'Senyap', a search for meaning in silence

Ivy Susanti, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Rows of headstones sit peacefully as cottony clouds rush restlessly by over a graveyard somewhere on Madura island in eastern Java, racing with the sun to finish the day's business before darkness descends.

The peak of Mount Bromo in East Java, trees and hills, and the Arq-e-Bam citadel in Iran stand naked against the blue skyscape, proud to serve a celestial function as mediators between the sky and earth.

Speechless, yet full of meaning, these and other photographs by Kompas photojournalist Arbain Rambey are on display in an exhibition titled Senyap (Silence) at Bentara Budaya Jakarta.

The photographs in the exhibition date from the mid-1990s up to a recent visit to Iran to cover the aftermath of the devastating earthquake there.

Fifty-four photographs, mostly landscapes in color or black and white, make up the exhibition, which is the fourth solo show for the 42-year-old photojournalist, who has worked at Kompas since 1990.

Silence is expressed by centering immobile, dead -- physically and figuratively -- objects (subjects might be more appropriate) in natural space. Yet, a deeper look leads one to associate the settings as a self in a bodily continuum, or, on a larger scope, a microcosm in a macrocosm.

As human as it sounds, this sort of mental association can be traced deep to our psyches, our hidden beings.

Most of the subjects of Arbain's photographs are inanimate objects, but the photographs make more sense if they are not so simply interpreted.

Humans, plants and animals are "alive" because they are breathing. But in a human's search for meaning, anything, be it alive or not, can assist the search, particularly if it is related or even attached to past events that re-emerge consciously or unconsciously during certain moments.

In this regard, "death" or "dead" things (headstones, hills, islands, etc.) are "immortal"; things or persons that have been long gone but exist in the mind of the photographer, brought alive in tranquility once again. Now they have frozen by Arbain's camera.

It seems immortality inspires Arbain, to the point that the objects he shoots are not only objects of artistic expression, but companions on his journey to self.

The resulting photographs are peaceful, pleasing or depressing, depending on the eye of the beholder. Yet Arbain has proven that photography can capture the essence of life, using the techniques and devices available.

Arbain says photography is his way of telling people his story. While he shoots news photos for Kompas, this exhibition is not about photojournalism.

This is not the first time he has taken "silence" as his main theme. In a solo exhibition in Jakarta last August, he introduced the "Voice of Silence".

"All of my photographs have the same tone, all reflecting silence in many senses."

-- I-Box Senyap by Arbain Rambey, until Jan. 29. Bentara Budaya Jakarta Jl. Palmerah Selatan 17 Jakarta 10270 Tel. (021) 5483008, 5490666, ext. 7910 Fax. (021) 53699181 Open to the public 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily