Art Jog 2011 making its mark

Featuring 251 paintings, sculptures, installations and videos from 165 artists, the exhibits were selected from 3,500 submissions by 1,770 hopefuls.

Due to the limited space, not all the works could be displayed, but a complete selection is available in the catalogue.

A greater emphasis this year was placed on three dimensional works, with artistic director Bambang Toko Witjaksono challenged to “reshape” the TBY building inside and out.

For example, he provided over 20 tons of clay for Eddi Prabandono’s giant sculpture, which was placed in a big hole especially made in front of TBY.

Compared to last year’s event, which was dominated by entries from Yogyakarta and Bandung, the artists this year hail from a wider range of cities including Medan, Jakarta, Surabaya, Bali and smaller towns such as Ngawi, Boyolali and Mojokerto, as well as one artist from Singapore.

In addition to submitted works, Art Jog 2011 also features commissioned art by Eddi Prabandono
and Krisna Murti. Eddi created his fifth Series of Luz, a sculpture of a giant sleeping child placed in a big hole in front of the building. Luz is Eddi’s five-year-old daughter who lives in Japan.

An innovation this year is the showcasing of the works of seven prominent Indonesian artists who have never been exhibited in the country before, under a special presentation program.

The works of Ay Tjoe Christine, I Nyoman Masriadi, Budi Kustarto, Rudi Mantofani, Jumaldi Alfi, Tisna Sanjaya and Handiwirman Saputra were all on display.

Also being exhibited are project presentations that feature portions of long-term art projects still in progress, including several video projects such as the Mas Toni Blank Show, containing numerous interviews by X-Code Films and photography essays on Ketoprak Tobong (traditional Javanese drama) by Budi N.D. Dharmawan.

Krisna Murti, an Indonesian video art pioneer, was commissioned to make a video about endangered diversity.

Pluralism is symbolized by Muslim women dressed in different veils and outfits.

The women stand in a row and are given a series of identical commands, but each responds differently. Krisna installed four projectors and a makeshift pool so the images of the women are reflected in the water.

Krisna wants to leave it to the spectators to interpret the video. He said he was intrigued by the similarities in the way the women wore their head scarves but that there were differences that often led to conflict.

As an artist, Krisna said he was not obliged to give solutions to questions he raised through his art.

Another interesting video exhibition was the series by Anggun Priambodo, Aku Seperti Burung Terbang Bebas (I am like a free bird flying) and Belajar Miring (Learning to Lean Walk), in which the model in the video learns how to stand up by leaning his body, a method that leads to funny and fascinating movements.

One of the installation works incorporating mixed media was The Jester Court created by prominent artist Heri Dono.

The work resembles a courtroom with a robotic model of a funny looking old man seated at a microphone made of a used flashlight.

Two long-nosed faces opposite the old man are meant to be the accused or the plaintiffs. Behind them are ten small, makeshift drums with lights and sticks inside, representing a courtroom gallery.

As usual, Heri Dono designed his installation to be interactive. By pushing a knob on the wall next to the exhibit, the sticks in the drums make music and the robotic old man and the two faces move. Unfortunately, many visitors were not aware of the knob.

Yudhi Sulistyo was another artist offering new concepts at Art Jog 2011. Last year, he created an airplane exhibit and this year he created a military jeep out of cardboard, PVC, synthetic rubber and other materials, calling the detailed, 200x190x360-centimeter installation Just a Toy.

Adi Gunawan stayed true to his series of fiberglass sculptures of fat pigs. Anak Emas (Golden Boy) depicted a sow surrounded by her piglets. One piglet is seated on her back while carrying another one with golden skin.

Adi said this work portrayed the reality of families in which there was often a “golden boy” — a favorite child. Such favoritism is also common in political and bureaucratic systems.

A number of artists used digital printing for their paintings, including works by Ashley Bickerton, who integrated acrylic and digital print on canvas for his paintings Gold Hirst Family and Gold Scooter.

Last Sup(p)er Women by A. Taufik B. Ramadhan. JP/Munarsih SahanaBy not imposing a theme on this year’s exhibition, a wider variety of techniques and concepts were presented, according to Aminudin T. H. Siregar, the event’s curator for the previous three years.

“Art Jog itself is the theme,” Siregar said, adding that themes have inevitably limited artists’ aesthetic explorations.

Heri Pemad, the founder of Art Jog, is working to make the event as prestigious as other international exhibitions.

Lorenzo Rudolf, former director of Art Basel, and several prominent art collectors from Singapore were invited to share their experience in managing world-class art fairs.

Rudolf said he was impressed by the vibrant progress of visual art in Indonesia — especially Yogyakarta. He suggested that Art Jog should not copy any other art fairs, but develop gradually and keep promoting nationally and internationally by inviting influential figures from the global art scene.

Art Jogja 2011 runs from July 16-29 at Taman Budaya Yogyakarta, Jl. Sri Wedani 1, Yogyakarta Open every day: 9 a.m. - 9 p.m.

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Reconsidering Earth

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.

Reconsidering Earth

July 8Aug. 7, 2011
North Art Space
Pasar Seni Ancol
Jl. Lodan Timur No. 7
Jakarta Utara, 14430

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