Who are we, life size mixed media by Ade Artie Tjakra. Courtesy of the artists
While critical of many aspects of urban Jakarta, the works show how creative thinking can relieve a person’s stress.
There is, for instance, the work by Indah Arsyad (born in 1965), conceived amid the stressful traffic jams in the capital city. Stressed out, Indah managed to transform her negative thoughts into imaginations of the most fantastic kind. Featuring 21 white resin automobile wheels driven by white goose feathers, the installation, which is aptly titled Racing Minds, is like a beautiful flight of birds on wheels taking off to unknown lands of fantasy.
In the same vein, and out of the same feeling of stress, Awan P. Simatupang creates a finely executed motorcycle in mixed media. Metaphorically referring to our lack of progress despite great technological advances, the work is titled 0 Km. Appearing sweet, starkly contrasting with his usual dark pessimism, the switch may well have been driven by a sense of apathy.
The urban culture so prevalent in Jakarta is impacting on many aspects of human life. Amid the hustle and bustle, the vibrancy and the accelerated pace of life today, there seems to be little time to be still and think of God.
Racing Minds, resin and goose feather, by Indah Arsyad. Courtesy of the artistsBibiana Lee finds when everything goes well, we have no time to pray. Prayer comes when problems arise, the more problems, the more often one turns to prayer, she says. This is well visualized in her wall installation titled Suddenly I need You. Consisting of seven glass plates on which the words of prayer in the Betawi language are sandblasted, the use of shadow increases the intensity of the words which in the first few plates are fairly spread out but become crowded and clashing as they are layered on the last few plates. Words of prayer, in Indonesian, Betawi and Old English, are sandblasted too on the snacks that fill each jar before three confession booths.
Often called a melting pot, Jakarta is known for housing people of the most diverse origins. Ade Artie Tjakra, who finds herself in the midst of it, wonders about her identity. Born Chinese, living in Jakarta and being an Indonesian citizen, she feels there is something of each culture in her, as denoted in the work titled Who are we, featuring clothes representative of each identity.
On the negative side, there is so much make-believe, fake appearances and bestial behavior. These are the main themes epitomized by Taufan’s sculptures, such as his copper-plated Berbababi featuring mannequins with pig’s heads, or his fiberglass Tukar Nasib featuring a man with a dog’s head sitting on the sofa with a dog with a man’s head, or even in the Man with a Shadow showing a man standing on his upside-down image, both in fiberglass.
And what about the overpopulation, people crammed into one little space, the traffic jams, the pollution — one of the top three most polluted in the world — the noise that, according to Geoffrey Tjakra, often hampers an artist focusing on his creative urges. Geoffrey mixes all this in small ceramic images in one bowl, which, he says, can be seen as unity in spite of differences. And while his other small ceramic images are set like a necklace in a wall installation, it is called Neo Artifacts and denotes a critique of the urban culture of consumerism.
AB Sutikno sees urban man as a victim of the industrialized West. No wonder one of his works features a goat’s head. Yet, Keng Sien, the most senior of the participating artists, and a seasoned ceramist, wants to keep up optimism. Whatever the situation, take it easy, just relax and enjoy, he said. He says his ceramic sculptures titled No Doubt, Semedi Indah and Menabuh Semangat are meant to say don’t worry, enjoy the richness of today.
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