Exhibition reveals artists' view of love

Exhibition reveals artists' view of love

Carla Bianpoen, Contributor, Jakarta

Amid the horrors of war and a multitude of other acts of violence
against humanity, the Love Bomb by Agus Suwage comes as a
wonderful turn on the deadly weapon used to destroy. Made of
wrought iron, the bomb, within which "love" shines out in neon
letters, is carried by a four-wheeled vehicle.

To have the Love Bomb explode would appear to be in line with
the aims of Nadi Gallery owner, Biantoro Santoso, and its curator
Enin Suprianto, and probably many others for whom the art trend
of focusing on violence and political issues contains within it
the looming danger of replicating violence and horror instead of
contemplating a way out.

Sixteen artists have been selected to accept the challenge of
looking deep inside the self, and focusing on love as a personal,
intricate matter. "Love is all you need," sang the Beatles. Could
it be that professing the true meaning of love could make a
better world?

But love is a different experience for different people and
that is evident from the works in this exhibition, which takes
its title from the Beatles' song All You Need is Love.

Bunga Jeruk Permata Pekerti (Bunga or BeeJay for short) gives
us a wonderfully fresh and youthful picture of what it is to be
in love. Tree paintings titled Crush I, Crush II, Crush III, all
produced in 2003, have the name of her idol, guitarist Wes
Borland, in several graphics in pastel colors. The first also has
some flowers and an image of Wes Borland, the second only
features the name, while the third adds a little girl in the
midst of green. Bunga has had a crush on Wes ever since she saw a
poster of him in a Dutch music shop, she says.

Other artists have focused more on love relationships in real
life. It seems there is only a thin line between love and hate.

At least that's what is shown by Pintor Sirait's stainless
steel sculpture of Love/Hate, a weighing scale where the left
side represents "LOVE/Hate" and the right side "HATE/Love". In
the middle is a book with text, and while turning the pages one
finds that positive text will make the scale tilt to the right
while negative text has the opposite effect.

The thin line between love and hate is also shown in the two
paintings by Sekar Jatiningrum. One features a young couple, hand
in hand, and flowers floating in the air, while the second
painting features the same couple moving apart from each other,
their arms akimbo, each staring obstinately at the ground;
flowers are only to be seen on the young woman's blouse and just
one on the young man's shirt, and the blue background with a
whitewashed sky suggests the coolness of their relationship. S.
Teddy has dived into the wisdom of the Javanese. The two metal
swords along which the Javanese alphabet is written and which
have human-faced wooden handles might strike the onlooker as a
couple facing the sharp edges in their love relationship.

According to S. Teddy, however, the two parts are the two
sides of one sword.

Teddy explains that the Javanese alphabet, called the Ha Na Ca
Ra Ka..., has four lines, with each line having a meaning. The
complete alphabet implies that disputes and quarrels are a fact
of life. No one wins and no one looses, and in the end there is
only death.

Iriantine Karnaya's installation titled Love ... Love Me Do
(2003) appears to represent the female genitalia at first sight.

But the artist says it represents her heart, which goes out to
whoever is in need, while her sculpture Inseparable (2000), made
of bronze, wood and metal, denotes the facts of life.

Astari Rasjid has consistently delved into her Javanese
culture. While she used to denounce its hypocrisy with subtle
signs, trying to reconcile the traditional with values that are
universally acceptable, this time she indicates that the time has
come to firmly do away with hypocrisy.

Her usual images of Javanese couples dressed in posh
traditional costumes with would-be serene expressions, has now
made place for a Javanese couple stripped off the usual poshness
of her previous images, leaving both the man and woman gazing
soberly ahead.

Your Illusion is not My Reality (2003), consists of two
panels, a green one for the woman, who has a lotus budding on her
chest, which is linked to the red panel with the fruit of love on
the man's chest. The woman's panel has the word "HOLD" and the
man's panel has the word "ON".

To "hold on" of course may have various interpretations.
Should one hold on in difficult circumstances, whether these
relate to marriage relationships or otherwise? Of course, every
person will have to answer that for themselves.

Sunaryo may have been thinking of this when he painted his
friend, the physician cum Balinese dancer Bulan Trisna Gelantik,
in Cinta di Akhir Musim (2003), with butterfly-like wings dancing
into the "Love Space". Bulan Trisna is going to get married
again; she has found love once more.

Other participating artists are Agung Kurniawan, Dikdik
Sayahdikumullah, Firman Ichsan, I Gak Murniasih, Rosid, Rudi ST.
Darma, Titarubi and Ugo Untoro.

All You Need is Love Exhibition at Nadi Gallery, Jl. Kedoya Raya
53, West Jakarta. Phone 021-5818129. Runs until April 3, 2003