Starting off as friends, the two artists communicate via their artworks, Arti with her sculpture pieces, entitled “Inadvertent Facelessness” and Siobhan with her paintings entitled “Chasing Dragons”. According to exhibition curator Deborah Iskandar, the “Inadvertent Facelessness” sculptures convey the concept that facelessness is an unfortunate truth of humanity.

Arti explores the natural evolution of the human mind amid the information received from social media and the overload of images in modern people’s newsfeeds, which leads to an ever-expanding number of acquaintances, with which we have little to no interaction. 

“My creative process usually starts with a thought that takes root in my brain,” Arti said, “I get my inspiration from the world around me. So to create my sculptures I work with the thoughts and translate them into pieces that are inspired by the people I see around me.” It took Arti a year to prepare her work for this exhibition. 

With a series of paintings entitled “Chasing Dragons”, Siobhan King charts a journey in Indonesia in search of the Komodo dragon and man’s endless quest of more metaphorical “dragons”. Hence the series depicts a critique of man’s greed and brutality in an uncertain world. 

Having traveled through Indonesia’s archipelago, which includes Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Flores, Java, Maluku, Lombok, Bali and much more, Siobhan also uses the “Chasing Dragons” series to immortalize her travels. She credited the journeys with influencing her creative process.

“Though each painting is from a particular region, they are impressions and memories of the landscape and the layering of oil colors, which allow the painting to evolve during this process,” Siobhan said to The Jakarta Post via email. 

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While Arti’s ceramic sculptures serve as a reminder of life in Jakarta and how facelessness is a recurring experience, Siobhan’s paintings observe the beauty of Indonesia from a visitor’s perspective, illustrating the natural landscapes and their near destruction, which many Indonesians may take for granted.

“We wanted our work to converse in a visual sense. I had been working on a series of paintings entitled “Chasing Dragons” during my two years in Indonesia, and Arti had been working on a theme of “Inadvertent Facelessness,” Siobhan said. “Her ceramic pieces were all created for the exhibition, remaining within her theme, but she was aware that her figures populate my world of landscapes and my work, in turn, shows the impact of man on nature. Her ceramic figures playfully converse in a visual way with my paintings, under the skillful direction of our curator, Deborah Iskandar,” she continued. 

Arti agreed with Siobhan, “Our work together created a wonderful exhibition that showed our individuality, our different themes, yet this exhibition was a clear example of how beautifully two different mediums can come together and compliment the theme, and create a conversation,” she said. 

After a successful debut collaboration, the artists are looking forward to showcasing more exhibitions together. “We both feel that while working with our thought processes, we can make a space for the other person’s work. The paintings and pottery complement each other, “Arti said. Meanwhile, Siobhan is convinced that the conversation must continue, “It is my hope that we will work together again in the future and continue our creative conversation as a potter and a painter. It has certainly not ended as far as I am concerned.”

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