When business meets art: Indofood Award

When business meets art: Indofood Award

Carla Bianpoen, Contributor, Jakarta

Deviating from the usual practice to select the winners out of pictures of works sent, the jury for the 2nd Indofood Award Competition selected winners directly from paintings submitted.

Out of 2,800 photos of works by 1,249 painters, the jury selected 89, of which they asked the real paintings from the artists. This meant an extra delivery cost added to the Awards budget but that was a consequence to avoid the trap of manipulating pictures.

That Indofood Awards has a serious commitment to encouraging the development of genuine artistic achievement is evident not only from the cost they are willing to take upon them, but perhaps more so from the vision of the company's management.

Eva Riyanti Hutapea, the company's president director/CEO pointed at the congruence between art and the concept of Indofood's products.

Fitting with the concept of Indofood products which are based on knowledge, health and art, art inspires to make vision and action compatible, she said during the award presentation.

The jury, consisting of art collector Dr. Oei Hong Djien, poet and cultural prominence Taufiq Ismail, prominent art writer, art collector and curator Agus Dermawan T., and art lecturer and critic DR.M. Dwi Marianto, was led by well-known artist Prof. Dr. Srihadi Soedarsono M.A.

How does an artist view the changes during five years of Reformasi, 1998-2003? This was the theme that contesting artists had to focus on in their works for the competition.

While each tackled one aspect in the tumultuous ramble of everyday life, it is the wounds and the cracks caused by arrogance, hegemonic practices and the push into a sense of alienation tearing the country apart that color the map of Reformasi.

Such is particularly palpable in Agung Hanafi Purboadji's Ratapan Ibu Pertiwi (Motherland's Cry), 2003, a map of Indonesia sewn scars all over the map, even going over the words adil (just) and makmoer (prosperous). Teguh Wiyatno's stirring portraiture in Kabar Hari Ini of the liberated voice of man since the fall of the repressive regime, vibrates with the flows of information now set free, and read by both the poor, the marginal and the settled elite, while I Wayan Suklu in Menembus Labirin, Menggelinding dan Menghempas Dinding (Going through labyrinth, rolling and smashing the wall), 2003 describes the country as a ball set loose, rolling on until it bounces into the wall. Is there still a sense of solidarity amidst the freedom of voice resulting in virtual confusion of tongues, or are we trapped like fish in the bamboo bubu (trap) as pictured by Gusti Alit Cakra in his Ibarat Ikan Terperangkap Bubu (Just like a fish trapped by a net)?

Evidently, amidst all the perceived chaos and brouhaha, the outer voice has not yet entirely beguiled the inner voice and the inner strength. Melodia's Mimpi-Mimpi Yang Tertunda (The postponed dreams), evokes compassion for the becak driver, for whom consumerism and the advantages of technology remain a far cry, while Yayat Surya's Aura Perubahan (The aura of change) notes the hidden energy that is in the process of coming to the surface.

They were among the eleven winners, selected under representational, symbolic and abstract categories, standing out because of their ability to evoke feeling, empathy, compassion, and a touch of the romantic within a somber outlook of the situation.

Teguh Wiyatno's water color painting captures the essence of the Reformasi period in a wonderful depiction of the people's freedom and enjoyment of an overflow of information, at the same time giving the notion of horrible things happening every day, so much so that one would rather cover one's face, like the man in the painting. Setting his narrative amidst white clouds emerging from a pitch black background lit by what looks like fires, conveys a sense of the surrealistic, and a gradual doubt haunting human insecure existence.

Usually painting still lifes of the becak (pedicab) that has been evicted from the main roads in the big city like Jakarta, Melodia is now stretching his imagination a step further by presenting not only the vehicle and its driver, but also the dreams of the poor amidst the profusion of nightlife.

Billboards denoting the good life with consumer goods for the haves form the background of the becak driver for whom a life worth living forever remains a dream.

Money carrying the pictures of two presidents indicate the changing of the guard without much change in the situation of most of the people.

In the case of I Wayan Sujana, who calls himself Suklu, a contraction of Sujana and Klungkung, an area in Bali where he was born, the inclusion of his work as an award winner shows an increasing tendency of current curators and critics towards the basic local.

Suklu managed this year to be accepted in the CP Open Biennale where he submitted works made in the mode of basketry.

At the same time, he was among the top ten in the Indonesia Asian Art Awards (formerly Philip Morris Art Awards) with a work likening basketry, but made in mixed media. In the Indofood Awards competition, his work, which gives the notion of handicraft, is a canvas blending acrylic, rattan and aluminum.

Winners of this competition, each receiving Rp. 20 million, were Teguh Wiyatno, Catur Binaprasetyo, Melodia, and Ronald Manullang in the representational category, Ardison, Suraji, Hayatuddin, Agung Hanafi Purboaji in the Symbolic category, I Wayan Sujana (Suklu), Yayat Surya, and Gusti Alit Cakra in the abstract category.

With the IAAA, socialized by Yayasan Senirupa Indonesia since 1994, changing into a bi-annual event, and reportedly moving towards a a tri-ennial event, the annual Indofood Art Awards will be among the most important vehicles for Indonesian artists to channel their artistic urges and measure their might.

While this year's competition was an all-painting affair, next year the Indofood competition will include 3-dimensional works, according to Agus Dermawan T., the event's adviser. If that happens, it will be another breakthrough in the usual practice.

Pancawarsa Reformasi Indonesia Exhibition of works of winners and finalists Galeri Nasional, through November 17, 2003