Artist Nindityo Adipurnomo inspired by hair buns
Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta
In the eyes of contemporary artist Nindityo Adipurnomo, a hair bun is more than just a cluster of hair pulled back neatly into a coil.
If the hair bun is seen traditionally as a symbol of one's social status and if modern women see it simply as an accessory, Nindit, as the artist is popularly called, finds it a source of inspiration, a media of expression.
Hair buns -- real ones or not -- of different sizes, styles and materials dominate Nindit's works, whether they be paintings, installations, or photos. In his recent exhibition at Yogyakarta's French Cultural Center, most of the 24 gouache-on- paper paintings on display had a bun touch to each of them.
His installation pieces are also not bun-free. Detail; Who is Afraid of the Javanese People (1995), for instance, shows four buns of different styles with ornaments placed in four different bamboo baskets.Step on Heirloom (2001) consists of 35 stone buns of different styles.
"For me, a hair bun is an idiom to talk about passion and desire. Their shapes describe a very powerful energy, a very strong grip," Nindit revealed.
Born in Semarang on June 24, 1961, Nindit disclosed that his interest in buns started when he took a five-year course in 1988 specializing in Yogyakarta-style classical dance, after completing his studies at the Indonesian Institute of the Arts (ISI) in Yogyakarta.
Observing the structures of buns, he saw a very powerful energy. In his opinion, such energy in human beings could be found in the form of passion or desire, the difference between them, as he saw it, being very small.
He then started designing buns made of black stone. With the help of a stone mason in Yogyakarta, he was able to realize his idea of making a stone bun. The first bun he created was Mataram- style, which had a cone-like shape.
Soon, more black stone buns were added to his collection. Some of them are currently kept and displayed at Cemeti Art Gallery, which he and his wife, Dutch-born artist Mella Jaarsma, currently own and manage. He also created, along with other artists, a giant rattan-made bun with a diameter of 150 cm.
Most of Nindit's works, as he admitted, were the result of a long process. With the help of Mella, his wife, Nindit had himself photographed in different poses while holding a stone bun. He then picked what he thought to be the best photograph and transformed it into a painting.
Sometimes, he painted five pictures from the same photograph. He put aside the ones he considered "garbage".
"Mella sometimes finds the ones I trash interesting. After long discussions, I usually end up agreeing with her," he said, adding that painting is full of "lies".
According to Nindit, painters are dependent upon their psychological situation for ideas. Once the idea is transformed into artwork, it can be used with ideas that the painter had thought about long before. And limited materials also influence the final result.
"I once painted a 'person' as an object. In my imagination, the 'person' was there. Yet, after transforming the object into a painting, my imagination got all mixed up. And, after I ran out of a certain color, what I created ultimately was completely different to what I had initially wanted. This is what I mean by 'lies'," said the graduate of Amsterdam's State Academy of Fine Arts.
According to Nindit, who was artist-in-residence for two months at Bute Town Studio in Cardiff, Wales, another "lie" takes place when interpreting a painting. Each person has a different interpretation of a particular painting, while the painter, on the other hand, should allow the viewer to interpret their works in the way they intended.
"When the interpretation is different from what the painter wants, then it's another 'lie'," he said.