Dancing with Light on Canvas

Kadek Krishna Adidharma ,  Contributor ,  Jakarta   |  Thu, 11/19/2009 9:36 AM  |  Arts & Design

“I like so many things,” enthuses Sardono, “I like complexity and order-within-chaos... Only from such chaos can new explorations arise.”

Bands of light and dark streak across the canvas, dancing sublime and intricate patterns. Imbued with tempo and rhythm, the subtle gradation and juxtaposition of color and shade create abstract weaves. The outcome is so vivid that, at times, landscapes of mountains, forests or submarine seascapes leap into mind.

Sardono W. Kusumo’s first solo painting exhibition is a visual feast. The event is titled “Choreography of Colours” in salutation to the artist’s unique painting methods as well as his celebrated career as dancer and choreographer.

Curator Enin Supriyanto selected 15 paintings from over 120 completed works on canvas in Sardono’s home and studio. In selecting what he considers to be the pinnacle of the artists’ many styles, the curator presents the public with a retrospective of Sardono’s four decades of visual exploration.

Together with preeminent lighting designer Jennifer Tipton, who specializes in lighting for dance and theater, Sardono is choreographing a performance in New York for 2011. There he will perform with his epic-sized paintings as backdrop. Interdisciplinary artist David Rosenboom, who teaches music composition at CalArts will provide the score.

“Last year I made six 10-meter-long strips of painted plastic and textile,” says Sardono while unrolling a piece of canvas on the floor.

“Jennifer Tipton [who was visiting at the time] liked it,” said Sardono. “She told me, ‘Sardono I see so much light in your paintings!’ — perhaps she was already thinking of a collaboration even then.”

Upon hearing of this collaboration, vivi yip art room approached Sardono to host a preview of his work for his peers in Jakarta. To date, the artist has refused numerous approaches from galleries to exhibit his paintings.

Sardono’s works in this exhibition are as varied in texture and color as the techniques used to create them. He uses no paintbrush. Instead, he relies on his fingers, hands, body, paint-tubes, oil-sticks, palette knife and painting-medium-bottles to apply and spread pigment upon canvas.

The results are breathtaking. Fantastical. Thick mounds of oil paint stand their ground while fluid media-borne oil-based pigments wash and spread around them, spilling over the edges of stretched canvas.

This sensual, controlled flow of pigment hints of a dancer’s innate understanding of his musculature and body architecture. Here the canvas acts as an extension of the dancer’s body. The play of reflected light is a trace of the dancer’s movements.

Conversing with the artist while being guided through his South Jakarta studio, it becomes evident that each painting records a unique tango: an intimate dance between the artist and his canvas.

Sardono has been painting since the 1970s. Inspired by his work with kecak dancers in Bali, some of his earliest works consist of his handprints creating frenetic patterns on canvas. Indeed, most of his early work consisted of thick daubs of paint applied directly from the tube or with a palette knife, spread with fingers.

Recently, a stage has occupied a corner of Sardono’s studio.  It is a wooden platform approximately three by three meters, set at an angle of about 25 degrees. Glass bottles of painting medium are strewn on either side.

Sardono’s latest choreography involves placing a canvas upon the platform and pouring liquefied oil paints onto the canvas. He observes the trickle of paint upon the canvas and manipulates the canvas by lifting it to one side or even reversing the flow.

It is a rapid, precise dance. Sardono uses only fast-drying media for his oil paints. These fluid explorations have no preconceived notions.

“Colour has no right or wrong,” he says with conviction.

“When I pour the paint, it’s not about color, but more about textures and relations between various shades. I start pouring and observe. If it doesn’t relate well, I stop using that particular colour and take another bottle.”

Occasionally, an emerging array of pigment triggers a memory, of a particular person in the artist’s life, perhaps. When this occurs, he would mould that particular area with the spread of thumbs and fingers into the person’s likeness.

“I like so many things,” enthuses Sardono, “I like complexity and order-within-chaos... Only from such chaos can new explorations arise.”

As his technique developed, the sizes of his canvas have increased.

“I like the physical challenge of lifting a larger canvas,” he enthused.

Sardono does not limit his visual exploration to stretched canvas.

“I’m not a painter,” says Sardono. Humbly, if not rather defensively.

Sardono is a dancer. These inimitable paintings are a personal record of his dancing.  

— Photos courtesy of
vivi yip art room colours


Choreography of Colours

Nov. 12 - Dec. 12, 2009
vivi yip art room
Annexe Ciputra World Marketing Gallery
Jalan Prof Satrio Kav 11,
Casablanca
www.viviyipartroom.com
vivi@viviyipartroom.com
02152921394

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