Gallery, calls the project
"an installation of poetic space". Indeed, space is important
here. The objects on display stem from seven separate
installations, which are bound in a narration which is not
linear. That is why we must not expect the seven installations to
be in harmony; in Alce's work, the problem of aesthetics is not
among the main issues.

It took Alce a year and a half to prepare the exhibition with
the help of Jim Supangkat, an independent curator and serious art
critic who pays a lot of attention to contemporary arts. He
happens to be Alce's husband, and the couple make a good team.

The installation project apparently focuses on the problem of
meaning and semiotics. Take, for example, an installation of a
cupboard with its collection from the past. You might think that
the cupboard is a part of the gallery's accessories. But let's
put aside perceptions about art which are limited to paintings
and other artistic objects: The cupboard, with its old
collection, will bring you to the problem of meaning
(interpretation, association and perception). As Jim Supangkat
puts it, Pangaradeon Ni Oroan really depends on the viewers'
interpretation and association. It is just like dark or vague
poetry, and its darkness at the end will become an open text for
interpretation.

Pangaradeon Ni Oroan consists of seven installations:
Instalasi I: Apocalypse, Instalasi II: Surat-surat Cinta (Love
Letters), Instalasi III: Tiga Konteks Perempuan (Three Contexts
of Women), Instalasi IV: Histeri dan Ekstasi (Hysteria and
Ecstasy), Instalasi V: Perkawinan Roh (The Spiritual Marriage),
Installation VI and Instalasi VII: Lemari Kaca (Glass Cupboard).

In the first installation, Apocalypse, or The Seven Spirits in
Asia, there are seven porcelain bottles containing oil, which are
placed in a circular formation on the floor. Some dried flowers
are sprinkled among the seven bottles, creating a pattern of a
star with seven corners. Without an understanding of the
apocalypse in the Bible, it is hard to catch the symbolic meaning
in that work. Apocalypse, as written by John, is an ancient
symbol which is interpreted as the end of the world.

Alce seems to be interested in Apocalypse spiritualism, a
warning of the parishioners of the seven churches in little Asia,
which was made by John before he was isolated on Patmos island.
Is The Seven Spirits in Asia about the end of the world?

Alce said: "The end of the world according to my point of view
is the time when Christ is leaving and Christ is coming and we,
in this period, are living at the end of an era."

Whatever the background of the statement, The Seven Spirits In
Asia inspired her to make the next space installation.
Installation II: Love Letters, which shows her realm of her soul,
which is inspired by Khalil Gibran's thoughts, especially through
a book called Broken Wings. It tells us about his love for May
Ziadah which did not happen physically but spiritually. Some
ceramic discs are presented to express the spiritual love between
Gibran and May Ziadah. To Alce, a spiritual relation dims the
relation between femininity and masculinity. Helped by Asmujo
Irianto, a curator and ceramic artist in Bandung, Alce created
ceramic discs of 40 cm x 50 cm and scratched them with Gibran's
text. The seven ceramic discs are arranged and hung in the room.

Three Contexts of Women are three hangings of dresses, with
ladies' dresses hung with several tools and Batak traditional
symbols. The attributes on the dress show three female contexts
in life, as a virgin, a wife and a widow. Above the footing, she
has hung three white, female masks (made of fiber resin) showing
the character of a virgin, a wife and a widow. Through the
traditional Batak symbols, the virgin's attributes are symbolized
with banyan tree leaves scattered around them. In Batak
traditional ritual dances, called manortor, there is one session
in which the males have an opportunity to pin one leaf of a
banyan tree on a virgin's hair as a sign of love. If the virgin
refuses, the leaf will be thrown on the ground.

In the other mask, we are presented with traditional symbols
like headbands as a symbol of marriage, and ulos (shawl) with a
pattern denoting that the wearer is a widow.

In her fourth and fifth installations, Alce also uses ceramics
as a medium to express her ideas. Spiritual Marriage features
ceramic disks in the form of rolling letters, hung above
scattered broken ceramic pieces and three masks symbolizing a
virgin, a wife and a widow, like in Installation III.

The last two installations are an endless meditation for Alce.
The cupboard contains accessories and Alce's old photographs and
pieces of an open window, which is both her inward and outward
looking introspection.

It is quite difficult to understand Alce's work without
reading the accompanying text. Here lies the role of a
contemporary work of art, to facilitate interpretation of the
message through a book and local traditions through liquid
symbols. Alce's work is a kind of new text that is open for
multiple interpretations.