The exhibition of 35 artists from various countries at North Art Space in Ancol, Jakarta, comes amidst celebrations of the city’s 484th anniversary, and is a timely reminder of the environmental mishaps plaguing the city.
With the hustle and bustle of everyday life, it is easy to forget that we all live on a planet called Earth. And, what seems like a large place for humankind to live on forever in reality needs us to change the way we live if we expect our planet and our city to survive.
The show was a collaborative effort between North Art Space and the Olympia Fine Art Association (OFAA).
As the works in the exhibition reveal, many of the concerns of the participating artists from 22 countries refer to the consequences of the Earth’s destruction to both the physical and mental state of human beings and the living environment.
Reconsidering Nature Religion (Rockwell Lecture)
Indonesian Neneng Ferrier’s work titled Mayday, Mayday features the Earth as hollowed on one side, with the appearance of a cave offering a horrible view of what looks like debris and lava streaming down after the eruption of a volcano while figures desperately try to save themselves. Red lines run over the upper part of the destructed earthball like brains made visible.
The Rupture series of paintings by Babita Das from India show deformed faces that could be caused by chemical or environmental disasters.
The haunting image that Cristina Gori from Italy presents in digital print, the digital painting and inkjet print on canvas by Paul Tiilila from Finland featuring desolate dead wood, the dramatic Passions Trail in acrylic by Riyu Il-seon from Korea, the barren tree by Alessandro Cardinale from Italy — they all make visible the impact of a
destructed Earth.
Sometimes the actual situation appears too hopeless, it can lead a person to indulge in reverie, imagining the good old times when nature and man were in complete harmony.
This is evident in paintings that highlight the beauty of flowers, such as the fresh yellow anemones painted by Lena Kelekian from Lebanon, or Riyu Ilji from Korea who dreams of fresh roses and finds them not in the garden but within the self.
Others like Mohamad Ibrahim Elmasry from Egypt invent plants and flowers in abstract paintings of the most unusual colors.
Innes Indreswari Soekanto from Indonesia perceives the Earth as feminine, a vision revealed with her installation of five traditional Javanese hair buns made of bronze titled Mother Earth.
But more than that, she perceives it as being the land where she was born and raised (Java) as well as the place where she feels at home (Japan). This dualism is evident in her installation of three simple houses titled Furusato (Japanese for homeland), for which each doorlock represents her feelings. On the left is a lock featuring Mount Kanagawa, famous from a woodblock print by the Japanese artist Hokusai in the early 1930s, but getting new relevance with the catastrophic tsunami striking Japan earlier this year.
Another house has a lock featuring Srikandi, the woman of wayang stories, who was born a woman but raised a man.
Srikandi is a figure that Innes herself associates with, as her parents raised her as if she were a man to provide protection to the family. And, there is the lock featuring the Gunungan — essential for every wayang performance — indicating the beginning and end of the performance.
Placed between Mount Kanagawa and Srikandi, the Gunungan appears as the balance between the artist’s past in Java and Japan (the land where she lives and will soon take up a teaching position at the Tokyo University of the Arts).
Like Innes, Argentinian-born US citizen Marisa Caichiolo urges one to reconsider Earth in a way that recognizes the feminine at its most basic and cosmic in nature. She believes women have a special responsibility.
“We must reconnect with the Earth, practice again the female rituals, use our hands and our bodies to reconnect, not through the virtual world of the Internet, but in the real world, with kin, kinship, friends.” But, what she sees as the most important thing is to get rid of the negative in our body.
The Sacred Dresses are works of redemption, referring to the cosmic nature of mankind. Based on philosophies that nurture the mind and body in various cultures and religions of the world, the exhibition shows, among others, one of the two dresses in the show that are based on Buddhist philosophy.
Made of leather and canvas and printed with symbols of peace, added with mixed media on the front that represents the negative that has come out of the body, it is an inspiring piece of work.
Marisa, who is still adding to the 25 such dresses she has already made, will have a solo exhibition in Mexico next year.
With the hustle and bustle of everyday life, it is easy to forget that we all live on a planet called Earth. And, what seems like a large place for humankind to live on forever in reality needs us to change the way we live if we expect our planet and our city to survive.
The show was a collaborative effort between North Art Space and the Olympia Fine Art Association (OFAA).
As the works in the exhibition reveal, many of the concerns of the participating artists from 22 countries refer to the consequences of the Earth’s destruction to both the physical and mental state of human beings and the living environment.
Reconsidering Nature Religion (Rockwell Lecture)
Indonesian Neneng Ferrier’s work titled Mayday, Mayday features the Earth as hollowed on one side, with the appearance of a cave offering a horrible view of what looks like debris and lava streaming down after the eruption of a volcano while figures desperately try to save themselves. Red lines run over the upper part of the destructed earthball like brains made visible.
The Rupture series of paintings by Babita Das from India show deformed faces that could be caused by chemical or environmental disasters.
The haunting image that Cristina Gori from Italy presents in digital print, the digital painting and inkjet print on canvas by Paul Tiilila from Finland featuring desolate dead wood, the dramatic Passions Trail in acrylic by Riyu Il-seon from Korea, the barren tree by Alessandro Cardinale from Italy — they all make visible the impact of a
destructed Earth.
Sometimes the actual situation appears too hopeless, it can lead a person to indulge in reverie, imagining the good old times when nature and man were in complete harmony.
This is evident in paintings that highlight the beauty of flowers, such as the fresh yellow anemones painted by Lena Kelekian from Lebanon, or Riyu Ilji from Korea who dreams of fresh roses and finds them not in the garden but within the self.
Others like Mohamad Ibrahim Elmasry from Egypt invent plants and flowers in abstract paintings of the most unusual colors.
Innes Indreswari Soekanto from Indonesia perceives the Earth as feminine, a vision revealed with her installation of five traditional Javanese hair buns made of bronze titled Mother Earth.
But more than that, she perceives it as being the land where she was born and raised (Java) as well as the place where she feels at home (Japan). This dualism is evident in her installation of three simple houses titled Furusato (Japanese for homeland), for which each doorlock represents her feelings. On the left is a lock featuring Mount Kanagawa, famous from a woodblock print by the Japanese artist Hokusai in the early 1930s, but getting new relevance with the catastrophic tsunami striking Japan earlier this year.
Another house has a lock featuring Srikandi, the woman of wayang stories, who was born a woman but raised a man.
Srikandi is a figure that Innes herself associates with, as her parents raised her as if she were a man to provide protection to the family. And, there is the lock featuring the Gunungan — essential for every wayang performance — indicating the beginning and end of the performance.
Placed between Mount Kanagawa and Srikandi, the Gunungan appears as the balance between the artist’s past in Java and Japan (the land where she lives and will soon take up a teaching position at the Tokyo University of the Arts).
Like Innes, Argentinian-born US citizen Marisa Caichiolo urges one to reconsider Earth in a way that recognizes the feminine at its most basic and cosmic in nature. She believes women have a special responsibility.
“We must reconnect with the Earth, practice again the female rituals, use our hands and our bodies to reconnect, not through the virtual world of the Internet, but in the real world, with kin, kinship, friends.” But, what she sees as the most important thing is to get rid of the negative in our body.
The Sacred Dresses are works of redemption, referring to the cosmic nature of mankind. Based on philosophies that nurture the mind and body in various cultures and religions of the world, the exhibition shows, among others, one of the two dresses in the show that are based on Buddhist philosophy.
Made of leather and canvas and printed with symbols of peace, added with mixed media on the front that represents the negative that has come out of the body, it is an inspiring piece of work.
Marisa, who is still adding to the 25 such dresses she has already made, will have a solo exhibition in Mexico next year.
Reconsidering Earth
July 8Aug. 7, 2011
North Art Space
Pasar Seni Ancol
Jl. Lodan Timur No. 7
Jakarta Utara, 14430
July 8Aug. 7, 2011
North Art Space
Pasar Seni Ancol
Jl. Lodan Timur No. 7
Jakarta Utara, 14430
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