Iwan turns boardinghouse bedroom into his gallery
By Matdon
BANDUNG (JP): The mere mention of an art gallery evokes images of a comfortably spacious room where art works are on display. It may never have occurred to you that a relatively small room could also be been turned into a gallery.
If you walk up Jl. Dago (also known as Jl. H. Djuanda), about two hundred meters before the Sheraton Hotel you will find a mini gallery -- perhaps this is a more suitable name -- some ten meters off the street.
Measuring 8 m by 8 m, the gallery is actually a bedroom in a boarding house and it is here that artist Iwan R Ismail exhibits his works.
Called Kopipait (Bitter Coffee) Art Society, this mini gallery gives the impression of being a miniature kingdom amid the urban jungle of Bandung. When you enter the door, painted millennium silver, your eyes will catch sight of a number of Iwan's reproduced works mounted on the yellow walls.
On each wall there is an installation work placed inside used cardboard boxes. Around the room you can find jambu (rose apple) trees, as well as chairs and benches painted bright red.
Before you enter the gallery, you must climb the stairs. Painted red, they are like a carpet spread out to welcome the arrival of a VVIP. On both sides of the stairs you can see plywood statues.
The walls in the room where the stairs stand are painted yellow and display batik-style drawings of small house lizards, cockroaches, ants and insects. On one of the walls leading to the interior, there are three cups containing leftover coffee.
This arrangement is not without a profound significance. Visitors are likened to cockroaches and insects. They are useful to men but at the same time bring diseases. The door, which looks sturdy in its millennium silver, is only made of used plywood. The whole decor represents the current global culture: it gives the impression of strength with all the millennium excitement but in essence is hollow and vulnerable.
At this point you may be curious as to who has taken the initiative to establish this mini gallery.
It is none other than Iwan.
Born in Medan, North Sumatra, in 1966, he decided to abandon his studies at a college in Padang, West Sumatra. Instead, he decided to move to Bandung with the hope of being able to develop his talent in fine arts. Iwan once spent his days drawing seasonal holiday cards on the sidewalks of Bandung's town square along with other street artists.
After many colorful experiences as street artists: which included being banished by security officers and then pursued by them, Iwan, along with his colleagues Nandang Gawe and Rahmat Jabbaril, finally set up an art group called Gerbong Bawah Tanah (Underground Railway Coach) in 1994.
Since then, Iwan has often held exhibitions of his work, including Experiment Exhibition, Malam Mengangkang (Straddled Night) and Lewat Jam Malam (Past the Curfew) at Trotoar Studio, Bandung.
In 1995 and 1996 Iwan held an exhibition at the French Cultural Center, Bandung branch, titled Setahun Tanpa Soeharto (A Year Without Soeharto) at YPK building, Bandung. In addition to these events, Iwan has also exhibited a great number of his works, individually and in group exhibitions.
His latest exhibitions were held in late 2000, both in Jakarta and Surabaya, titled Indonesia Tidak Untuk Hari Ini (Indonesia Is Not For Today) and Fine Exhibition Nol (Fine Exhibition: Nil). Then, coinciding with the establishment of his gallery, Kopipait Art Society, he also held a solo exhibition titled Untuk Tamu Terhormat, Para Peminum Kopi (For Honorable Guests, Those Who Drink Coffee).
Iwan's works are rather different from those made by other painters. Adopting a drawing technique, he focuses on human heads as his objects. Some of his paintings include a human head with nails in it, a condom-stuffed mouth and so forth, all seemingly indicating that human beings, created by God as thinking creatures, encounter one problem after another.
His artistic language may be difficult to discuss orally but it is an interesting topic for the communication of thought on the part of those appreciating his works. His works are created in such a way that they reflect man's language in their daily lives.
As for his mini gallery, Iwan said that he had received assistance from one of his artist friends, FW Fei.
"What I'm exploring now is very risky. I have selected the name "Bitter Coffee" intentionally as I would like to encourage the public to think. In fact, I'm fed up with thinking about politics, where all you find is a pack of lies," Iwan said.
For Iwan, Kopipait Art Society is an alternative space found beyond the reality of the naked eye. Art, for him, is not a luxury; it is, rather, a means of providing enlightenment.
The present gallery is what Iwan has dreamt of having before being able to own a larger one. "All big things begin with the smallest. I hope that I am now going through this process," he said, adding that the Kopipait Art Society gallery would be his own exhibition space throughout this year.
The writer is a Bandung-based artist and observer of arts and culture.