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Reza Afisina: Linking the present to its past
Reza Afisina
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Reza Afisina. JP/Andreas D. Arditya
Contemporary artist Reza 'Asung' Afisina thrives in his surroundings.
He is most inspired by the day-to-day happenings of Depok, West Java, his professional arena in Jakarta and the nationwide community of Indonesians.
'For the past 15 years, I have loved throwing glances at what's happening around me. I find inspiration this way,' Asung says.
His 2001 piece titled What ..., along with an artwork by fellow artist Arin Dwihartanto Sunaryo, was recently acquired by The Guggenheim Museum through its Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative.
The five-year program aims to identify and work with artists, curators and educators from South and Southeast Asia, Latin America, as well as the Middle East and North Africa to expand the museum's reach in the international art world.
In the video performance, Asung recites biblical verses from the Book of Luke about Jesus' warnings against hypocrisy and the importance of truth and confession, while repeatedly and forcefully slapping his own face.
The artwork, one of Asung's early experimental works, was considered significant in the convergence of Indonesian performance art and video of its time.
June Yap, the Guggenheim UBS MAP South and Southeast Asia curator, said that while emphasizing the verses' counsel and admonishment, Asung's increasingly uncomfortable self-abuse in his performance raised the subjects of justice, retribution, suffering, empathy and compassion.
Asung said holy text was among mediums that he most often used in creating artwork.
'I like to combine what I see in the Koran and interpret it with what's happening in society,' said the 37-year-old.
'I think narratives in both the Koran and Bible are actually quite relevant in communities today; the yarn can be spun continuously and endlessly.'
The 2001 artwork also marked his turning point as an artist with a background in cinematography.
Asung has performed and screened his work in group exhibitions, including the OK Video Festival in Jakarta ( in 2003, 2010 and 2011); Taboo and Transgression in Contemporary Indonesian Art, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York (2005); Simple Actions and Aberrant Behaviors, PICA, Portland (2007); Jakarta Biennial (2009); Move on Asia: The End of Video Art, Para/Site Art Space, Hong Kong (2010 and 2012); Moving Image from Indonesia, ZKM Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe (2011); and City Net Asia, Seoul Museum of Art (2011).
Asung said he began making artworks as an experiment to see what he could create with equipments as a cinematography student at the Jakarta Arts Institute (IKJ) in the late 1990s.
'My friends at the visual arts department created artwork effortlessly. I thought to myself, 'what can I make?' So I began reading literature about installation art and then performance art. I knew about video making, so I decided to make a performance art video,' said Asung, whose wife, Marishka Soekarna, is also an artist.
He said that initially he was just happy to be able to experiment and had no other agenda for his artworks. 'But then my work was included at the OK Video Festival in 2003, and from there the ball just kept on rolling,' said the father of two.
Asung did not finish college and became a member of the Jakarta-based artists' collective, ruangrupa ' a nonprofit organization focused on supporting art initiatives in an urban context through research, collaboration, workshops, exhibitions and publications, established in 2000.
He served as program coordinator for ruangrupa from 2003 to 2007, and has been the artistic director of its Art Lab since its inception in 2008.
'I tried working for the entertainment industry, including making TV soap operas and producing radio shows. The money's good but it just didn't work for me,' he said.
Asung said he was currently researching the meaning of transactions that reveal the economic, social and personal connections in people's lives, and also the history of trade in Indonesia.
'As someone who was raised in the New Order era, I saw so many fabricated and devious histories. I think everyone has their own story and their own narrative.'
