Artist Agus Suwage's identical revelations

Artist Agus Suwage's identical revelations

Carla Bianpoen, Contributor, Jakarta

At a time of widespread bickering and finger-pointing, Agus
Suwage's latest works may come as a welcome alternative. "Instead
of finding fault with other people, let's go within our own
selves and do some introspection," says Suwage.

In his second solo exhibition at Nadi Gallery, Suwage unfolds
sixteen paintings in a display titled Channel of Desires.

In what might have been a boring succession of multiple
duplication of his own face, the collection in this display,
nevertheless, succeeds in attracting the attention.

The way Suwage uses different colors and adds only one or two
extra visual gestures of other body parts to the same face on
different canvases may just be his mode of saying how little
things can have great potential to affect a person, partly or
totally - temporarily or forever.

Thus his Blessing-1 and 2 paintings present Suwage's face,
with closed eyes, blissfully indulging in what looks like rain
drops. The first canvas is dominated by yellow, with the color
reflecting on the face, while the second shows the same image,
but now in pink.

White dots suggest the raindrops or a gush of blessing coming
from above. By letting the hands grasp his throat, and changing
the overall color to blackish in combination with red for the
dots, the image of bliss transforms into one of stifling
hardship, like in Too much heaven.

Spilling milk over one's head may give anyone a shocking
surprise. For Agus Suwage, however, it's like having a beauty
bath, the way Cleopatra maintained her milky skin. It was enough
reason to imagine the royalty and the noble blooded, so he
colored the splash in gold and named his face Luxury Gold, while
giving the splash a blue color made the title Royal Blue.

Another variation shows three canvases carrying the title No
Evil Ltd., with hands alternately covering the eyes, the ears and
the mouth in reference of a Buddhist teaching that says to find
your inner self it's best not to see, not to hear and not to say
anything. If one doesn't, one may end up in frustration cringing
up the wall, as expressed in the blue canvas called Reptile where
a man is seen, scratching the wall with his fingers in a position
that suggests great anguish.

"I was looking at the way a cicak (house lizard) was finding
its way," says Suwage. Imagery and imagination can be as simple
as that!

If Suwage's works tended to be mostly linked to prevailing
injustice and violence, today he seems to give preference to
seeking a state of peace and self reflection.

Surrendering to such desires, he channels his emotions to
counting his blessings. Perhaps this is the wisest thing to do in
certain situations, but in Suwage's case there is also an element
of dialectic truth.

He likes to imagine himself as being someone else, or being in
a situation different from his own. That is how Jesus in Simbol
Biru takes a ballet pose instead of the usual image of
crucifixion. In the same vein, the goat to be slaughtered in
Qurban is postured as the artist in comical protest.

Meanwhile, Suwage, who tends to detach himself from teachings
and preaching, is of the opinion that not all learning has an
immediate effect of enlightening. Like a dark room where pitch
black gradually becomes lighter, the brain too needs time to
absorb. Belajar dari Kegelapan, a canvas, depicting a blackboard
with criss-cross text amidst four heads emerging in progressive
focus, is about all that.

On a lighter note, Agus shows his obsession with music, one
with the old fashioned guitar in flagrant contrast to the
advanced digital instrument of today as in Fruity Loops and one
going up the ladder in Stairway to Paradiso.

"What is art and what is it not?" asks Suwage in a 5-panel
painting in which he pictures himself the way a convict is
photographed for identification.

The difference is his half nakedness, with only underpants to
cover his vital parts, while the head is hidden under colorful
paint in a would-be accentuation. Fragile shows Suwage's body
with tattoo-like decorations, which however represents motifs as
occurring on specific chinaware, apparently a hint to man's
fragile condition. Placing Edvard Munch's famous painting on his
tongue like in Ketika Munch Menjerit di Jembatan (When Munch
screams on the bridge) might just be a joke.

What, indeed, is art? In the case of Agus Suwage, it's about
his face and his body. It starts with taking a picture of
himself, in any pose of his liking. Potentially multiplied to a
desirable number of copies, it shouldn't take too long for paint
and brush to do the "make up" according to what the image should
represent. This mode may sprout from recalcitrance, not unlike
earlier examples in art history.

As evident from his poster-like works, Agus Suwage is first
and foremost a graphic designer who has had 10-years experience
with commercial art before he ventured into his current
profession as an artist. He has participated in numerous
exhibitions and his works hang on the walls of fans at home and
abroad.

The Channel of Desires exhibition will run until Oct. 8, 2002,
at Nadi Gallery, Jl. Kedoya Raya 53, Jakarta, Phone 58 18 129.