Suwage's paintings sell, to critics' dismay

Yusuf Susilo Hartono, Contributor, Jakarta

In the art scene, Agus Suwage is well known as a contemporary fine artist with integrity. He has attended many reputable fine arts forums at home and overseas.

These events include the ninth Jakarta Bieniale in 1993 at Ismail Marzuki Cultural Park in Jakarta, the Asia Pacific Trienalle in Australia in 1996, the 11th Bienniale Havana in Cuba (1997) and Kwangju Bieniale in Korea (2000), to name but a few.

Now that he is exhibiting at the National Gallery in Jakarta, Suwage is suddenly becoming commercial. And he has been enthusiastically welcomed by Indonesia's art market.

The exhibition is the third to have been curated by Rizki A. Zaelani, and organized by the Jakarta-based Nadi Gallery at the National Gallery. Almost 40 oil and acrylic paintings and digitally printed works on canvas had been sold -- at exorbitant prices -- prior to the official opening by Marco Kusumawijaya on Friday, Aug. 8.

Despite the financial success of both Suwage and Biantoro Santoso, the gallery's manager, many art critics and observers are less than joyous.

The National Gallery, they argue, was not intended to be the location of sales-oriented exhibitions.

Even if this was its function -- the institution is supposed to serve the general public -- and so, even worse, why was the show sold out before it even opened? If such activity becomes the bread of the National Gallery -- considered to be the last bulwark for the active discourse of fine art -- where else can an authentic art discourse be found?

Admittedly, this is not the first such incident to have occurred here. Many galleries have opened as non-commercial spaces, offering young artists room to experiment, but the public loses the chance to see fresh work when curators start picking and choosing, according to the market.

Critics said that those involved in the exhibition were, hypocritically, among those who were opposed to the idea of using the National Gallery for commercial purposes.

The management of the National Gallery has failed to adhere to its own rule of the game.

Suwage's exhibition is named, Ough - Nguik, (the Indonesian sound for the snort of the pig). Does this represent the indignation of those who have witnessed the transformation of the National Gallery to Nadional Gallery? (A reference to the Nadi Gallery's infiltration of the National Gallery's ideals).

But all this aside, what is the quality of Suwage's works? For fine artists with a background in the graphic arts, like Suwage himself, there is no surprise here. Suwage's works could easily have been lifted from any foreign advertising or graphic art book.

He includes a variety of self-portraits. Most of these works are based on photographs, which his wife shot with a digital camera. In one of these self-portraits, Suwage is naked with a cable, strung with dozens of light bulbs, being wound round his body. In another picture, he squats over the toilet bowl. Another, Suwage shooting himself in the head with a pistol. Another, depicts him wearing a head scarf like a woman and carrying a crying child.

He painted acrylic strokes over the 100cm x 200cm photos, which were printed in his studio. Sometimes, Suwage juxtaposes two photographs, one over the other.

In Holy Beer and Friends (2003), Suwage's head is dipped into a glass of beer. To make this work he combined three photographs. A self-portrait, a beer glass and a photo of fire.

In the piece Ough--Nguik!, the exhibition title, he wears a pig mask, while his ears are pulled from behind. Only Suwage knows why he has written the scream in Arabic.

The most interesting work in this exhibition is his installation,Yin-Yang. The sculptural form of his red head, with one eye open and another closed, is being fought over by two figures, dressed respectively in khaki and black. Poignantly humorous, the head remains bodiless while the two bodies remain headless. The struggle to get the head is futile.

Suwage said the work had nothing to do with the severed head found on the fifth floor of the JW Marriott hotel, in the aftermath of the bombing.

"I created this work long before the Marriott tragedy," said Suwage, who graduated from the graphic design department at the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB).

Suwage began exhibiting in 1984 and his works can be found in the collections of several institutions overseas, from the Singapore Art Museum to the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum in Japan.

The exhibition is being held at the National Gallery, Jl. Medan Merdeka Timur 14 A, Central Jakarta, until Aug. 18.