A refreshing exhibition at Semarang Gallery

Carla Bianpoen ,  Contributor ,  Semarang   |  Thu, 05/07/2009 2:29 PM  |  Arts & Design

War and peace have been an inextricable part of human existence since the fall from paradise. Since that moment, war has haunted the entire world without end, as evident from art and literature throughout the ages.

From the very first civilizations in China, Egypt and Mesopotamia to modern times, expressions in literature, music and visual arts demonstrate that war - which can be expressed through many different forms - is basically devastating and a human tragedy.

Meanwhile, war is raging on and artists continue to comment on it, as revealed in the exhibition "Regarding War", which opens on May 8 at Semarang Gallery in Semarang, Central Java.

The exhibition of eight artists from Jakarta, Yogyakarta and Bali presents a total of about 40 works, giving a contemporary take in a variety of concepts and mediums.

Of course, easy media connections have facilitated ways to usher in information from around the world, thus triggering artists' reactions on canvas.

Indra Arsyad, for instance, revealed that her part-realist/part-abstract mixed media (acrylic and charcoal) paintings were inspired by multimedia images and stories of child victims in wartime.

Bibiana Lee's mixed media works, which combine video and painting with media text, are stirring revelations of the experiences of the Juguan ianfu women, who were coerced into being sex slaves during the Japanese occupation.

In a painting of text, The Story, which is about these wartime victims, a silhouette of a Juguan ianfu shines through, as a metaphor of the fallacy of many texts written about these women - many of which have given these women not even the smallest apology from the Japanese government. Meanwhile, her series of paintings titled Unveiling, featuring stages of the stigma, is staggering, with its sense of pain and shame as revealed through the stains and red cloth that cover half of the woman's face to the total disappearance of the cloth and just one stain.

Inge Ryanto takes Mother Teresa, Mahatma Gandhi and the Dalai Lama as the proponents of Peace, and abhorring violence and war, her sculptures or objects in bronze and resin feature, among others, the bending of a soldier's rifle into the shape of a heart.

Jeannette Bijlmer's bronze sculptures relate to memories represented by pierced helmets and slices of bread referring to the food shortages that threatened the existence of her family at the time.

Much harsher are the works by Indra Gunadharma, who sees the evil of war emerging not only from inner tensions, envy, hatred and the darker sides of human beings, but also from the negative energy that is beyond their command.

His paintings are of faces with horrible expressions, colored blue, which he indicates as the color of death. He also uses lasers to show his cranium appearing like a bomb that is ready to explode.

Once it has exploded, along with many more bombs and bombings, one can imagine a scorching of the earth, as painted by Putu Mulyasa. Depicting death and peril on checkered cloth, he paints an epic of destruction of the world's equilibrium, with victims scattered all around. The poleng checkered cloth in Balinese tradition is the symbol of the skala and niskala, or the good and the bad in life. Chaos is like the end of the world.

Helmut Huang, however, tries to move away from destruction, although he does comment on our chaotic world in a painting titled Enchanted War. From afar, this may appear like an enchanting painting of fresh lime fruit in between green vegetables, but in fact features a white skull and indefinable yellow creatures mixed with bottles of Boss and Bulgari perfume, ironically commenting on those who find beauty in warfare.

But beauty indeed is seen in the yellow that colors the sky against which the white emerges from a war ship in War Games 1, putting an accent on the paradox.

The turbulence of his emotions about war and justice are channeled toward peace in the paintings that he calls the Matrix of Peace: Here layers of paint feature winged soldiers walking through battlefields as in a haze.

Ade Artie Tjakra lets her imagination flourish in the garden of paradise. Her series War in Paradise shows uplifting images: Soldiers going through the flowery garden of Eden in a scene likening them to children playing war in the garden.

Yet her sculpture featuring a soldier bedecked with flowers, his helmet on the floor, is a telling statement - that war should not be countered with another war, but rather with peaceful mediums, such as colorful flowers.

The energy and creativity that mark "Regarding War" make it a refreshing alternative to other shows in recent times that have tended to feature artists appropriating or copying comics and pop images.

Regarding War

May 8-22, 2009
Semarang Gallery,
Taman Srigunting Street no 5-6
Phone: + 62 24 355 2099
Fax : +62 24 355 2199
galeri_semarang@yahoo.com

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