Color-coated canvases express artist's emotional palette
Color-coated canvases express artist's emotional palette
Chisato Hara, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
A brilliant spectrum of color greets visitors to Soka Gallery in
Kemang, South Jakarta, where actor, playwright and graphic artist
Taufan S. Chandranegara is exhibiting a collection of more than
100 oil and acrylic paintings created over the last three years.
His second solo exhibit of abstract paintings is an
existentialist experiment in expressing deeply personal emotions
in broad, powerful brushstrokes of undiluted reds, yellows,
blues, greens, black and white -- and their permutations.
Themed "Tera", as in terra firma, Taufan wishes to lure
viewers into exploring the purity of emotions and their inherent
connection to nature, which he defines as an individual's natural
state of being, without the distractions of the outside world.
A veteran actor of 25 years with the renowned theater company,
Teater Koma, a former graphic artist with Tempo magazine, and a
man who now has his own drama group, Durr Teater, Taufan is a
self-taught artist.
"I believe that we all have a spirit, talents and skills, that
reside within, and everyone -- you, me -- can become whatever we
choose. It is a matter of faith, of choosing to believe in
ourselves," he said at the opening on Aug. 22. "And inspiration
lies all around us, even in the objects we encounter in daily
life -- a bajaj, a cloud, the daylight."
Taufan's brush with art began at an early age, sketching and
drawing on his own as little more than a toddler. Later, his
parents entered him in the now Kelompok Garajas youth center in
South Jakarta, where he was exposed to fine and performing arts
activities.
"I was a dramatist, a graphic designer and also dabbled in
photography on my own. After all this, I decided to return to my
origins -- painting," he said.
Some of his works also hearken back to an earlier stage in his
life, such as Prison of Bamboo.
"We all have powerful memories that have left a distinct
impression on us. This painting is a childhood memory of lying on
the ground in a kampong, staring up at the sky through a forest
of bamboo," Taufan explained.
The canvas, most of which is covered in black swirls, appears
intimidating at first, but upon closer contemplation, it offers a
glimmer of this extracted sky, pulsating forth in light blue and
yellow through the tangle of symbolic bamboo.
Others are purely emotional expressions, such as Falter, on
which the artist worked eight hours nonstop, created in a single,
extended period of anguish.
"I'm proudest of this one, which took the longest time to
create (in a single sitting)," he said. "When I made this
painting, I was feeling stuck in my life, hesitant about a
decision I had to make, so I poured it out on the canvas."
The finishing touches -- slashes with the palette knife that
gouge violently into the thick paint -- illustrate the fervor in
which Falter was created.
Still others are emotional representations of a specific
subject matter, as in Woman in Red. As the title implies, the
painting is an overlay of black on vermilion, but the artist has
a personal interpretation of the hue.
"Red is often used to express passion or anger, but for me, it
is a metaphor for celebration and happiness."
The subject of the painting is his wife, dancer Rita Dewi
Saleh, whom he affectionately calls "my dancer".
"Woman in Red isn't about lust or desire in particular, but
fulfillment and happiness," he said.
Taufan's works, spread throughout the two stories of Soka
Gallery, may appear puzzling to some viewers, as the emotional
content of each piece is highly personal and subjective. The
catalog provides a descriptive analysis of the paintings that
offers a way for viewers to enjoy the exhibit -- that is, to
follow the artist's example and draw their own emotional
interpretations and responses from the paintings.
Eddy Sugiri, a private art collector who officiated the
exhibition opening, commented that "Taufan's work is intriguing
because he is trying to express pure emotion through his
paintings".
"At first glance, viewers might miss the dialog within his
work, the articulation of his concept. I missed that at first,"
he said.
However, he added, Taufan's works -- with their different
strokes, interplays of color and range of emotions -- invite
viewers to find a language to understand them. At the same time,
several pieces recalled to mind the techniques of other artists,
which made Eddy question whether Taufan was able to fulfill his
artistic goal -- "Are they purely emotional or a 'copy'?"
"Some of his abstract paintings are not esthetic in the
commercial sense, that is, they require a lot of effort to
understand, or simply to enjoy. ... But Taufan is fully immersed
in his paintings ... he is an artist exercising his sensibilities
through color and the grade of his strokes.
"He is finding himself through his art," said Eddy.
Indeed, the work in "Tera", when viewed collectively, seems
like a dream journal written in the medium of paint.
"I'd like to see him move on to the next stage, being more
selective, more expressive in his concepts and compositions,"
said Eddy.
While Taufan's work is still "young" in terms of artistic
experience and composition, creative development can readily be
seen in works painted only three months apart. The most recent
pieces, for example, are a departure from his earlier canvases
that are literally coated in layers of paint, and contain
untouched areas where the raw canvas shows through -- perhaps a
new means to express purity.
His experimentation is also evident in the abstract shapes
that compose a singular piece, varying from circuitous
brushstrokes to soft cubic forms, and from linear swathes of
paint applied with the palette knife to amorphous movement that
nonetheless conveys an emotion -- whether Taufan's or the
viewer's -- through color and light.
"Tera", a solo exhibition by Taufan S. Chandranegara, runs from
Aug. 22 through Sept. 5 at Soka Gallery, Jl. Kemang Selatan Raya
No. 31, Kemang, South Jakarta. Tel (021) 7823019, Fax (021)
7823020.