A work on memories: Rifqi Sukma and Dita Gambiro visu-alize concepts or meaning with simple material in their installation work.

The vibrancy in contemporary art today makes it clear that Indonesian contemporary art is gaining momentum both domestically and abroad.

Responding to increasing art development in the country, Galleri Canna in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta, found it necessary to have a space that fit larger works of cotemporary art.

Its shop-house-style gallery underwent a total redress, now taking up three floors. The gallery first opened in 2001 and has since been active in hosting exhibitions and taking young Indonesian artists abroad, gaining prominence in among others the Cige Art Fair in Beijing.

Transforming the space to give an opportunity to artists’ free creations should be seen in this perspective.

Artists have all the space to bring out their imagination in giant form, as evident at the opening of the third-floor gallery during the eighth anniversary on Dec. 15, where some works were so large they would never have fitted in a regular gallery.

Participating artists — 3rd Droom (comprising Rifqi Sukma and Dita Gambiro); Arya Pandjalu and Sara Nuytemans; Davy Linggar; Farhan Siki; Festivalist (Farid Stevy, Asta and Roby Setiawan); Ghost (Yasmina Yustiviani and Agra Satria); Henry Foundation and Ade Darmawan; Hitam Manis and Indiegurillas — were selected by a curatorial team of three.

The larger the work, the sooner one will see it.

Festivalist’s The Orthodox Festivalist, the Amplifier and the Joy of an Art Criticism, catches the eye the moment one arrives on the second floor. The work encompasses a 200- by 200-centimeter painting and a huge sort of trumpet-shaped viewer directed to the painting.

Other large works include Scream, by Farhan Siki, and the larger-than-life sculpture Super Hero by Hitam Manis.

But surely works of a simple nature can be of equal or even greater significance. H.E Hartanto’s digital prints on acrylic sheets placed in light boxes, showing two sides of the human skull, testify to a refined work of art. The same can be said of Kokok P. Sancoko and Rudi Hendriatno’s finely handcrafted teak Machine.

Perhaps the most intriguing works are those made by 3rd Droom, which visualize concepts or meaning with simple material. Free of technical intricacies, in Keep in Warm Place, Rifqi and Dita use plain caskets suggestive of coffins made of plain wood to reveal their vision of memories. Placed in the coffins, the simple letters of the title Rest in Memories lead one to one’s own imagination, of things long past and yet so freshly close.

In another installation, which they call Remembrance, three panels of embroidered material are suspended from the ceiling, suggesting layers of memory that store, retain and recall information.

“Memory ... is the diary that we all carry about with us,” said Oscar Wilde in The Importance of Being Earnest.

In the case of 3rd Droom, they think of memory as remembrance and dream. A similar simplicity is seen in the installation by Simponi, titled Ode to Inong. Made of skirts, aluminium and bulbs, 12 black suggestive skirts hanging from the ceiling, it is a somber reminder of the issue of the strict regulations of Islamic sharia law imposed on women in certain regions.

— Photos by Carla Bianpoen


“Cross/Piece”
The 8th Anniversary of Galeri Canna

Exhibition

Dec. 15, 2009, to Jan. 15, 2010
Jl. Boulevard Barat Raya Blok LC 6 No. 33-34
Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta

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