Not Rowan's but mine

Not Rowan's but mine

After reading your article Balai perupa honors three art forms
from Pavan Kapoor in the Sunday, June 17, 2001 edition of The
Jakarta Post, I am writing to offer my criticism on this subject.
My name is Grace Siregar, I am an Indonesian artist and I held a
solo exhibition of my work at Balai Perupa between June 9 and
June 27, 2001. The exhibition was titled Pohon Jakarta (The Tree
of Jakarta) and was opened on June 9 by Mr. Mohamad Sobari, the
director of Antara News Agency. This was my first solo exhibition
in Jakarta and I exhibited a total of 21 paintings and seven
installations. Performance artist K-Cung was invited to perform
his piece at the opening of my exhibition. Rowan Winifred Davey
was also invited to show her work called Sparkling Celebration
and Gloomy Days.

I felt disappointed after reading this article because the
information regarding my work is not correct and the impression
given by the writer, Pavan Kapoor, is that the work is rather
that of Rowan Winifred Davey. Pavan Kapoor did not contact me
directly prior to writing the article to discuss it and
consequently the details of the exhibition were totally
incorrect.

Pavan Kapoor states that "The second art form that was unique
to Pohon Jakarta was the installation art, primarily displayed by
artist Rowan Winifred Davey". In fact, the installation work
exhibited in the main square was entirely my own, which had also
previously been exhibited by Pohon Jakarta at the National
Gallery between April 22, 2001 and April 30, 2001.

Regarding the paragraph "Although Rowan had some of his
paintings also on display...", I would like to state that all
paintings on display were my own work and not that of Miss Rowan
Davey"."... his installation works such as Pohon Jakarta, which
stands in the central arena in the Taman Kafe Complex, is more
eye-catching. It consists of a central trunk with long narrow
plastic bags billowing out and waving in the breeze". In fact,
Rowan is a "she" and Pohon Jakarta is again my own work.

"The paintings on display are mainly by Grace Siregar...",
whereas, previously mentioned, all the paintings in the
exhibition were mine. Pavan Kapoor also states that "the show is
part of JakArt@2001", but in fact this exhibition was
independently funded by myself.

GRACE SIREGAR

Jakarta