Yusra Martunus attempts to 'soften' the 'hard'

Yusra Martunus attempts to 'soften' the 'hard'

Carla Bianpoen, Contributor, Jakarta

The horseshoes in Yusra Martunus' work Melunakan Keras (Softening
the Hard) attract attention, but not because of their symbolic
association with luck.

Rather, the horseshoes draw attention because of their
repetitive arrangement in seemingly redundant rows that traverse
the entire canvas.

In the CP Open Biennale currently on show at the National
Gallery, the work hangs among other works that rouse the viewer's
interest, and the casual visitor just might pass it by,
dismissing the piece as something anyone could create.

On the other hand, an attentive viewer might stop and wonder
about the patience of the artist in arranging the numerous
objects in monotonous rows that seem meaningless at first glance.

For Yusra Martunus, it is the act of "making the hard softer"
that counts. The official English translation of the title,
Bending the Hard, may thus be somewhat misleading, as "bending"
can denote the use of force against a resisting object, something
contrary to what the artist actually had in mind.

Martunus says that the malleability of metal can be a metaphor
for anything in life. Suggesting an application of this concept,
he said, for example, that acts of violence need not necessarily
be countered by violence, that there is no point in countering
hardness with hardness.

On a more intimate level, melunakan keras may also denote the
softening of a stony heart.

Generally, metal is seen as a hard material and is thus
commonly used as a metaphor for strength.

For Martunus, however, metal is his metaphorical outlet, one
that allows him to comment on daily events, to express his
feelings about his likes and dislikes.

Translating this concept into his creations, Martunus uses
aluminum as his basic media, making use of the metal's reflective
quality to create an optical effect that seems to morph the
longer a viewer stands, gazing at the work.

While the horseshoes may appear repetitive, a closer look will
reveal the difference, however subtle, that marks each horseshoe
because "it has to do with Rasa", or the sense each viewer draws
from the work, as suggested by its title. To cast the horseshoes,
Martunus made a clay model, which was then cast by a professional
caster under his direction.

Rasa leads the CP Biennale with 200 horseshoes arranged on the
wall of the National Gallery, inviting visitors to draw an
individualized perception from each of the metaphorical pieces on
display.

The artist submitted a similar piece to the Indonesian ASEAN
Art Awards, formerly called the Philip Morris Art Awards,
organized by the Indonesian Fine Arts Foundation (YSRI) to
support the development of contemporary Indonesian art.

Meanwhile, Martunus' Kerasan Mencair (Melting Down) has been
selected as one of five pieces to represent Indonesia in the
regional competition next year, composed of 200 pieces of a
metalloidal metaphor for tears, arranged on a panel.

Martunus, 30, was born in Padang Panjang, and began his
explorations into allegorical art in a manner akin to his theme
-- not by direct resistance against his parents' wishes that he
enter university, but by finding an alternative route.

"I wasn't up to listening to theories and even less to
theoretical thinking," he explained. So he entered art school to
avoid that all, and to his surprise, he found that he liked it --
although he could not avoid theories altogether.

Since graduating from the Indonesian Fine Arts Institute (ISI)
in Yogyakarta in 2000, Martunus' artistic interpretations of
metal have been widely displayed in various joint exhibitions.

At this stage, his pieces are restricted to metal that has
been shaped, or cast. It will certainly be interesting to trace
the journey of his future explorations to see whether he delves
into the different forms of metal -- liquid, raw ore -- and how
he transforms these into his own metaphorical expression.