Painter Dede Eri Supria gets down to business

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.