Contemporary Worlds: Indonesia – Artists

Contemporary Worlds: Indonesia – Artists Exhibiting artists: Zico Albaiquni Akiq AW Febie Babyrose Faisal Habibi Herbert Hans Duto Hardono FX Harsono Ruddy Hatumena Mella Jaarsma Adi ‘Uma Gumma’ Kusuma Jompet Kuswidananto MES 56 I Gusti Ayu Kadek (IGAK) Murniasih Eko Nugroho Garin Nugroho Octora Yudha ‘Fehung’ Kusuma Putera Tita Salina Tisna Sanjaya Handiwirman Saputra Uji ‘Hahan’ Handoko Eko Saputro Albert Yonathan Setyawan Melati Suryodarmo Agus Suwage Julian Abraham ‘Togar’ Tromarama I Made Wiguna Valasara Entang Wiharso Contributing artists: 69 Performance Club/Forum Lenteng Nindityo Adipurnomo Reza Afisina Heri Dono Arahmaiani Feisal Syaiful Garibaldi House of Natural Fiber (HONF) Theo Frids Hutabarat Cinanti Astria Johansjah Paul Kadarisman Agung Kurniawan Bagus Pandega Wedhar Riyadi Ruang Rupa Citra Sasmita Arin Dwihartanto Sunaryo Yaya Sung Eddy Susanto Titarubi Wayan Upadana Syagini Ratna Wulan Tintin Wulia For media - Profiles of artists attending exhibition launch in alphabetical order ALBERT YONATHAN SETYAWAN born 1983 Bandung, West Java, Indonesia | lives and works Kyoto, Japan Albert Yonathan Setyawan’s monumental ceramic floor installation Shelters 2018–19 comprises 1800 terracotta components meticulously arranged in a 5.5-metre square grid. Each individual form is painstakingly slipcast from a handcrafted plaster mould in one of five architectural shapes. Despite the humble nature of their material, the structures are elegantly proportioned and restrained in their simplicity. Arranged in a regular repeating pattern, their precise silhouettes create a variegated ‘skyline’ with rhythms of form and space. The configuration references the Diamond World or Kongokai mandala, a fundamental tool in Japanese esoteric Buddhist practice, which functions as an aid to meditation and a portal or medium for spiritual awareness and understanding. Instead of the five Wisdom Buddhas that comprise the individual components of the Diamond World mandala, Setyawan’s five architectural forms each reference the upper part of a religious structure: mosque, church, temple, stupa and ziggurat.In Shelters the artist invites the viewer to conceptually enter the three-dimensional ceramic mandala and consider the various spiritual practices and beliefs embodied in its architectural components. They recall the mixture of diverse faiths, cultures and ethnicities that surrounded Setyawan growing up in Indonesia and the occasional conflicts he witnessed that resulted from the collision of religion and politics. The artist considers the:... artmaking process a way to meditate and contemplate on certain issues. In this work, it is about trying to find balance and harmony in life. The work will be composed of shapes that willremind people of ... temples and shrines associated with their religious practices and faiths. All the miniatures of religious architecture sit next to each other, composed in a pattern that represents order, like the landscape of a city composed of many different houses and buildings.1 Setyawan primarily works with ceramics, a medium he prefers for its ubiquitous presence in daily life and social, cultural and historical associations. The repetition inherent in each installation allows him to become immersed in ‘art labour’, in which the process of production rather than invention is paramount. This induces a meditative state, described by the artist as a ‘mantra for daily life’. The repeated patterns in this installation recall not only mantras or chants recited to gain spiritual awareness, but also the sequences inherent in nature. More than arrangements of decorative elements, Setyawan’s ‘exalted aggregations’ instill a meditative focus in the viewer and call on our interpretation of, and desire to map, the order of the universe. Carol Cains DUTO HARDONO born 1985 Jakarta, West Java, Indonesia | lives and works Bandung, West Java, Indonesia An experimental musician and sound artist, Duto Hardono investigates the possibilities of how sound is presented within a gallery context, often performing his works with found objects and analogue technology. Variation & improvisation for ‘In harmonia progressio’ 2016–17 is an instructional vocal game piece where the artist invites groups of people to transform the ‘white cube’ of museums and galleries into a space for radical audio interruptions. The instructions are simple yet infinitely complex in their different interpretations and iterations. Hardono engages 12– 15 vocal ‘actors’ to interpret aurally and to express physically the words ‘in, harmonia, progressio’. These words are repeated, much like a tape loop, to form a unique vocal composition. Like a game of Chinese whispers, the original instructions are interpreted and then broken down to form unexpected new meanings. While this morphing of sound into new forms is nothing new in the world of sound art, the agency that is handed over to interpretation by different communities of people, with different cultural backgrounds, is what differentiates the work. Every time it is interpreted and performed it essentially becomes a new vocal score. In recent years, sonic works in galleries and museums have been gaining more attention through the current focus on live art practices and the unearthing of the historical connections between visual art and sound. However, while this connection is acknowledged, it is still surprising to find durational live works in museum spaces, whose purpose is generally to preserve and display art, not always to activate it. Presenting live performance works in sanctioned spaces, then, can be seen as a radical departure from the white cube’s intention. In Indonesian contemporary art practice, art can happen anywhere — on the side of a road, in share houses, in nature, in cafes and restaurants—with minimal emphasis on the ‘where’ and maximum attention on the ‘what’. The most important aspect of art making is that you share your work with your community, seek support and invite people to engage. This democratisation of art is what Indonesian contemporary art practice does best and is an important approach to bring to international art discourse. Kristi Monfries EKO NUGROHO born 1977 Yogyakarta, Central Java, Indonesia | lives and works Yogyakarta, Central Java, Indonesia Belonging to a younger generation of artists who emerged post-Reformasi—known as generation 2000 or the internet generation—Eko Nugroho witnessed the rapid social and political changes that followed the fall of Suharto’s 32-year rule. Working primarily with popular culture imagery—street art, comic books and science fiction—seamlessly woven together with traditional Javanese motifs from batik and wayang (shadow puppets), Nugroho has developed hybrid pop-figures that embody the attitude of this period. These figures appear prominently in his underground comic zine, Daging Tumbuh (DGTMB) (see p 136), which was initiated in 2000 in collaboration with other artists in the spirit of the newly won democracy. More recently, these figures have found new surfaces as the artist playfully experiments with different media—sculpture, embroidery, mural painting, contemporary wayang kulit performance and installation. Nugroho’s multidisciplinary practice has grown from a central objective: to find public space, in any shape or form, to share his art. Combining sculpture, installation and batik, Carnival trap 2018 features brightly coloured costumes concealing all but the faces and feet of the figures beneath. Made of upcycled plastic debris collected in Yogyakarta, the work addresses Nugroho’s concerns regarding Indonesia’s plastic predicament that affects the entire archipelago. This not only situates the artist in a local conversation but is a comment on the wider global issues of waste management and land pollution. Conceptually, this work likens Indonesia’s current political situation to a carnival, charged with colourful lights, roaring noise and a seemingly collective euphoria. However, Nugroho’s work is a cautionary message on the hype often created by politicians, inviting us to be critical and to look beyond this misleading masked festivity. The artist’s distinctive embroidery works also connect to greater socio-political issues pertinent to everyday life in Indonesia. Throw away peace in the garden 2018 (see pp 8–9) and We keep it as hope, no more no less 2018 compare Indonesia’s democracy to a garden where politics, religion and culture are tangled like branches, vines and wildflowers. Embroidery holds a unique and important place in Nugroho’s oeuvre, and has led him to establish a business in support of Yogyakarta’s community of embroiderers. Nugroho’s practice is rooted in the realities of his local community but has an astute global outlook. Evident in his multifaceted practice, the artist presents an awareness of the complexities and dilemmas of contemporary life in an increasingly interconnected world. Bianca Winataputri ENTANG WIHARSO born 1967 Tegal, Central Java, Indonesia | lives and works Yogyakarta, Central Java, Indonesia and Rhode Island, United States of America Entang Wiharso is perhaps best known for his cut-out metal wall reliefs, which hark back to traditional narrative bas-relief panels that adorn ancient Hindu and Buddhist temples such as Borobudur in Central Java. In the Temple of Hope series, which Wiharso began in 2009, the artist developed his cut-out wall panels into large-scale monumental installations. Temple of Hope: Door to Nirvana 2018 is an intricate metal house-like structure with an entrance on each side

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