| An Indonesian artist's global fingerprint |
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Back then he was exploring his cultural roots through the study and use of primitive works. For his more recent work at the STPI, Sunaryo said he was focusing on the "tensions" between his personal experiences as a human being and his social experiences as a Javanese in a search for his own identity. He is doing it by using magnified thumb and hand prints, mixed with collages of Batik prints created during the paper-making process. "The process of reworking the batik motifs relates to my belief that a culture always changes and undergoes a constant 'artificial process,' " he explained. "Social identity is an unstable construction, especially nowadays when globalization and information technology make the borders of culture and identity unclear." A master papermaker at the STPI, Richard Hungerford, said that, while batik designs are stamp-specific and relate to practical elements of the imagery, Sunaryo is using the stamps "out of context, internalizing the batik stain as the paper was developed." "They were incorporated into the paper as more of a symbolic, gestured marking and less of an identifiable image," Hungerford said. In a world where fingerprints are increasingly used for identification, especially for travel, the thumbprint as used by Sunaryo in his work has a much greater impact now as a symbol of oneself and identity, said Irene Lee, director of the STPI. "The thumb being used as a print in a print work is also an interesting twist," she says. Born in 1943, Sunaryo studied sculpture at the Bandung Institute of Technology in Indonesia before taking a course in marble sculpture in Cararra, Italy, in 1975. Then he joined the Decenta group which was reacting against the more traditional "Bandung school" that had pioneered abstract art and was viewed generally as more Westernized than other schools of thought at the time. Artists in Decenta were trying to reprocess the visual elements of Indonesia's traditional arts in search of "local color and their cultural roots," Sunaryo recalled. During those years, Sunaryo explored print and graphic art, finding inspiration mainly in primitive arts, like those from the Nias Islands in Indonesia, as well as Chinese calligraphy. "In both cases, I was interested in the distinctive lines used in those works. In the case of primitive art, the lines are spontaneous and intuitive, while Chinese calligraphy is a form of realization. Lines are very important in my work. Lines give energy, stimulation," the artist explained. While his later large-scale multimedia installations are more overtly political, even his more aesthetically pleasing earlier works like the dancer series often expressed his social and environmental concerns and issues like "the tension of tradition and modernity" or political issues through symbolization of colors. "A lot of these colors come from my inner sense of the moment's impressions, such as yellow during the long period of Golkar Party's ruling; red as the symbol of the Megawati presidency period; white symbolizes the more modern society where transparency is needed," the artist said. (The Golkar Party was the ruling party under Suharto, from 1966-1998; Megawati Sukarnoputri was president from 2001-2004.) Sunaryo said he became more interested in "man's relationship with his surrounding landscape" in the '80s, at a time when the Indonesian economy was taking off. "There was a lot of construction, but also destruction of nature in the name of progress." In "Lost Comfort in My Village," (1995) an abstract mixed-media work, the artist used stainless steel to symbolize the overbuilt environment around his village, and in "How Green My Golf Course Is" (1996) he reflected on what had been destroyed to build an immaculate golf course. He said that 1998, the year of President Suharto's fall and the ensuing social unrest and violence in the streets at the end of the Indonesian president's 30-year autocratic regime, was a turning point for his work as it related to politics. "The situation after Suharto changed brutally and the violence around me shocked me," the artist said. As his mood turned from anger to sadness, so did his work. That year he exhibited "The Inferno," a series of works with black cloth and tied with ropes that he said expressed his inner feelings. Since then, he has produced several installations reflecting on his country's developments. In "Stone Over Time" (1999), Sunaryo crushed stones in search of an inner healing as he mourned the loss of Timor Province. "The White Point Poetry" (2000) expressed his hope in a new elected president. And in "Vertiginous Point" (2001) he reflected on the effect of political turmoil on the grass roots. In "There is No Space to Bargain," exhibited at the 1st CP Open Biennale in Jakarta in 2003, he spread sand and limestone on the ground, then trapped human silhouettes hanging in bamboo enclosures within a gigantic bamboo dome, topped by a weather vane with a U.S. flag motif - his "reflection of how a powerful country impacted smaller countries," in the global political game. According to Shireen Naziree, a Kuala Lumpur-based independent curator and art historian, Sunaryo represents the best Indonesian artists of his generation: "an Indonesian that has grown together with his nation and one that has experienced the trials and tribulations of the Indonesian saga and yet, has managed to maintain the cultural elegance of his heritage." Source: From International Herald Tribune
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(Singapore)
- After years of being known for environmentally and socially conscious
art works, Sunaryo Soetono is finally coming full circle. The artist is
one of Indonesia's premier contemporary artists and his work has
evolved as his country has transformed economically and politically. As
he nears 65, he is in a self-reflective mood. "I'm asking myself more existential questions, like 'Who am I?' " he said.