STONEWARE EXHIBITION:

JP/byi

Mrs. Hartini Hartarto (right), who chairs the Indonesian Handicraft Design Development Foundation, has a close look at a statue at a chignon stoneware exhibition at the Regent hotel on Jl. H.R. Rasuna Said, Central Jakarta.

The exhibition, which was opened by Mrs. Hartini last night, has 57 stoneware statues priced between Rp 3 million (US$1,363) and Rp 10 million each.

Mrs. Hartini said in her address at the opening ceremony that she was proud of the exhibition because it showed that stoneware, which in Indonesia used to be employed only for kitchen utensils, could now be transformed into valuable artistic works.

What is special about chignon? It is not practical for daily use. Also, it is difficult to sleep with hair styled in buns like that.

"Indeed it is not practical, but I have made the chignon as imaginative as possible," said artist F. Widayanto (second right), the creator of the stoneware statues.

Yanto, as Widayanto is popularly known, said his preferred subject for chignon statues was oriental women, particularly Javanese women.

The exhibition, which is sponsored by the Indonesian Ceramic Association in cooperation with the Regent Jakarta and The Jakarta Post, will run until Sept. 10. (als)