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Chusin Setiadikara: Inventing another realism
Street boy by Chusin Setiadikara (2009, oil on canvas)
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Street boy by Chusin Setiadikara (2009, oil on canvas). JP/Carla Bianpoen
When Chusin Setiadikara’s solo exhibition at the Kendra Gallery in Bali was announced, most people expected he would come with a surprise.
His solo of seven years ago brought a breakthrough as he redefined realism amid the hustle and bustle of mainstream contemporary art, insisting realistic appearances did not always refer to one reality but contained a variety of realities.
Realism — in the meaning of the portrayal of things as they are seen without embellishment or interpretation — started in Europe and expanded to other parts of the world. It became a powerful tool to halt the flow of time by preserving images on canvas, and it came to dominate the world of art — until the emergence of photography.
As photography took over most of the meaning of the realistic mode, abstract art flourished and prevailed. Artists applying the realistic mode were considered outdated, lagging behind, and became sort of outcasts.
Amid — and despite — such sentiments Chusin Setiadikara (born 1949 in Bandung, West Java) decided that realism was where his own artistic tendencies lay.
Chusin’s preference for realism was grounded in his early youth when he grew up, seventh out of eight children, amid artistic siblings in a home where art books were part of life. At that time (the early 1950s), affordable art books flooding the market mostly came from Russia, one of the most outspoken countries where realist painting flourished.
It was a time when realism was what art was all about, says Chusin, reminiscing about the fascination Russian realist painting had had for him.
Chusin was familiar with realism even before he entered school and was virtually proficient in the realistic mode at the age of eight. Exploring realism therefore comes as something natural to him.
Chusin’s explorations with realism are well known. Curator Jim Supangkat at the time named his spectacular paintings shown at the National Gallery in 2002 Post Photography Realistic Portrayal, signaling a new direction in realism.
His iconic dry fish paintings were presented as a transformation from dry fish associated with the poor, to dry fish as an element of cuisine for the menu of the elite. He painted the fish in a rich silver gray.
Today, his paintings are on show under the name of “Artificial Realism”. Another name for the same thing? Not really. While he still relies on photographs, and various realities are still valid, Chusin is now denoting feeling with color, instead of lines and charcoal accents.
The paintings show images of nudes, and of children, but there is something more than what the eye beholds — they convey feeling. The nude that is painted in an exquisite thin layer of ultimate subtlety, for instance, appears as if a transparent veil was drawn over it, endowing it with a sense of mystique and evoking an urge of “wanting to know”.
In the paintings of children, one may note the smoothness of their skin but it is their innocent stare of children entering an unknown place — the sense of wonder — that is most remarkable. In giving the faces a bluish hue, so tender it is hard to get this right on a photograph, Chusin adds a surrealistic tinge, as if those children in fact came from another world.
But the coloring does not always fit the painting. His self-portrait, for instance, in which pinkish and bluish hues shine through, would be much stronger if it was rendered in black and white.
He uses photographs as a basis, but never replicates the images as they appear in the picture. He will stylize nudes, to give them an ethereal appearance, squeezing in the imaginary, ending up making something totally different from what was in the picture.
After his post-photography portrayal, and the current “Artificial Realism”, will he find another realism?
Traveling the various stages on his path of excellence, Chusin, an autodidact painter who commands virtually all modes of artistry, will certainly find a way to surprise the public time and again. Perhaps, at some point, he may leave realism altogether, but that point, it seems, is still a long time away.
Artificial Realism
Solo exhibition by Chusin Setiadikara
Until Sept. 12
Kendra Gallery of Contemporary Art
Jl. Drupadi no. 88B
Basangkasa, Seminyak, Bali
www.kendragallery.com
