Erica depicts whimsical images of her own dream world

By Amir Sidharta

JAKARTA (JP): Galeri Santi from Indonesia, will have the privilege of presenting the promising young artist Erica Hestu Wahyuni, in Singapore, from April 24 to 29.

Erica's paintings will appear alongside work from 30 galleries worldwide at the Fifth International Fine Art and Antiques Fair for Asia, Tresors 1997.

The paintings of the up and coming Erica Hestu Wahyuni are whimsical and surreal. They are painted in a childish manner, which has been described as the "naive" style. It is no surprise that many observers do not take her work seriously.

Born in Yogyakarta in 1971, Erica began to study painting in primary school. She also joined Sanggar Katamsi, a children's drawing club, where she was taught by Sunarto PR and Herry Wibowo, both established painters. Later, in 1989, she became a student of the Indonesian Art Institute (ISI) in Yogyakarta, where she studied under Fajar Sidik, Nyoman Gunarsa and Sudarisman.

Living in Yogyakarta, there is little doubt that she is familiar with the work of contemporaries such as Yuni Wulandari, Eddie Hara, Faizal and even Heri Dono, who have also been dubbed "naive" artists.

These artists may have similar styles, but are not part of any naive art movement. Each regards their own style as distinctive.

Erica's paintings are unpretentious. In Portrait of a Family, for example, shows an image of herself and her husband dressed in traditional Javanese costumes, with their child in the center of the frame.

In another painting, Mystery of the Ninth Woman, Erica probes her own personality with an arrangement of several female figures within a large triptych measured two by six meters in total.

The eight figures leave the viewer to wonder "where is the ninth woman?" Erica would answer, "the ninth woman is my own self." Viewers may take time to realize that the painting is not a literal depiction of eight, or nine, women, but rather it portrays the nine different moods of the painter herself.

Erica claims that Nyoman Gunarsa has been a great encouragement to her. The influence of Gunarsa's dynamic brushstrokes and composition are evident in the delineation of Erica's figures. The abstract style of Fajar Sidik is another obvious influence on her work. Most of Erica's paintings reflect her own experiences. Her travels for the 1996 Tresor exhibition provided her with much inspiration for her painting. Mother's day celebrations in Singapore inspired her to create Mother's Day.

In this work Erica portrays herself in the dual role of mother and artist equipped with both cooking spatula and paint brush on the right hand side of the canvas.

The left part of the canvas shows an imaginary view of the artist's home, suggested by the image of the delman horse-drawn cart. Erica's house is equipped with cooking utensils, clothes, cupboard, bed and children's toys. A carpet in the shape of an elephant, the artist's favorite animal, winds across the bottom of the canvas.

Fun

This painting is reminiscent of the song Ingat Ingat Pesan Mama (Don't Forget What Mommy Tells You), by Indonesian singer Oppie. The painting evokes the fun and whimsical mood of the song and video clip. Different icons appear in each; in the video clip, the images emerge frame by frame, while in the painting the icons appear only slowly.

Erica did almost everything a tourist does in Singapore, even having breakfast with the orang utan at the National Zoo. Her painting of this experience shows a pink orang utan feeding on durian, while a blonde tourist embraces the animal affectionately.

"My favorite television shows, apart from the news, are cartoons!" she claimed. Her interest in cartoons explains the cartoon like quality of her painting.

A sleeping image of herself occupies the lower part of the canvas in Homesick. She appears in a room equipped with cupboard, small refrigerator and television. Meanwhile, scenery of a horse- driven delman cart floats nearby, making its way from the Tugu monument towards the gateway of the Kraton palace. Yogyakarta seems to be always on her mind.

Some of Erica's paintings also represent her dreams. Gathering on the Meadow shows a nude female, probably once again herself, surrounded by various animals: a snake, a chicken, a horse, elephants, a cow and a couple of birds. The figure holds a platter with a fish and a giraffe on each hand. This simple work seems to envisage Erica's dream of an ecosystem in balance.

Her largest painting ever, the monumental Elephants Traveling in Metropole, is a five-part work which measures two by ten meters. "I love to paint elephants because they look cute," she says. "On the other hand, they are also majestic," she adds.

In the Mystery of the Ninth Woman her psyche is embodied in female figures, but here the symbol becomes the majestic elephant. Through painting, Erica aims to achieve the stature of the elephant, another of her dreams.

Erica's art is simple, but not simplistic. Although it is decorative, few would call her work interior design. Rather, most will be drawn to the narrative quality of her painting. Her development has been shaped by a sound education, under the guidance of painters such as Fajar Sidik and Nyoman Gunarsa.

The revelations of her psyche, experiences, and dreams in her work reflect her lifestyle, the influence of cartoons and children's programs she watches on television, the songs she hears on the radio, the places she visits and the people she meets. Erica's art is Erica's World. Erica is an artist of the 90s, one to watch for in the next millennium.

The article is taken from the catalog of the exhibition.