Lontar Gallery revives tradition of artists dialog with exhibition

By Chandra Johan

JAKARTA (JP): To the modern artist, dialogs are part and parcel of the creation process. In Indonesia, this tradition started in the 1950s during the S. Sudjono era and usually took place at the artist's workshop.

The lost tradition has been revived by Satya Graha, Jerry T. and Firman Lie in their joint exhibition titled "Catching Surprise" at Lontar Gallery, Utan Kayu, that opened on April 23 and will run until May 14.

The three artists work in their respective studios, meeting to exchange ideas outside their workshops, usually at the Lontar coffee shop or at a food stall at Ismail Marzuki Cultural Park, Central Jakarta.

Long before they held the joint exhibition, they had regular encounters they call their Monday & Thursday Meetings, in which they discussed their work with each other. Asikin Hasan, the curator of Lontar Gallery, also attends the meetings.

"Lontar Gallery has organized such dialogs before," says Asikin. "Results of these discussions were published in the Utan Kayu Newsletter. What Jerry, Firman and Satya Graha are doing is a continuity of what has been done by Lontar before."

Results of the three artists' dialogs are documented in a small book titled Menangkap Ketakterdugaan (Catching Surprise), which refers to the unexpected conclusions about art practices reached during the discussions.

Satya Graha, Jerry and Firman seem to agree that works of art cannot be separated from the artists' backgrounds. What people see in the exhibitions is the result of a train of thought. But the creative process and concerns of the artist, such as his/her habits are not presented.

Knowing something of the artist's background is important to help the public understand artwork.

In this exhibition the three artists present a range of works using different media.

Satya Graha selects pencil as his medium, with a realistic approach to his subject matter. Jerry uses mixed media to interpret the image of Buddha, while Firman employs acrylic to present -- not represent -- the idea of Buddhism.

Satya Graha completed his degree in sculpture at the Bandung Institute of Technology's School of Fine Arts. The artist, who also took part in Gerakan Seni Rupa Baru (the New Art Movement) in 1977, pursued his studies in Germany in the 1980s. Upon his return, Satya Graha did not make sculpture but turned to the humble pencil.

In Satya Graha's hands the pencil is no longer a second-class medium. However, his background as a sculptor strongly influences his drawing method and the way he views the arts.

There were periods when he shifted between styles. Between 1981 and 1981, he focused on the human figure. He drew human figures that were without backgrounds and identity. His works in this period portrayed human beings as estranged figures, silent, dark, cut loose from their social environment.

He was especially attracted by the bone structure and delineating muscle forms, that he says have temporary characteristics. He was also attracted by sculpture. In this period, his themes often centered on the issue of death.

From 1981 onward, Satya Graha has diversified, although the human figure still occupies his attention, and the trail of death can still be seen in, for example, Kristus.

But Tari Kelana has nothing to do with death. On the contrary, the image talks about life -- unlike images he created in Kristus, Ikarus II or Studi Beckkett. This paradox, according to Satya Graha, always exists in daily life.

He says he depicts death because there is life.

"I present black in order that the white appears, all those parts are a way of thinking that I use", he said.

Jerry. T, a mixed media devotee, loves the Buddha image in his works. The painter who graduated from IKJ in 1989 tries to unite the symbol and spirit of Buddhism.

The spirit -- seen in his spontaneous line drawing with brushstrokes -- and symbols -- like the form of Mandala and the figure of Buddha -- bump into each other, on geometric yellow, brown, gray and black color partitions.

On one surface he glued a piece of paper, on another surface he drew a detailed object, and where needed, blocked in the surface with another color. This is his approach in Mandala, Mandala Budha and Budha Menangis.

Like Jerry, Firman Lie also tries to dig out aspects of Buddhism in his works. Based on the spirit of Buddhism, Firman tries to represent something, be it objects we recognize or icons we don't recognize. In this exhibition Firman presents works from two periods of his career.

In works from one period, he presents a pile of colors with orderly and harmonic forms: Tanpa Judul (Without Title), Kegembiraan (Joy). But in Evolusi Bentuk (Evolution of Form) and Aksara (Character), he presents icons drawn from his understanding of Buddhism.

By presenting his thoughts and experiences and displaying his attention to process, Firman's works are abstract. At the highest level, a true Buddhist might not be interested in what he sees, but about what moves, the unseen, and that is what Firman seeks to achieve with his latest work Keseimbangan ((Balance).

"This exhibition tries to free itself from big themes with a return to smaller, more elementary matters," Asikin Hasan says.