Indonesian gold designs to compete in Hong Kong

JAKARTA (JP): Picasso, Dali and Van Gogh are alive in the minds of local gold designers. They are among the world's maestros who have become their sources of inspiration which have brought them to the Asian Gold Design contest in Hong Kong, scheduled to be held in September.

Eleven works of nine artists have been selected to represent Indonesia in the event.

Lena Suryaputra features a firearm, people's faces, hands and legs in her work, a necklace, titled War and Peace and inspired by Pablo Picasso. FX Sucahyo was inspired by Salvador Dali's work Fast Moving for the creation of his unique set of gold jewelry, comprising a necklace, earrings, ring and bracelet. He named his piece Terhanyut dalam Waktu (Carried Away in Time).

Other works are not less attractive. They are Asymmetric Linear Structures by Sulistiyono, Song of the Dream by Budi Hartono, Heleconia Mozaik by Eko Rasyanto H.M., Persahabatan (Friendship) by Suroyono, Three in One Millennium by Antonius E.S., Future by Tungga Dewi, Lorong (Alley) by Suroyono, and two pieces by Indah Tjahya Wulan, Beginning of Life and Poem of Life.

A panel of judges, comprising figures like designer Harry Darsono and the World Gold Council's country manager for Indonesia, Leo Hadi, selected the 11 designs out of 104 entries in the contest's semifinal here.

Among the jury's criteria for selecting the designs were the inspirations for the design, the designer's style and personal creativity, trend and skill.

Harry said that since the competition's source of inspiration is from the works of art masters, it means that all the works should be contemporary in nature, to greet the approaching of a new renaissance era where conventional designs would no longer be used.

"The most exciting thing is, almost all the designs taking part in this competition can be classified as contemporary works. This is a progression, (it shows that) Indonesian designers already have the ability to grasp contemporary ideas in the maestros' works and recreate it in interesting gold designs, ready to enter the international market," Harry said.

Apart from Indonesia, other participating countries are China, Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

The gold contest, taking Gold for Eternity as its theme, was organized by the Geneva-based World Gold Council and the African gold producer Anglofold. (ste)