Teguh Ostenrik begins unmasking Homo sapiens

Carla Bianpoen, Contributor, Jakarta

After decades of wandering in search of truth and justice and looking behind masks covering virtually every trait of the human being, Teguh Ostenrik seems ready to cast anchor in the basic realities of a simple life.

Not quite, though. Although his brush now tends to return to the fashion of formalistic art, the bodies on his canvases speak of another journey he is undertaking.

Never losing sight of his central theme, the masked Homo sapiens, Teguh has now started the process of unmasking the masquerade of Homo sapiens. Matured by experience and artistic exploration worldwide, his mode today includes a blend of what has become typical Teguh. This is what makes his current solo exhibition special.

Tubuhmu Tubuh (Your Body), consisting of 38 works in acrylic, charcoal and bronze, are displayed through Oct. 31, at the newly opened Alila Hotel, Jl. Pecenongan Kav. 7-17, Central Jakarta.

Art can be tough and complicated stuff. Often considered to be narratives, or promoting certain agendas, it can be questioned and argued, and even praised. In the case of Teguh's art, it is the inner necessity of his work that touches the strings of the soul.

His paintings show traces of his abstract expressionistic mode, which took prominence in his canvases of the 1980s.

Sekejap Harapannya (A Little Hope), the most outspoken in this respect, shows a human figure that appears from the blue-black background and strokes in the fashion of his WALK series. But it takes long and intense watching, before discerning the body, as if the artist's brush had captured it on the go.

It recalls the fast, unhesitating strokes with which he used to capture situations from a moving train, like fleeting moments put on canvas in an act of instinctive response.

"The colors play their own game," says Teguh, "the figure need not be dominant."

In his case, "it is framing the freedom of color."

Strange enough, Teguh's bodies of men represent tension and strength, while women's bodies strike one as being in a state of "decay".

Disamping Khayalan (Beyond Imagination), for instance, presents a woman with lumpy breasts and a dead expression, while desperate eyes appear from under the painterly scratches in Pandangan Matanya (The Stare).

Can one detect a hint of gender bias here, or is it about compassionate observations that wish to display the gender disparities still haunting women in society? Could it be that the artist himself is still torn between age-old biases and the new vision on gender parity?

On the other hand, there are also images of women displaying endless muscle and strength, taking the appearance of warriors rather than presenting the conventional image of the feminine.

Pictured against a dark background is a woman in the nude, with large breasts, a round tummy and facial traits lingering between the female and the specific male, the female rower in the painting titled Pendayung (Rower) may well be Teguh's way of telling the "truth" he has discovered behind the masks of the everyday.

In fact, Teguh's inclination towards values for the human being, including both men and women, is a proven fact in his continuous search on the road of Homo sapiens. His images used to show figures suggesting man and woman flowing into each other but with no specific gender discernable.

His bronze sculptures in this exhibition are resurrected versions of his two-dimensional paintings, which used to express his contemplation on the masks in human life.

They have a touch of antiquity, with the bulging, heavy and rigid texture appearing like uniforms of soldiers from another world.

"They are taken out of Homo sapiens," explains Teguh.

The charcoal drawings displayed in this exhibition, are the most wonderful I have seen so far. Sometimes he applies an admirable minimum of lines, but effectively puts emphasis on the effects of light and shadow.

At other times he uses charcoal, striking with its whole length over the paper to obtain a specific effect. Whatever mode he uses, there is always the tangible movement or the position of the body in relation to space.

Given the unmasking now set in motion, we may well expect even more intriguing revelations by Teguh Ostenrik.