Carla Bianpoen, Contributor, Beijing
When Vanessa Sutanto opened her 900-square-meter art gallery in Beijing's gallery area Caochangdi on Oct. 7, 2006, it was a dream come true for her. A frequent visitor to China, she had come to be fascinated by the art of contemporary Chinese painters, and soon she dreamed of being a link between Indonesian and Chinese fine art. No doubt, commercial calculations were also an important spur. After all, China's amazing economic rise evokes precious expectations, while Beijing shows all the signs of fast becoming a center of international contemporary art.
Vanessa Art Link, which was officially opened in Jakarta's commercial center at MIK Plaza earlier this year, started from humble beginnings as Vanessa Art House at the owner's home. But she says she has always seen it as her mission to bring Indonesian art abroad, and vice versa.
The opening show in Beijing, which runs for a month, brings together the works of 25 Chinese and nine Indonesian artists. The Chinese works, mostly super-large paintings, refer to repressive political experiences, and of the 25 artists most are known worldwide.
Zhang Xiaogang is known for his signature bloodline series of delicately rendered faces with empty-looking gazes and a small, translucent color appearing on the faces; Feng Zengjie, with paintings of women's faces in alluring pink, blue and green, that differ from the usual, in which the squinting eyes each look in different directions; Ye Yongqing, known as a curator/artist, brings a different touch with his drawing-like acrylic paintings of birds.
Ren Xiaolin's works are marked by esthetically appealing fantasy faces that correlate bodily landscapes with a natural one; Yang Shiaobin, known for his grueling pictures of violence, this time takes a cat for a theme; while Zhou Chunya's green dog is the only 3-D in the Chinese collection.
Most of the works refer to the mental impact of experiences in the recent past of China, others comment on the physical changes as a result of large-scale modernization of the city. Wang Jinsong's photography, for instance, has documented hundreds of locations where the Chinese sign Chia, which means ""demolition"", appeared to alert inhabitants of the imminent destruction of the place. Chia also became a symbol for destruction and change of the cityscape. One hundred pictures of such signs cover an entire wall of the exhibition space. Lu Hao takes the same theme of demolition for his black-and-white oil paintings, but while critique shines through, the mood is rather one of profound melancholy and yearning.
On the other hand, the Indonesian collection, mostly sculptures, are more based on the depth of issues occurring worldwide, though their inspirations were triggered by the personal. Astari Rasjid's aesthetic bronze sculptures of Hermes bags filled with pistols and roses, for instance, has a universal appeal as it criticizes society women whose consumerism favors only branded items, but also refers to the world's hypocrites.
Agus Suwage's mixed-media paintings refer to the same theme of hypocrisy and the inner struggle of many people to comply with moral standards. Ivan Sagito's beautiful sculpture made of matte paper, fiberglass, walnut and Chinese ink featuring figures suspended in lying position in space, and titled Homeless, Bodyless, refers not only to the physical state of homelessness, but also of the mental and spiritual homelessness that marks modern society.
Liang's mixed media sculpture featuring two bronze plated figures in the swirl placed on a big stone titled We shall overcome is a touching reminder of the struggle of the Aceh people hit by the massive tsunami in 2004. Pintor Sirait's finely finished mixed media works (print on canvas, stainless steel and bullets) visualize what is living in today's world: terror -- violence and the fear of it, as well as the sense of love and beauty, or the illusion of it. Titarubi's installation of a suitcase made of grayish imitation beads, with steel threads and light rays sprawling out of it, and placed on a light-box sprawling out of the suitcase, is titled Illumination Rise from Suitcase. Meanwhile, Yani Mariani Sastranegara's poetic sculptures in mixed media, polyressin and brass, subtly lament environmental depletion.
As one stands in awe of the super-size paintings by Chinese artists who have ""made"" it in the international art world, one might wonder about the Indonesian impact in China.
But surprisingly, Victoria Lu, the creative director of the Shanghai Museum of Modern Art, expressed her great interest in the Indonesian works, in which she particularly appreciated the manual element as still playing a role, while a couple of Canadian/British descent, who stood for a long time in front of the sculptures of upcoming artist Liang, said they felt drawn to the Indonesian works because they could still feel the personal and the spirit coming out of the artists' depth.
Astari Rasjid's bronze sculptures of Hermes bags filled with roses and pistols were readily purchased by European buyers, while prospective buyers of Pintor Sirait's finely finished mixed media works and Liang's bronze plated sculptures had not taken a final decision at the time I left Beijing.
Works by Astari, Pintor and Liang also joined Chinese artists like Zhang Hua, Wong Jimsong, Chen Wenling, Wang Rui and others in Vanessa's booth at the Art Bejing Fair, a large-scale contemporary art exposition with 100 participants and 82 galleries from 12 countries and regions in Asia and Europe, including two Indonesian galleries which had just spread their wings to Beijing.
While the exposure of Indonesian contemporary works has been an important step, it seems that such exposure needs to be complemented with essays on the artists and their works in order to enhance understanding and better appreciation in the international art circuit.
