Teen artist has monsters as central theme
Teen artist has monsters as central theme
Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta
He is only 12 years old and has just graduated from an
elementary school. However, Wiku Pulangasih of Yogyakarta has
created some 15,000 drawings and paintings of mostly watercolor
on paper and more than 200 acrylic paintings on large canvas.
His acrylic on canvas paintings are currently on exhibit at
the Sudut Gallery in Yogyakarta. Nine of them are quite large
measuring some 5 meters by 2 meters.
The exhibit, entitled The World Cup Mystery, which is also the
title of a piece on display, was inspired by the recent 2002
World Cup Championship in Korea and Japan.
"This year's World Cup, as I saw it, was really full of
mysteries. Many unpredictable things occurred. Common sense and
on-paper calculations just didn't work," said Wiku. He mentioned
several big names such as such as Argentina, France, and Uruguay
that crashed out in early rounds.
"I think God had intervened in the big event this time and
gave us many surprises," said Wiku, who has started painting as a
toddler.
In The World Cup Mystery he has a portrayal of the France's
balding wonder, Zinedine Zidane wearing an odd look on his face
walking off the soccer field in disgrace while other players
laughed at him.
In another work, he portrays goalkeeper Toni Sylva of the
underdog team of Senegal as having long and winding arms with the
fists in the shape of heads.
"It's as if Sylva's hands are able to think like heads do and
candidly catch the ball," he said.
Other renowned soccer stars that Wiku has featured include
Gabriel Batistuta of Argentina, Miroslav Klose of Germany and
David Beckham of England.
In The World Cup Mystery, Wiku divided the huge canvas with
vertical dark lines into five different squares of different
sizes in which he describes different scenes of the championship
according to his own imagination.
In fact, weird and imaginative figures, monsters, ghosts and
characters from the Greek mythology have long been the main
figures in his paintings.
"He read 18 books on Greek mythology in only three months when
he was still in kindergarten," Wiku's father, theater actor
Sriharjanto Sahid, 41, said.
The little artist has been getting inspiration from all
possible sources, books, newspapers, videogames, tv programs and
real-life experiences.
Wiku also exhibits eight paintings with different themes
albeit still featuring deformed figures.
In A Story from Beijing that was dominated by golden yellow
color, Wiku presents the monkey in Chinese folk tales Sun Go Kong
as his central figure. The monkey has a tail of a dragon,
symbolizing one's never-ending conflicts.
"I was inspired by an opera I watched while visiting Beijing
two years ago," said Wiku, adding that his visit to China and
Malaysia in 2000 had inspired him a lot and helped him create at
least two paintings: A Story from Beijing and A night in Kuala
Lumpur.
In fact, he said, it was also the visits that encouraged him
to start making huge size acrylic paintings on canvas, especially
after seeing the Great Wall of China, the Petronas Tower in
Malaysia, the giant Buddhist statues and Kwan Im Goddess statue.
Wiku is planning to make another 20 very large paintings this
year.
Born in Yogyakarta on Dec. 20, 1989, Wiku is the eldest of
five siblings the famous Sriharjanto. Wiku's mother, Woro
Anindyah also is a well-known painter.
The little prodigy reportedly started painting when he was
only 10 months old starting with some abstract paintings. He had
his first solo exhibition in 1992 when he was only 2 and a half
years old.
His younger sisters Seruni Bojawati, 11, and Ratu
Pandan Wangi, 7, are also talented painters and so is his two-
year-old younger brother Satrio Kinasih.
The exhibition runs until July 14, 2002, at Sudut Gallery, Jl.
Langenarjan 12A, Yogyakarta, Tel. 0818268561.