Pintor Sirait displays his unconventional artworks

By R. Fadjri

YOGYAKARTA (JP): For Pintor Sirait, an artist should explore elements of art only. If an artist should nurture a desire to express something outside the scope of art, the essence of art will usually be clouded.

Living in Bandung, West Java at the moment, Sirait has spent most of his life in Europe and in the USA. Sirait was born 34 years ago in Braunschweig, Germany. He is holding a degree in Liberal Arts from the Nevada-Reno University in the USA. It is not surprising that many of his art works absorb elements of the western art world.

He said further that an artist should stay as far as possible from the world of symbols. Too many symbols in a work of art may lessen intensive exploring of an art.

"Symbolism provide little room for maximum exploration of the art elements, because certain symbols only hinders the work," he said.

Take, for instance, six of his sculptures, now on show at the Cemeti Gallery, Yogyakarta, from Aug. 4 through Sept. 4, 1996. In this exhibition, named Lotus Engagement, Pintor delves into the shape of the lotus flower, taking it from all angles. To him, the form of the lotus flower is like a symbol of birth. But, his works appear as a form of exploration which eliminates certain symbols.

"I avoid discussion of giant subjects, so that the importance of aspects could be held in our visual attention," he said.

Most of his sculptures utilize iron material, although he once experimented with stone material. He has been working with iron for six years.

Pintor's interest in iron arose because of its harsh impression and its transformation into flexible contours. His choice of work material inclined more towards iron sheets, rather than working with solid iron staves. Many of his sculptures suggest flexibility, giving an impression of lightness in the material he used.

The artist's attraction to the lotus flower is born out of its simple shape. But, from such a simple form, the artist is trying to develop various visual exploration. In the hand of Pintor, the flower simple shapes get stronger with rusty shades covering most of the works.

Pintor developed a sturdy, but, at the same time flexible impression from a formation of lotus flower buds. At one time, the iron material is showing its basic nature in the form of steady lines, suggesting a full volume and strength. At another moment, the shapely lotus flowers and other works of the artist strongly suggest flexibility. The impression is quite discernible in his work Lotus Resurgence, each measuring 1 x 2,5 meters, in the form of two half squares and crowned with half circles. Each of the flower forms is filled with a solid square resembling a short wooden block attached to the inner wall and the crown of the lotus flower. The whole surface is covered with a rusty, chocolate shade as found in most of his pieces. Although rusty shades casting a tiresome pallor over the whole, appears to be dominating the work, on closer look, a play of rusty nuances caused by uneven brush strokes can be observed.

At times a translucent effect is created reminiscent of water color strokes on paper. The rusty shades are deliberately caused by an oxidation process of colors. Rust colors are, to Pintor, an expression of reality, which, in itself is of aesthetic value. In the rust colors he discovered the depth of the shades.

In Lotus Engagement, Pintor experimented with smaller scale sculpture. This work, measuring 15 x 25 centimeters, appears to be a miniature version of Lotus Resurgence. Both works are hinged into one that may be opened and closed with one movement. However, the diminutive size of the second work led the artist to the use of simple details.

Simplicity of ideas and forms are dominant in all his art works. " Small things often touch my feelings," he said. Tiny objects can be given vitality with only little movement, which adds a rich meaning to the work of art. Beauty is not measured in size, upon close attention, beauty is often found in small things.

Pintor Sirait's works are inconventional. If conventional sculpture works are viewed from a horizontal slant, Pintor's works have to be looked at from a vertical field. Space explorations are not restricted to horizontal fields, they have expanded to a vertical scope. As a result, Pintor's iron sculptures appears like a floating object like a lotus flower floats on the water's surface.

This floating effect is also found in his work entitled Lilu, depicting a blooming lotus flower, The form depicts a blooming process from a flattened shape into full blossom. The open forms of the lotus flowers are, to Pintor, symbols of hope for openes in human relationship which he rarely finds in Indonesia.

But, in his work Untitled, the body of the blooming lotus flower does imprint a heavy impression. In this work the proportions between the flower and the three square boxes below is not so harmonious.

If Pintor succeeded in bringing an illusion of lightness and drifting with his three dimensional experiments, in his other works using the two dimensional medium, this floating effect is not apparent. Take his work, Half life of a mythical fruit, for instance, and Permanent Trace, formed and curved from flat iron sheets. On the upper parts, a picture of a lotus flower is carved. Here too, as in his other works, a good part of the surface is colored in rust shades. In the work Half life of a mythical fruit especially, the lower part has been covered with real rust, formed by having water trickle over the iron sculpture.

In these last works, the inscribed lotus flowers give the illusion of contrived artistry. While Pintor's strength, notable in this exhibition, is found in his ability to exploit hard and full elements and transform these into light contours.