Young artist puts his body on the line
Young artist puts his body on the line
By Cynthia Web
YOGYAKARTA (JP): Thirty-two year old Nurcholis is an emerging
artist with a most promising future, great authenticity and
courage.
His paintings, currently exhibited at Dirix Gallery until July
31, are endlessly fascinating. The artist's creative process is
uniquely honest and controversial. He uses no brush, except for
an occasional embellishment.
He creates these canvases using his whole body in a "printing"
process. After laying down initial layers of carefully
planned color on the canvas, which is placed on the floor,
Nurcholis removes his sarong (tubular cloth) and a beautiful,
sometimes unpredictable process of creation begins.
This is a kind of naked yoga-ballet which has the appearance
of a "birth process". Nurcholis' internal artistic concept is
borne for all to see and understand.
He writhes and contorts, stretches and rolls across his large
canvas in a very deliberate and controlled way. The end result is
surprisingly touching.
Pure and clear printed images of the human form appear both
textural and transparent, appearing almost like x-rays with their
contrasting light and dark tonal patterns.
The sharp edges of the body contours, the dark areas, and the
highlighted areas created by protruding body forms, come together
to bring us images of great artistic purity.
His comments about his artistic development up to this
current style of total self-expression, are revealing.
The nature of recent Indonesian history has meant that artists
have often had to self-censor their work. This blocking of
creative expression combined with his observation that sometimes
the human being seems to have less importance than wealth, power
and material accumulation, have built up to a cry of outrage from
his deepest emotional core.
One day, in a frustrated painting session, he kicked a canvas
that was still wet, and later saw the visual impression of his
foot in the paint. The "print" of frustrated energy spoke to him
loud and clear and he saw its potential.
"If with the foot, then why not with the whole body?" he asked
himself. And later, "Why not the highest human ecstasy - of two
bodies entwined in love?"
His largest canvas, created with his wife Hety, also an
artist, is a beautiful thing to behold, in warm reds and browns,
resonating with energy and richness.
This process is, of course, a very controversial thing in a
modest society such as Indonesia. However, in his
characteristically intelligent and truthful way, Nurcholis showed
a video in a private area of the Gallery, for those who wished to
seriously observe the creative process of these paintings.
On video-tape was captured both a solo painting session, and
also the artistic collaboration/union with his wife, creating the beautiful
work entitled Rhythm of Love.
Nurcholis' artistic life has become one of total commitment -
"all or nothing".
Seeing the creation method on video is a profoundly moving
experience. The spirit of the art is unrestricted and the artist
and his work are one. This is pure "body-language".
The contoured impressions of the human body seem to
materialize from within the more tonal areas and there is a
feeling of spiritual oneness.
These images have great subtlety and, if explored with an open
heart, give much to the viewer in the way of contemplation and
emotional participation.
The writer is a cultural networker for the Australia-Indonesia
Arts Alliance.