Heads and faces haunt Pande's solo exhibition

By Chandra Johan

JAKARTA (JP): A painting, made up of 30 panels of canvas -- each on of them 30 cm x 30 cm -- depicts various kinds of faces with various kinds of expressions. We could be at a loss for words to explain each facial expression on each of the panels. The faces are recorded on the canvas with a variety of signals. As one panel has one signal, the 30 panels contain 30 signals. Our limited vocabulary could interpret that one expresses fear, and another one anxiety; in one panel the face looks rather dazed, in another it looks surprised; another face laughs, and another appears muted.

We are lost for words because each painting does not help us understand the detail of the shape and movement of each face. These paintings successfully avoid details and anatomical structure. However, in fact, these faces contain unlimited signals. This is art. Art, as is the case with painting, can reveal an experience and awareness of an unlimited reality, especially of humans. We are aware of ourselves as human beings; we physically recognize the hand, foot, body and other parts. However, have we ever specifically pondered one part of the body? At least one individual has: Pande Ketut Taman, 29, a young artist from Bali, has been mesmerized by the human head.

It is the reason why in his solo exhibition at the Milenium Gallery in South Jakarta from June 17 through July 7, Pande does not present us with a complete image of the human body. In the exhibition titled Pongpongan (an empty coconut, usually with holes made by squirrels) we observe the human head only, mainly the face, in the medium of acrylic paintings and two installations.

It is said that Pande, who comes from Ubud, was overwhelmed just thinking about "heads" and became obsessed about offering this phenomena as a discourse or a concept, whether as a proverb, symbol, or metaphor. In the case of a proverb, for example, he attempted to form an analogy of the head with myth and symbols of power and truth -- the head contains brains, the center of the mind. As a symbol, someone promoted to the position of headmaster means that he masters discourse and truth. But according to Pande, at the moment that the "head" tumbled down (he refers to the downfall of Soeharto as president) he was stunned and said to himself: "If I am not able to carry my head well, one day my head too will fall."

Perhaps Pande has romanticized the concept too much and become enchanted with discourse, overloading his concept with problems thinking this would simplify and confine meanings implied in his works. In fact, although Pande investigates heads without faces, it is those very faces which are important to him. Isn't it true that the soul, the mind and our emotions can be read and represented through our face? That's the reason why Pande could not avoid the face.

The painting @ Rp...(l6), made up of 30 panels of canvas, epitomizes this belief. In this painting we are faced with odd human faces that disturb our human existence. Isn't our face also our mask? What kind of mask is used by someone to create difficulties in guessing the true identity of its wearer?

Ex-president Soeharto, for instance, is known as "the smiling general". But, are we able to understand his smile? This is what Pande explores through his works. With anatomical deviations and minimal but sensitive lines and brush marks, Pande makes each face "unguessable", vague, shadowy and mysterious. That is, in Pande's eyes, a human being. That's why he doesn't define each organ in the face anatomically and accurately. Essentially, Pande does not paint the individual, but human beings in general; his interpretation of what it is to be human. The eye, for example, was painted with a black dot or circle; the nose with a thin line or only the trace of one, while a larger circle could be interpreted as a mouth.

Sometimes Pande sticks a piece of newspaper or magazine on certain parts of the faces and makes pencil or paint brushes additions, as in @ Rp...(4) and @ Rp...(7). What is he aiming for with these collages? Again, he was expressing the burden of stereotypes. The inner workings of the head are already overloaded by news, because of the influence of a relentless stream of media. In this manner, Pande simplifies the meaning and character of his works. Because, it is a fact that those collages do not increase nor decrease the implied message from his work. In the end the function of the collage is limited only as a visual element, as with the texture and nuance in his works. Even if the collage had never been applied in the first place to Pande's works, the images would stand up on their own. Why must the artist be burdened with actual messages? Why must he be afraid of not being called "contextual"?

The "head" obsession was particularly focused on two installation pieces called Pongpongan, which were made of coconut shells and bamboo roots with part of the stem. Pongpongan means an empty and punctured coconut. In Bali it is used as a talisman against misfortune, after first being given a swastika sign on the forehead. The bamboo roots are used because the shape resembles a head with hair. For Pande those two objects arouse a fantasy of the human head. In pongpongan the head is empty, a form without content. In the bamboo roots we are unable to guess their contents.

It seems that in Pande's eyes the human head is sometimes like a pongpongan, and sometimes like the bamboo roots. Therefore, he placed some mirrors in the installations. Let the human reflect?

In Pande's installations we finally see formation, while in his paintings we are presented with deformation. In the installations a fantasy element was absent in order for him to associate each thing with a reality. He only decreases or increases the focus on the object in order not to stray too far from this intended sense of reality. While in his paintings, he altered the whole anatomical structure of the reality into a deformed truth.

Although Pande only graduated from the Indonesia Art Institute in Yogyakarta a year ago, the artist has exhibited works since l989. He is active at Sanggar Dewata, the meeting place of Bali artists in Yogyakarta. In l997 and l998 he was a finalist in the Philip Morris Awards.