Momentum #1 by Lovis Ostenrik. Courtesy of the artist
In the world of art, photography has been an issue of many controversies. Is it art? Isn’t it?
Art photography, then, has often been understood as artistic portraiture.
In Indonesia, Indra Leonardi is known for his art photography, where personal characteristics come forward in a dramatic play of light and darkness. International icon David Lachapelle has revolutionized fashion photography with his outrageous photography and amazing photo-taking techniques.
The photographs by Lovis Ostenrik, currently on show at the Koong Gallery, are of a totally different kind. Simple, but unique in their simplicity, the pictures in his “Momentum” series feature the naked body in a stirring verve of motion and aesthetics. What makes them even more fascinating is the presence of shadows looming large, forward or backward as if in rhythmic swing and tension with the actual figure.
Even though Lovis declares he had no premeditated objective in mind and that his only concern was to capture the language of the body, and although the sheer vitality issuing from the strong yet utterly aesthetic motions make one stand in awe and pure enjoyment, we can’t help our imaginations from playing as well. Whether it’s the jumping motion with the monster-like shadow, or the running motion with a shadow that resembles a hunt, or the runner and the shadow coming together as if in dark conspiracy, each photo transports the viewer into unexpected fantasies.
The play with shadows may bring to mind the wayang shadow puppet play or the images on a wall cast by the flickering of an oil lamp, as seen in food stalls at the side of rural roads. Yet, although Lovis is half-Javanese (his father is the well-known artist Teguh Ostenrik), his photography has nothing to do with the shadows of the wayang theater, he says. Nevertheless, his oeuvre encompasses both the mystical captured by that traditional shadow play and the element of beauty that evokes a sense of miraculous wonder.
As for using a computer in his work, Lovis reveals he uses one only to soften the colors of the skin. The result, as seen in the photographs, is a natural skin color brimming with a healthy tan.
Lovis’ motion photography is based on an incredible command of the workings of light, an understanding of the body, a professional insight into spatial dimensions, immense precision and the endless endurance of the photographer who is a perfectionist of sorts.
“Sometimes I had them jump 200 times to find the right angle,” he says of his models, all dancers with trained bodies. What was hard to “stamp out” was the facial expressions.
“I wanted the body to speak, not the faces, I asked them to ‘empty’ their mind and their faces, and do away with smiles.”
Trained in acting and theater, Lovis Ostenrik, who is also known as Lovis Dengler, was born in 1982 in Herdecke in West Germany. When he came to Indonesia to visit his father, he met the great Robert Wilson. He was hired to help out in Wilson’s second workshop for I La Galigo, the old Bugis epic that Robert Wilson so wonderfully brought to contemporary life a few years ago.
From then on, Lovis worked more and more often for Wilson and, as a personal assistant, was asked to take photos of whatever Wilson saw and wanted to remember. This was the beginning of Lovis’ focus on photography, for which the artist never forgets to credit Wilson.
Lovis Ostenrik-Dengler has spent many years managing and documenting other people’s cultural and performance projects. Perhaps now is the time for other people to do the documentation and chronicle his awe-inspiring motion photography.
Visto
Solo exhibition by Lovis Ostenrik
Until July 12
Koong Gallery
City Plaza, Wisma Mulia
Jalan Jenderal Gatot Subroto Kav 42, Jakarta
