Artists display their views of the world
Dr. Boudewijn Brands
JAKARTA (JP): The British Council in Jakarta at the Widjojo Center on Jl. Jend. Sudirman, South Jakarta, has recently renovated the Library and the Information Center. Just like before, this includes display areas for the arts.
The policy is to showcase the works of young Indonesian artists. The Council works together with galleries as well as collectors to show selected pieces.
Right now, the British Council is cooperating with a well- known Jakarta gallery: Cemara 6. In the ongoing Personal Perceptions exhibition, we display the works of five artists.
One from Bandung, aged 55, and the others, all around 30, from Yogyakarta. What the works have in common is that they are all relatively small and, from the Yogya artists, all are on paper. This suits the exhibition space and the average of 500, mostly young, visitors per day.
Then the techniques used: Tulus Sujoko, Yani Halim, Dafi Dhowo and Susanto all use paper. But Tulus uses only ink, Yani uses acrylic (which is water soluble), Dafi uses watercolor and ink and Santo gouache, better known as poster paint here. Abah Tjahja of Bandung uses natural materials to make his colors and uses recycled materials to work on and for framing.
After studying the works of Tulus and Santo, Dutch artist Harry Vlamings wrote: "In this information age, in which we are overwhelmed by pictures and sounds, we get used to sample listening and looking by 'zapping'."
This is done so quick and dynamic that all kinds of associations between picture and sound come into being that move to our conscience but cannot settle there.
Only by repeating the message (as in advertisements), can pictures remain in our memory.
What this modern culture produces is a human that is challenged through this flow of pictures in his capability to think dynamically and in a way that can associate.
The modern or contemporary artist is the person who sensitively and immediately reacts on these impulses.
Vlamings translates this current situation ("spirit of the time") in new images, the ingredients of which find their origin in the auditory and visual world. But he can carry it a step further: he can (with otherwise classical means) compose a picture that makes visible that what was for us unseeable, unhearable and could not be felt (that could not be seen, heard or felt).
He further states: "The internationalization of thinking, picture and sound is a result of fast electronic means of communication. Within the global network of artistic impulses, cultural borders fade away, local traditions get submersed and are easily put on a second plane. Traditional expressions of art are too often looked upon as not progressive, not of this time and not enough confronting".
Commenting on Tulus' work, Vlamings said, "The drawings of Tulus are expressions of this art movement, that spreads around the world, too. This young Javanese artist has a broad view in which the contemporary consideration (view) of the world seems to be incorporated naturally within the magic form-language of daily Javanese life.
Washed ink-drawings, set up with pen and worked at with brush create an impression of spontaneous inspiration from a tender and at the same time bizarre spiritual world. This is all guided by an attitude towards life that is philosophical and meditative.
Most drawings are slightly satirical, they are like reporting about theater. The means used are extremely sober. Tulus does not admit any superfluous or exaggerated additions to the picture. He approaches an idea very directly, transparently and critically, and his thinking hand makes a flashing thought visible.
As the conductor of all this, he indicates how the main motive sounds, as an architect he determines how to use space to the fullest, as (a giver of form) creator of things of "form follows function".
The works of Santo are in this style as well, but he just uses another medium on the paper. Dafi uses more classical means and enriches his works with more form and color in an impressionist style. Yani's works are minimalist as well but his lines and brush strokes have been described as creating a strong sense of harmony and peace (see The Jakarta Post of May 2, 1999). His works, however, seem to note sometimes the difference in power as in Chicken and the Dragon.
Abah Tjahya's works have something more poetic in expressing private feelings. An air or sense of melancholy emanates from his work. This comes through the use of natural colors that often can be associated with the colors of fallen leaves: they turn into a beautiful yellow and then a glowing red-brown.
We are looking forward to more exhibitions at the British Council with quality works as presented in this exhibition. Works of the same artists are also being exhibited in the Cemara 6 gallery until Sept. 29.
The writer is an art collector