IO, Jakarta – Salihara Gallery again facilitates an environment for domestic artists to showcase their best works. After two months residency in Australia and Thailand, three winners of “Salihara three-dimensional Art Competition 2016” have returned and exhibited their new works on “Setelah Residensi Trimatra” (“after the three-dimensional Art Residency”) following their mini-research and exploration through various media during their overseas stay, which later developed and was incorporated into their artwork.
Suryo Herlambang, the first winner, managed to secure a residency at The Pickers’ Hut Glaziers Bay, Tasmania, Australia. On the exhibition, he portrayed sculptures which were inspired by humans’ journey, a comprehensive experience which could mark a new set of culture. Suryo tried to position himself as an explorer who discovered new customs, cultures and origins like the famous American Conqueror, Christopher Columbus. As the result of that depiction, a bearded man with a wide-eyed look and red shorts could be seen in his latest work, identical to an American-born cartoon figure ‘Mickey Mouse’.
Not only adopting non-Indonesian elements, Suryo also produced a miniature: a man dressed in white shirt and dark pants, his legs wrapped in black formal shoes. This work was titled Nusantara 1965. Without showing the exact objection, he let the audience decode the meaning with an open perspective. Some say this artwork was perhaps related to the history of this nation.
The second and third artists are Reza Zefanya Mulia and Ajeng Maria Saputri. Together, they held a residency at Tentacles Art Space, Bangkok, Thailand. Reza developed an interest in pop culture and current technological trends, based on his observations of visitors’ selfie behaviour in the exhibition space, as we could see on his installation work. Ajeng Maria Saputri, who has undertaken the same residency in Thailand, highlights poetry verses over embroidery-work in the effort to showcase her self-confidence through art.
Reza chose the word ‘appreciator’ to acknowledge visitors who captured his artwork, and even gave suggestions regarding how to appreciate artwork through social media. Reza, a Language and Art alumnus of State University of Jakarta, deliberately created artworks display for the craft enthusiasts through a row of ceramic tiles shaped like a plate and inscribed convincing sentence “The Greatest Artwork Appreciators.” Not only that, there was a crown-shaped work that reads “A Loyal Visitor of Fine Arts Exhibition.” In the process of interpreting Reza’s work, visitors may be positioned as the person wearing the crown on his head, and respectively allowed to be the wise and erudite observer while decoding Reza’s artworks.
Ajeng Martia Saputri also presented work in the exhibition with her prominent artwork in the form of plastic media transformed into miniature baby diapers, toddlers’ shirts, men’s collars and a pair of women’s underwear. Those four works were aligned next to each other and hung on a dropped ceiling. The placement order adjusted to the human lifetime journey, from the birth to adulthood. Full-grown mannequins are placed in a baby cradle protected by white nets. On the other side, the form of an individual analogy was above a horse-riding toy. This work was titled “The Prayer.” Both are intended to capture people’s attention that in every human childhood stage they are well-protected by external factors, and by the time this human grows up, internal factors played a role in dragging them out of the comfort zone. In the adult phase, they will encounter diverse challenges and face unfamiliar phenomena, even sudden threats. At this period, a human being shall overpower everything matters. This exhibition has the object of increasing public interest and appreciation towards art culture in Indonesia, through the presence of such unique ideas and display.
(Muhammad Akbar)