BIS art exhibition leads the way at gallery

Muslima Hapsari, Contributor/Jakarta

A man in a black suit was standing in front of a painting in amazement. He still could not believe that the contemporary, 2.5 meter by 1.5 meter painting was made by one of his students at The British International School (BIS) Jakarta.

The students can be proud of themselves and their successful art exhibition. This nonprofit event, titled The Youthful Eye, is being held at Deniek Sukarya Galley in Kemang from Jan. 20 to Feb. 20.

The exhibition is displaying more than 80 paintings, sculptures and masks. All have been made by students from years 8 to 13, who are aged from 13 to 18.

The Youthful Eye is all about the illustration of the artistic journey and development of students' critical, conceptual and creative thinking skill through the exploration of various processes such as printmaking, painting, drawing and three-dimensional construction.

The students originate from all over the world and have experienced different lives, cultures and ethnic backgrounds. This can be seen in the different themes contained in their work.

A painting by Rosemary Cleave from year 13 is very English- looking. She is half-English, half-Indonesian, and when she is in England, she finds something totally different from Indonesia.

"I produced two paintings; one has a black background that shows that you do not know anything about England until you come and see it. The other has a bright background that shows the England I know, where things are so neat and clean, and wherever you go you see traditional red mailboxes," says the 18 year-old.

Art teacher Rebecca Maynard, from Australia, said that this is the best ever art created by her students.

It was unfortunate, she said, that opportunities for students to display their work in commercial galleries were quite rare.

"Some students are so talented and have a great fondness for art, especially painting. I hope this, the first event, can become an annual event," Maynard explained to the parents and students attending the opening ceremony on Jan. 19.

For this event, Maynard divided the students into groups with different themes, for example country, humanity and peace.

You can find two paintings about saving Asia from terrorism. The idea came from terrorist bombings that have occurred several times in Asia, especially in Indonesia.

One must-see painting is by Titania Suryadilaga. It is called Four Considerations. This is the largest painting and the most eye-catching due to its unusual point of view and beautiful color mixing.

This painting is dominated by blue and shadow, and an illustration of stairs that lead you nowhere, an open door to a room that goes nowhere too, and a bucket of water on top of the door.

"It shows that we do not know where we are going in life but fear something we cannot see. It is represented by the bucket of water," said tha painter, Titania.

The owner of the gallery, Deniek Sukarya, was not really interested at first in providing his gallery for this exhibition. But after seeing some of the paintings, he simply could not refuse.

"If I didnt know it was the students who had made it, I would not have believed it because all the paintings, sculptures and other art works are so astonishing and professional."

Even though the Deniek Sukarya gallery has exhibited high school students' art work several times before, this is the first painting exhibition. He hopes other schools will follow this lead.

Deniek said the paintings were not for sale but if anyone was interested in any of them, they could wait until the end of June. This was when the students were due to take their final tests because the art works would be used for these.

The works were made after eight weeks of preparation and 10 hours of execution in the classroom.

"It was so much fun working on them," said one of the students.

The parents are aware of this situation too. They agree with it and support this activity.

Principal Peter Derby-Crook said that this exhibition was a good way to encourage and find new talented painters.

The Youthful Eye exhibition is held at Deniek Sukarya Gallery in Jl. Kemang no. 15, South Jakarta, tel. 7193427. The Gallery is open on Monday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.