Artists take notice of the heart at Galeri Teguh

By Carla Bianpoen

JAKARTA (JP): Valentine's Day has past, yet its impact is still felt at Galeri Teguh, where 10 artists from different countries are displaying their artistic statements on the heart.

It all started on a sleepy afternoon at the gallery. Sipping kopi tubruk, Teguh Ostenrik spurted: "Let's do something on Valentine". Not that he is very fond of celebrating Valentine's Day. On the contrary, he had been annoyed at the Valentine craze and the attached consumerism sweeping urban shopping centers. Now he sought to turn the annoyance into fun with a deeper meaning. The heart was to be the theme for an exhibition which would be opened on Valentine's Day.

The artists were excited. "It was an emotional journey with a lot of soul searching. But it was lots and lots of fun," exclaimed Astari Rasjid, whose eye-catching work is yet another example of her intriguing artistry.

The "(He)art" exhibition at Galeri Teguh, Jl. Gaharu I No. 3, South Jakarta, runs until March 14. It comes as a fresh wind in the almost sickening atmosphere of art commerce for commerce's sake. A shared social concern about the alarming misfunctioning of the heart in almost all matters of life has spurred artists to reflect and bring out their visions in their own special way.

Acep Zamzam Noor and Goh Beng Kwan have taken sustainable environment as their focus, while Anusapati, Mella Jaarsma, Pintor Sirait and Teguh Ostenrik are concerned with the physical and spiritual conditions of the heart. Astari Rasjid takes stock of her heart condition from a gender perspective. Judy Emery from America puts her heart in a bamboo sculpture, and Rotraud Pappe from Germany discusses the increasing failure of the heart's communication in a video Du Hast Kein Herz (You have no heart).

The title "(He)art" may have enraged some gender activists, but it is not meant to be macho, according to the gallery owner. "He" in brackets was actually meant to put an accent on the art, while it is focused on the heart. It really means Her/His Excellency, Teguh explained.

Although all the works in this exhibition are worth special mention, particularly eye-catching with relation to the heart theme are the works by Acep Zamzam Noor, Anusapati, Astari Rasjid, Pintor Sirait and Teguh Ostenrik.

Interpretations

Acep Zamzam Noor, a poet and painter from Tasikmalaya, expresses his concern by realistically holding a green heart in the hand. One might wonder whether this was a caprice, a joke found on the numerous Valentine's cards floating around Feb. 14, or a serious warning that today's world has gone too far in cutting off the heart from the place where it belongs. However, since the artist has specifically separated the "He" in "Heart", he may have wanted to put the emphasis on the male person in the painting.

Anusapati comes with a simple yet excellently finished wooden sculpture. Perfectly positioned, the almost ascetic work stands as a sign of warning. Drum that beats like a heart takes the shape of a traditional kentungan, a wooden drum used in traditional societies as an alarm. It was also used as a tool to forward messages, some sort of a telephone in the days of yore.

Anusapati's art work, which could be taken for a grenade and a bomb at the same time, is slit in the middle, with a tiny little heart on each side of the slit. Does he sympathize with the soldiers who deep in their hearts reject the war they are forced to fight, or is this the artist's way of striking alarm that too little importance is being paid to the voice of man's innermost heart? It could be both. His main concern is to preserve the earth and natural environment, to which he feels particularly close. Anusapati is a well-known sculptor from Yogyakarta, who stands out for creating high quality art pieces using inexpensive types of wood.

Astari Rasjid has taken this occasion to create a stirring installation in which she presents her visions about conventional gender perceptions which confine women to the back room. Drawing a parallel with the heart position in a human body which is covered by many layers, Resurrected Core reveals a woman's urge to undo herself from the ballast that hampers the attainment of her own aspirations.

Yet, as the work brings out, the door to that is only slightly ajar. Symbolizing women's aspirations with a woman's bare upper body, the artist adds a lotus flower to express a sense of sacred significance. Left and right of the painting's center is a piece of Javanese wedding cloth, or cinde, and a pair of shoe-sandals at the end of each piece, probably relating to marriage ties and equality issues. An antique Javanese door positioned to cover most of the painting depicts the constraints that women still face in their effort to break from conventional roots. Remarkably, standing before the installation is like standing in front of an icon, while a view from the side gives the sensation of peeping into a woman's room.

Astari Rasjid is one of the rare Indonesian women today who engages in weaving traditional values into powerful contemporary art.

Pintor Sirait produced a heart which is put on a petal. The work in fact consists of four parts, depicting the petals of a lotus flower, which forms a heart in closed position. On the wall above the sculpture is a photograph showing the four petals laid out. Together it is a peaceful still life, but even separated the pieces continue to appeal. Pintor has been engaged with the lotus flower for quite some time. In fact, the lotus has become his major source of inspiration. It is therefore not surprising that his current work Cannot outsmart the heart is again inspired by this flower. A parallel with the heart is undeniable, for just as the lotus flower in India is the center where Brahma dwells, so is the heart in a human body the center of life.

Teguh Ostenrik presents four panels in which he depicts, in abstract form, how every event has left a mark on the heart. Every sorrow or happiness is recorded on the heart, and every lesson learned affects the human condition. One's personality is formed by past experiences, and sometimes it is necessary to reflect on the past to understand the present, he says philosophically. Mencari (h)ati diri (finding your inner self) is meant as a visual journey through a person's life process.

Teguh Ostenrik, whose professional career as an artist started when he dropped out of medical school, says that the heart is the most vital part of the human body. It is also the most humble, he says, as nobody takes notice of the heart until it refuses to function.