Sasya's watercolors swirl around the globe
By Pavan Kapoor
JAKARTA (JP): To a connoisseur of watercolor paintings the languid flow of dried colored-water captured on paper holds a kind of reverential magic. The crucial highlights created by pert strokes of the brush in precise abandonment leaving snatches of white paper exposed is what watercolor lovers rave about.
Indonesia's watercolorist Sasya Tranggono kicks off her world tour from Sept. 6 to Sept. 16 in the Bimasena Lobby of the Dharmawangsa hotel in South Jakarta. In a world tour taking in many countries -- including the Netherlands, United States and Singapore -- Sasya will exhibit 150 of her works.
Her intriguing assimilation of ethnic Indonesian artifacts, flowers, fruits and masks are constructed in what can be described as architecturally aesthetic layouts and well-balanced formats. Over the years Sasya has managed to effectively paint her own special color into the contemporary Indonesian art scene.
Entitled From Indonesia with Love, the exhibition is scheduled to be opened by Baron van Heemstra, The Netherlands ambassador to Indonesia, who himself collects Sasya's paintings.
The somewhat apt theme of the opening night party entitled My Love, My Life is spontaneous and awash with Sasya's enthusiasm and passion.
"My life is my art, my art is my life," said Sasya at a press conference, emanating transparency -- perhaps a poignant reminder of the media she chooses to paint in.
Sasya studied engineering at the Syracuse University in the United States and went on to complete her MBA degree in Rotterdam. It was at that time her untapped spirit needed release.
In the force of youthful ambition Sasya felt a new door of her mind open to the world of art and enrolled herself as a student of the famous artists Ben Stolk and Jose Moons.
Combining her formal training of Western artistic techniques, conceptualism and design with her admiration for Indonesian batik and artifacts over the years, Sasya has created a new place under the sun for herself. However, Sasya feels that herself and her style in the forthcoming exhibition is that of an evolved artist.
"While earlier I concentrated on crowding my pictures with batik and Indonesian pottery, masks and other artifacts, now I take on a more minimalist approach," she said.
Sasya attempts to include fewer colors and objects, creating a single focal point. This is apparent in paintings such as Do you remember? and Three lilies.
She remains a patriotic patron of "bold, bright, happy colors" as she prefers to call them. While using less of the blues and browns that are popularly used by Indonesian aquarellists, she plunges into Indian pinks, sunset oranges, turquoise and emerald greens. Although the Western world continues to consider drab colors art, Sasya thinks her thematic impact combined with Western styles of water-coloring is what gives her a place in the art world.
For Sasya who has lived and studied abroad for most of her life, true inspiration lies back at home. For someone in touch with her roots, Indonesian culture is inexhaustible of its beauty, perhaps because "home is where the heart is".