Suwage's paintings sell, to critics' dismay

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.