OMG? RED! ^ D^
Exhibition of Love
A Kendys Gallery Exhibition
Exhibited at Jakarta Art Hub, Wisma Geha • May 4th - June 2nd 2024
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Starring
Angiring Lakuning Surya • Bangun Wahyudianto• Hannah Shin • Iqi Qoror • Jiwoo Shin
Nadia Diandra • Stefany Zefanya• Suwandi Waeng • Via• Yoyok Siswoyo
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Organized by Kendys Gallery
Curated by Denny Yustana
Artworks are shown in the order of curation
It hasn't been a decade since the mass monetization of negative emotions produced during cultural and political tensions became an expected commodity, and recently the artificial intelligence craze and automation have given looming sense of uncertainty to blue and white collars all the same. The constant divide & shifting allegiances in political unrest might come and go inevitably, aging as quickly as any tragedy we're desensitized against, whereas the threat of the latter is by miles more effective, immediate, and unknown in its repercussions.
Closest to heart are of course the foundation of our world and neighboring industries. From visual artists who have spent the better part of their years for their work to stand out within the continuously piling archives of history just to have them replicated by an AI model overnight, to the Writers Guild Association whose absence clearly left impact in the major productions company during the walkout that had to extend to a staggering five-month strike despite the reliance. In light of the uncertain future of opened Pandora's box , OMG? RED! ^ D^ is an homage to fellow creators who are blissfully ignorant towards of said pathos. The often contradictory relationship of happiness that the modern age both takes away & allows. The lighthearted minutiae, complex vulnerabilities, or even resilience born out of rage towards negativity itself.
Red, a color provoking energy, stimulation, and anger, is the dominant theme, reflecting the intensity of emotions along with other warm colors. Also the hue of love, excitement and fervor, this exhibition aims to spark the elusive but inextinguishable human spirit in our often treacherous and sometimes traitorous pursuit of happiness, as well as reinvigorate passion in each’s devotion, not unlike the artists’ resolution in their respective crafts.
I’m With U
50 x 50 - Watercolor - 2024
Echoing the proverb that translates to "Germs across the ocean are palpable, elephant on the eyelid isn't", only instead of hypocritical judgement it's others’ presence. Centered on Eleven as the main figure, the piece paints companionship, of someone or something that can easily slip out of sight when the metaphorical grass on the other side seems greener, or on wishful thinking of something else distant. Stefany's piece questions who, what & how the viewer's own "I'm With U"'s are.
Nyaring Bunyinya (Sold)
Batu Loncatan
Raining Flowers
Connecting People
Good Pool
40 x 40 - Acrylic on Canvas - 2023 & 2022 (Raining Flowers)
Nadia’s works has been known to intentionally juxtapose sadness and happiness in the same pieces. In the exhibition’s arrangement, the work Nyaring Bunyinya opens as it’s most reminiscent of an Indonesian proverb equivalent to “the empty barrel rings the loudest”, despite the moment shared followed by Batu Loncatan translates to Stepping Stone, depicts a quid pro quo situation.
Binding the piece is a flowery figure which has been the icon of her works, present in many before though never in multiplicity, present works included, making the piece feel introspective much as it could depict interpersonal like-minded individuals.The fourth piece Connecting People returns the festivity, with the quote of the artist “In the end, one fine line will connect us”. Ending the five with a cathartic downtime between the two figures, fittingly titled “Good Pool”, evoking a metaphorical pool of people.
Memori #1
100 x 100 - Acrylic on Canvas - 2023
Waeng invokes his specialty of undistorted surrealism where he bends the dimension surrounding everyday objects, geometrical shapes and fantastical abstractions in Memori #1. Panoramic hue of sky blue and clouds crossing the plane emit a space torn that is negated by origami doves and autumn trees.
Ruang Dalam Rindu
120 x 200 - AoC - 2023
While left section oozes excessiveness such as a raincloud in a shower area, featuring two figures overdressed with artificial sunshine polkadots to be in it to begin with, the right counterpart directs the attention through design elements to a much less claustrophobic and chaotic place, the man longing nonetheless.
Read from right to left however, the surrealism that doesn’t exclude the positioning of the bathroom itself on the former panel could be translated as a dream, as the latter in return depicting the calm between the storms.
Translating to Space in Missing or Missing’s Inner Space, The two panel diptych brings an unusual topic of romance in Iqi Qoror’s discography.
I Can't Sleep #2
128 x 150 - Ballpoint & WoP - 2014
During her time in ITB, Nina was conjured by Meliantha as a way to realize the subconscious (alter ego) in surrealism which had stood as a subjective method of expression, specifically through a modified version of Paranoid Critical Transformation of Salvador Dalí’s in stimulating visual idea and René Magritte’s method for the application. This resulted in a childlike vulnerability that is concealed as the artist grew up, along with the inquisitiveness that might invade others’ privacy. The absence of mouth was intentionally to keep the emotion open to interpretation.
Following I Can’t Sleep #1 which revolves around neuroticism, #2 plays the motionless Nina with the many moving parts in circular motion, so that both the audience and her observes the planetary, ecological and artificial rotation around her, in the searching feeling of what’s more and beyond.
Colour-Surge (Crimson-Lake)
35.5 x 30 cm - Oil on Canvas - 2021
Slowly breaking away from the darker areas are the swathe of gradation pardoned by sudden electrical current of photons both intercepting and wrapping around the former. Colour-Surge emits adrenaline fueled emotions and charged nerves, with the audience far enough to witness the surge but in distance to experience the eye of the storm.
High Hope
100 x 100 cm - AoC - 2024
Accompanying the debut in Kendys of his son Angiring Lakuning Surya and friend Bangun Wahyudianto, Yoyok Siswoyo returned with High Hope, an heavy impasto strokes that leaves very little surface dormant. Naturally, the floral and energetic strokes suggest a feeling of optimism assisted by daylight temperature blooming around the edges of the piece.
Binar Cinta
100 x 100 cm - MMoC - 2024
Love Twinkle, a vulnerable piece by Angiring Surya tells how despite dating back to the existence of humanity, love could be seen as the most relevant universal feeling in the modern age. That “To love, be loved and not feel unlovable is intrinsic”.
The exhausted but focused figure also tells how someone might not be alike from some’s perspective, yet unintentionally to others seen with the twinkle of love.
Dengan Riang
100 x 100 cm - AoC - 2022
Dengan Riang or Merrily So reveals a vibrant artwork of analogous petals as if forming a bouquet in the center. Thick paint helps creating the three-dimensional texture of organic layers especially on the periphery. The motion for Dengan Riang is almost cyclical like the following dark twister, preceeded with the explosive center, creating a fireworks-like effect.
Kalut - Drawing Pen - 50 x 70 - 2024
Translates directly to Frantic, this work is of how during mental pressure & losing perspective during, a person can lose his bearing in activities, thoughts and behavior. Bangun evokes someone who has as many visions as indecisiveness, silence with a false smile, until the unexpressed thoughts oozes through the cracks.
Stream of Awe
160 x 130 - MMoC - 2024
Stream of Awe as implied emits a light flowing downwards on a stony texture, preceded by floating arterial red that gives it a feel of lighter mass but higher density, diverging along the watery path implied by notion of still-captures of movement, over the sprawling greeneries on the crevasse.
One of the pieces made specially for a love-themed exhibition, Stream of Awe’s sense of scale puts the viewer in a position of a receiver & admirer, like the romanticism movement which equates the human spirit to the untamed wildness of nature. Constructing a more grandiose notion of a higher notion of love beyond the fleeting & the prejudices.
Human Path
60 x 46 - MMoC - 2024
Human Path portrays the journey of mankind through the identical but idiosyncratic combination of brush strokes and hand marks, specifically the profound prints each individual leaves behind in history. The sometimes weaving and at times clashing edges provokes contemplation on our interconnectedness and the outcomes shaped by our actions and relationships.
Unleashed
160 x 100 - MMoC - 2024
Portrayed by three distinct elements in an otherwise consistent motion, Unleashed carries the message of acceptance, and human being’s capability to let go of crippling perfectionism and adapt in the face of adversity, and therefore the coexisting paradox of letting go while simultaneously holding onto something.
It’s with this wabi-sabi that Via expressed the spirit of freedom, strength and growth that wasn’t negated by but allowed only by embracing unpredictabilities with full intention intact despite the inevitably varying outcomes.
