Dear friends and colleagues
It has for a long time irritated me that the art magazines publish so little on art in South-East Asia where I now live. As they seem uninterested in running regular reviews or articles it seems the best I can do is, starting from today, send a weekly report. There are many good artists here that deserve some recognition.
I will try and keep it short, informative and easy to read.
So long as there is something to report on I will send something every Tuesday morning so that those of you who work in the Northern climes can have a little bit of tropical sunshine at the start of the week.
Have a pleasant Christmas
Tony
I was in Jogjakarta from Tuesday to Wednesday of last week to do some interviews for my forthcoming book on Indonesian painting. Although I know most of these artists and their work well, I want to be able to quote them as much as possible. Generally, in most of the writing about art in this region that I have read there are very few quotes from the artists, so, as a result, they remain strangely voiceless, especially when compared to artists in the West who are frequently interviewed and quoted. It is important for me that in a book that is very much about the artists as individuals you should hear their voice and get a sense both of their personality and their particular position on painting.
On the Tuesday as our plane was delayed, I only met up with Handiwirman and Yunizar who rather than select images for the book and talk about them wanted to sit together and talk about their work generally. It was a good conversation in which we talked about the relationship between painting and sculpture (Handi is primarily a sculptor and Yunizar a painter who has recently been making sculptures). Also, we talked about their relationship to the Jendela group (a group of five artists from Sumatra, all of whom stayed in Jogja after finishing college there – Jumaldi Alfi, Rudi Mantofani and Yusra Martunus being the other members). There are other important groupings such as Surrounded By Water in the Philippines – of which more next week. Handi and Yunizar said when Jendela began they talked a lot about art, but now they are older they meet only occasionally and are more likely to ask each other how their children are doing. There individual careers now have their own momentum and complexity. I guess most artists groupings (think of Die Brücke or CoBrA) are either short lived or like this become primarily social.
After we had finished and I had turned off my tape recorder, Handi asked me, “What does drawing mean to you?” It is a good question: as we know the status of drawing is a complex one in contemporary art, and in South-East Asia it is compounded by other issues. There are conservation issues because of the high humidity and the collectors are very obsessed with paintings as a medium. (As there are very few foundations and little state money collectors are very, very important in sustaining the art world.) Both Handi and Yunizar often do drawings before making a sculpture or painting but will then destroy them, not seeing them as finished or interesting as art works. For me they are often where you can see an artist thinking. I also said I was fascinated by how as we talked Yunizar would stack objects such as the ubiquitous pack of cigarettes and pens in different configurations and Handi, a man with large hands but the delicacy of a surgeon, would twist bits of wire. (I am afraid the only photo I took of this is a bit blurry.) This to me could be seen as a form of drawing too.
Drawing remains central to the work of Eko Nugroho who we visited the next morning. He has, he tells us, drawn every day of 2014. We looked at some of his recent sketchbooks: the words are always very important to him. As he said he began by being very much in love with cartoons. As you can see the image that I attach it is a very current one.
Like many succesful artists in Jogja he has built a large house and studio for himself and of course he has furnished it with his own fabrics, curtains and objects. His studio is on the ground floor but the living area is above so it can catch the breeze and have views out over the rice fields. It is a very different place from that where I first met him in 2010!
When I had first mentioned writing a book about painting in 2013 he had been very wary as he planned to do no paintings that year. By “paintings” he meant paint on canvas, but for me the temporary wall paintings he does for exhibitions are just as valid and interesting as those on canvas. Also, he is doing more embroideries than “paintings” at the moment but to me, as an art historian, these are not embroideries but tapestries which in previous centuries was a parallel form to painting (see Raphael, Rubens etc). The way he makes them is fascinating: he makes a painting on canvas (see attached image) and then gives it to some of the embroiderers he employs or gives work to. (They all lost their jobs when their factory got a computer driven machine. He is very committed to supporting and sustaining people who make things by hand.) They emroider or stitch directly into that canvas, periodically he will visit them and see how it is going, make adjustments, and changes. In effect the original painting is covered up or destroyed by the fabric. It is, of course, a unique object not a multiple.
After that with my assistant and translator Theresia I went and had lunch in a Warung (wayside stall). Chicken, rice, aubergine, green salad and petai – large green beans called “stink beans” in English served this time still in the long green pod. I really like them!
En route to see S. Teddy we nipped into the shop DGMBT that Eko runs and where he sells T-shirts and objects by himself and others. There is a café and small exhibition space for young artists attached. It’s a great place to buy Christmas presents!
With S Teddy we mainly discussed his upcoming show in the project room at Equator Art Projects. He has the idea to make many paintings that look like red flags – each with a different emblem or image on. He is recovering from cancer: it was great to see him filled with enthusiasm and energy. I will tell you more about that show when we install it next month!
Wishing you all a very pleasant Christmas and a good 2015
Tony Godfrey