JP/18/BIS

JP/18/BIS

BIS art exhibition leads the way at gallery

Muslima Hapsari
Contributor/Jakarta

A man in a black suit was standing in front of a painting in
amazement. He still could not believe that the contemporary, 2.5
meter by 1.5 meter painting was made by one of his students at
The British International School (BIS) Jakarta.

The students can be proud of themselves and their
successful art exhibition. This nonprofit event, titled
The Youthful Eye, is being held at Deniek Sukarya Galley in
Kemang from Jan. 20 to Feb. 20.

The exhibition is displaying more than 80 paintings,
sculptures and masks. All have been made by students from years 8
to 13, who are aged from 13 to 18.

The Youthful Eye is all about the illustration of the
artistic journey and development of students' critical,
conceptual and creative thinking skill through the exploration
of various processes such as printmaking, painting, drawing and
three-dimensional construction.

The students originate from all over the world and have
experienced different lives, cultures and ethnic backgrounds.
This can be seen in the different themes contained in their work.

A painting by Rosemary Cleave from year 13 is very English-
looking. She is half-English, half-Indonesian, and when she is in
England, she finds something totally different from Indonesia.

"I produced two paintings; one has a black background that
shows that you do not know anything about England until you come
and see it. The other has a bright background that shows the
England I know, where things are so neat and clean, and wherever
you go you see traditional red mailboxes," says the 18 year-old.

Art teacher Rebecca Maynard, from Australia, said that this is
the best ever art created by her students.

It was unfortunate, she said, that opportunities for students
to display their work in commercial galleries were quite rare.

"Some students are so talented and have a great fondness for
art, especially painting. I hope this, the first event, can
become an annual event," Maynard explained to the parents and
students attending the opening ceremony on Jan. 19.

For this event, Maynard divided the students into groups with
different themes, for example country, humanity and peace.

You can find two paintings about saving Asia from terrorism.
The idea came from terrorist bombings that have occurred several
times in Asia, especially in Indonesia.

One must-see painting is by Titania Suryadilaga. It is called
Four Considerations. This is the largest painting and the most
eye-catching due to its unusual point of view and beautiful color
mixing.

This painting is dominated by blue and shadow, and an
illustration of stairs that lead you nowhere, an open door to a
room that goes nowhere too, and a bucket of water on top of the
door.

"It shows that we do not know where we are going in life but
fear something we cannot see. It is represented by the bucket of
water," said tha painter, Titania.

The owner of the gallery, Deniek Sukarya, was not really
interested at first in providing his gallery for this
exhibition. But after seeing some of the paintings, he simply
could not refuse.

"If I didnt know it was the students who had made it, I would
not have believed it because all the paintings, sculptures and
other art works are so astonishing and professional."

Even though the Deniek Sukarya gallery has exhibited high
school students' art work several times before, this is the first
painting exhibition. He hopes other schools will follow this
lead.

Deniek said the paintings were not for sale but if anyone was
interested in any of them, they could wait until the end of June.
This was when the students were due to take their final tests
because the art works would be used for these.

The works were made after eight weeks of preparation and 10
hours of execution in the classroom.

"It was so much fun working on them," said one of the
students.

The parents are aware of this situation too. They agree with
it and support this activity.

Principal Peter Derby-Crook said that this exhibition was
a good way to encourage and find new talented painters.

The Youthful Eye exhibition is held at Deniek Sukarya Gallery
in Jl. Kemang no. 15, South Jakarta, tel. 7193427. The Gallery is
open on Monday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.