French artist displays surrealistic works
By Sri Wahyuni
YOGYAKARTA (JP): You can't judge whether people are "nice" or "dishonest" by looking at their physical appearances; they are too complex to be judged that way.
That adage seems to fit the theme of the paintings that Peruvian-born French artist Jorge Vigil is exhibiting at the Ardiyanto Gallery from May 27 to June 3.
Some 40 paintings -- most of them of faces -- display mostly display ambiguous characters. Their genders are not clear. They look like women and men at the same time.
"I believe in (the Chinese) yin and yang philosophy, that everything has contradictory elements together in it. Women have men's characters, and men have women's. Good people have bad sides, bad people have good sides," Vigil told The Jakarta Post.
His surreal paintings are about strange faces and head structures, depicting a combination of good and evil, a mixture of the faces of evil and the faces of angels. For the untrained eye, his works are full of absurd characters.
The figures are positioned in such a way that they look impressive.
In La Vie: Illusions, for example, Vigil paints a bald head communicating with a bird in a nest. The round, bald head is so shiny it dominates the scene.
"This is my favorite," said Vigil, adding that the 80cm-by- 80cm mosaic-like painting consisting of 16 squares was rich in details and mature colors.
Born in Lima (Peru) on April 15, 1963, Vigil claims himself to be descended from the final Inca Dynasty who lived before the Spanish came to the country. He studied fine arts at the School of Fine Art in Lima from 1983 to 1988. In 1990 he continued his studies at the School of Fine Arts in France for another year. He has lived there ever since, and become a French citizen. He is married to a French woman.
He has exhibited his works in, among others, Peru, France, U.S., Taiwan, Canada, and Indonesia. Early this month, he exhibited his works at Le Meridian Hotel, Jakarta, during a Peruvian Night.
"I do have a special interest in faces, especially because of their universality," said Vigil.
Vigil said that although each nation has its own geometrical symbol of the face, they all represent the same thing: a spirit or force. He also believes that the eyes signify the world's window.
As an artist, Vigil said he did not believe in one style. "I like free creation, just like most artists do I think," he said.
That was why, according to him, where he works very much influences what he paints and how he paints. Vigil's five latest paintings he created during his stay in Indonesia are good examples.
These five paintings -- pastels and watercolors -- are also among the 40 paintings he is exhibiting. They are The Flight, Women from Bali, Portrait, Pastel, and Green Angel. He has actually painted eight works since he has been here, but has yet to finish the other three.
The Flight, which he painted in Yogyakarta, was inspired by Mount Merapi which he described as spewing burning lava. On top of the lava, too, he places a bald head, with a half-smiling face.
When asked whether the works alluded to Soeharto, Vigil just smiled and shook his head. "I don't deal with politics," he said.
Women from Bali, which Vigil painted in Jakarta, was inspired by a visit to the island. His trips to the world's largest Buddhist temple, Borobudur, and Hindu temple Prambanan, also inspired him.
Curator Dwi Maryanto of the Indonesian Arts Institute in Yogyakarta said Vigil's paintings were in typical Latin American style: surreal and figurative.
Another feature that Maryanto noticed in Vigil's works was their mystical overtones. This, according to Maryanto, was the result of Vigil's interaction with the sociocultural environment of his birthplace.
"But, I do admire Vigil's painting technique. It's very natural and shows us that he is a master," he said.
Vigil did not deny the existence of the mystical overtones in his paintings, saying mystics were not all bad. Just like in the real world, there is also war, he said. There is war between good and evil. This, he said, explained why he very much believed in the philosophy of Yin and Yang.
"It's amazing to find out that I also found such a phenomenon here while visiting Prambanan temple," said Vigil.
The characters represented in some statues in the temple, according to Vigil, symbolize the two contradictory aspects of life.