Painter Dede Eri Supria gets down to business

By Amir Sidharta

JAKARTA (JP): Small is beautiful may now have entered the realm of cliche, but it seems a fitting summary of Dede Erie Supria's exhibition at the Jakarta Stock Exchange.

Unlike his previous grand shows, this one is comparatively smaller with 15 paintings on loan from several collectors.

The exhibition, being held to mark the institution's fifth anniversary, also includes a painting commissioned by the Jakarta Stock Exchange.

The painter visited the Jakarta Stock Exchange to gain a better understanding of the institution and how it works. "I still don't understand it," he said after four visits. "So, I just painted my impressions of its global relationship to other stock exchanges around the world, about its complexity and constant movement, and its connection to produce commodities and industry."

Clocks showing times in major world cities are arranged in the upper part of the painting, indicating the global relationship of the stock exchanges. Images of the buildings around Jakarta's Central Business District appear in the upper left of the painting. A view to distant rice fields, contrasted with rows of factories, evidence the connection between the stock exchange with industry and commodities.

The complexity of the institution is reflected in a maze seemingly constructed out of corrugated cardboards. Fragments of names of listed companies are on the cardboard. Streaks of colors pass across the labyrinth-like maze, and the dynamic arrangement of elements in the painting signify the stock market's constant movement.

A stock image of a contemporary stock market trading floor, with orderly traders seated at their computer monitors, is placed on the lower part of the painting measuring approximately 1.5 x 1.5 m.

"I once visited the stock exchange when it was still in Sabang, Central Jakarta. It was chaotic. The atmosphere of the Jakarta Stock Exchange is much more organized," he said.

Neat appearances do not, unfortunately, make for a greater understanding of the institution itself. The painter's failure to comprehend its complexity is evident in his use of hackneyed images and the extremely chaotic composition.

In any event, this exhibition appears to be a means of introspection for Dede in preparation for a larger solo exhibition, which he hopes to stage next year at the National Gallery.

"I actually don't like to exhibit in buildings," he said. "I much prefer to exhibit in places that are more accessible to the general public. I like to exhibit at Taman Ismail Marzuki or at Gambir, in the Gedung Pameran Seni Rupa of the Ministry of Education and Culture, the future National Art Gallery."

Dede is currently working on a large painting measuring approximately 4 x 10.5 meters, divided into fourteen panels of two rows of seven panels each. He hopes to exhibit this monumental work in the Indonesian Festival to be held in Tokyo, Japan, in September.

Due to the spatial limitations of his studio, he is only gable to assemble five panels in two rows at a time. To work on the other two panels, he has to remove the two panels on the other end of the row.

We can decipher parts of the painting from the scattered images of the incomplete work. A large garbage disposal truck is at the left of the composition. Dede explained that a satellite dish will be depicted in the right part of the painting. Both of these elements seem to radiate energies toward the center of the painting. The center itself consists of images of corporate signs and a cardboard box bearing brand names.

"Initially I planned to title it Pintu Gerbang (Gateway), but I had a different idea after working on the middle part," Dede said. "Perhaps it has to do with globalization, the influences of culture from outside Indonesia, the influences to globalization, and, even more so, the influences of the free world market of the year 2000-something. In art, it provides the opportunity for foreign artists to enter the Indonesian market. If we are negligent, we may lose."

The image of the parabola clearly seems to symbolize the "broadcasting" of globalization. " When we watch lenong (traditional Betawi play) on television, it is very different today. It seems that there is a lot which has been cut away. Perhaps it is also because of these influences that we never know what will happen later on. There are so many foreign companies and cultures entering and crowding us."

Dede Eli Supria's paintings are at the Jakarta Stock Exchange through July 25, 1997.