Sculptor Sunaryo records time and history
Sculptor Sunaryo records time and history
Carla Bianpoen, Contributor, Jakarta
Sunaryo's installation at the CP Open Biennale 2003 is as
spectacular as its subject matter.
Covering 360 square meters of the open air space at Galeri
Nasional the artist recreates the obnoxious in a world situation
where the powerful do the steering and play superintendent.
As usual, Sunaryo does so in a manner that refrains from the
rude and unseemly. Rather, he stirs, evoking a sense of the
omnipotent egos leading to the world's horrid events.
As one enters the space, one is first struck by the black
cloth covering the iron scaffolding leading to what might be
taken as the killing fields: Silica sand everywhere, replicating
the desert, bullets in small containers and oil -- lifted at
night -- as if trapped in bamboo cages.
At the far end is a big cage. Inside the cage are a couple of
bamboo structures holding marionette-like figures that make the
same rigid movements all the time. On top is a propeller made of
something that reminds of the American flag.
As one walks there at night when peaceful Balinese music is
suddenly transformed into bomb-like thunder, one just can't stop
a horrid chill creeping over every part of the body.
Terperangkap dalam Kurung (Trapped in a Cage), translated as
"There is No Space to Bargain," is Sunaryo's vision of the
survival of the fittest. In the evening a clock's hour hand is
projected on the black cloth, the artist's revelation on space
and time, and the fallacy of civilization.
Sunaryo says his installation is just to remind us of the
large scenario that feeds the acts of war and violence, without
which the weapons industry would fade into oblivion.
It is not the first time Sunaryo has produced a work of art
based on social and political tensions. In 1998 he was so
distressed with the social and political situation at home, he
wrapped his works in black cloth.
"The tempest within our country has driven me to wrap these
works," he said at that time. He felt he had reached the nadir,
all his creative energy seemed afloat.
But the mere act of wrapping evoked a new kind of creation
with an aesthetic that was at once haunting and impressive. When
asked, he said he would not unwrap his work, nor produce any new
work until the situation improved.
But in 1999 he probably had to have another channel to vent
his feelings. This time he took to river stones, which he had to
hammer and chisel to sculpt, a process that served the release of
his emotions.
He presented his products in an exhibition titled Batu
Melangkah Waktu (Stones Stepping through Time). This time one
could see sculpted river stones, around which Sunaryo had tied a
rope.
In May 2001 he had an exhibition titled Puisi Titik Putih, or
white-dot poetry, perhaps his way of saying that the light is
getting brighter.
In a symbolic gesture one of his sculptures was uncovered in a
solemn ceremony. While it was a space for interior design,
Sunaryo made it a place where he brought together the physical
and metaphysical.
Indeed, this is again illustrated in his solo exhibition at CP
Artspace in Washington DC in 2001. An example of his fine
aesthetic, he makes visual the process of coming into being from
a cocoon to a butterfly.
A metaphor for fragility, it denotes the fragile state of
changing values in a society that seems forever in transition.
Born in 1943 in Banyumas, Central Java, Sunaryo is a graduate
of the sculpture studio of the Fine Arts Department of Bandung
Institute of Technology.
He is a widely acknowledged artist and fine sculptor, who also
makes semi-abstract paintings as well as thought-provoking
installations, as again evident in CP Open Biennale.
-- I-box
CP Open Biennale 2003
Sept. 4 to Oct. 3, 2003
Galeri Nasional
Jl. Medan Merdeka Timur (opposite Gambir Station) Jakarta
Every day except Mondays.
Every Saturday 11 a.m.: Exhibition tour with curator and selected
artist
Every Monday evening at 7:30 p.m.: Talk by artist
Sunday, Sept. 21 (9 a.m. to 5 p.m.): Artistic Program for
children aged 12 upward