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'Ireland’s Eye' exhibition seeks connection with Indonesia via the arts
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As seen by Ireland: Artworks from six artists in Dublin, Ireland were showcased in the Ireland's Eye exhibition in South Jakarta on June 8. (Courtesy of ISA Art and Design) (Courtesy of ISA Art and Design/Courtesy of ISA Art and Design)
Artworks from six artists in Dublin, Ireland showcased how similar the European island is to Indonesia in its history and nature.
The walls of glass of the World Trade Center 2 tower in Sudirman’s office complex were not that transparent, but people walking by outside on June 8 could see the colorful artworks in the building’s lobby from a distance.
Dazzling any spectators nearby were the artworks in the exhibition Ireland’s Eye, a collaboration between ISA Art and Design gallery, the Embassy of Ireland in Indonesia and Jakarta Land management at World Trade Center, South Jakarta. The art exhibition featured six emerging artists and recent graduates from the Fine Art master’s programs in Dublin, Ireland.
“Each artist [has their own] interpretation of what they see in Ireland,” Deborah Iskandar, owner of ISA Art and Design, said, explaining the title to the visitors.
That variety of interpretations appeared in the showcased works. From expressions of identities to questions of space, each artwork was displayed on a simple set of tall walls on the corner of the WTC building, illuminated by sunlight and LED lights.
Complex, modern world
The exhibition explored “the idea of the visual arts as a critical ‘eye’ on an increasingly connected yet polarizing world”, it declared on the high wall of introduction. As can be seen from the works, available to see digitally on ISA Art and Design’s website, they all come in different forms. Some of the paintings are on canvas, others on postcard-sized papers, and one was even in the form of an abstract 3D collage of primary-colored objects, bigger than the rest.
“Very few artists in the 21st-century paint anymore. Painting, like an oil-on-canvas painting, is quite old-fashioned right now,” Deborah stated. But because of that, these artists were able to express themselves more through “different mediums, different concepts and different ideas,” she added.
One artist’s (Bara Palcik) work was in the form of a 15-minute short movie on a TV screen, whereas another artist’s (Jamie Cross) works portray the spaces in our everyday household objects through photographs on LED screens.
“I think we do the same thing here, we put any photograph here into LED displays or light blocks, so it is not a flat image, but it drove you in,” Deborah said.
With the inclusion of digital space and electronic equipment, it became another point that the arts tried to get across: the digital revolution which has become of great help during the pandemic. This exhibition originally started on March 17, but all plans were cancelled when the new wave of the COVID-19 virus hit.
Curated by Mark Joyce from the Institute of Art, Design and Technology and Dr. Sarah Durcan of the National College of Art and Design in Dublin -- both of whom were not present that day -- the works seemingly asked questions of globalization, history and identity.
“There’s a lot of emphasis now on gender and identity, the role of women, the role of men, and the new term, nonbinary,” Deborah explained about Palcik’s video. “And through this medium, she’s exploring the idea of gender and identity,” she said, before moving to Ciara Roche’s paintings on material objects.
Similar history
The ambassador of Ireland to Indonesia, His Excellency Pádraig Francis, dived deeper into the similarities between Ireland and Indonesia.
“The scales of our two countries are very different. In Ireland, there are around 5 million people, which is half the population of Jakarta. But we have a similar experience of being island countries and maritime countries. We both have a reputation for being very green countries. Ireland is often called the Emerald Isle because of its lovely green landscape,” Francis explained to The Jakarta Post on June 8.
This intention was clear in the work of Louis Haugh: A massive photo of a forest printed on the wall with pictures of hands in different poses on top of it. His work, Deborah explained, deals with Ireland’s colonial past that led to the country’s deforestation until 1850.
Some of the artists featured in this exhibition were also not originally from Ireland. Anishta Chooramun came from Mauritius, East Africa; Vanessa Jones from Tennessee, the United States; and Bara Palcik from the Czech Republic. The colonization history and the migrants' similar experiences can also be correlated with Indonesia and its people’s movement from one island to another post-independence.
“The challenge that the embassy faces is that our two countries are very far away. They have many things in common but I don’t think our people know each other very well, and this is something we’re trying to improve,” His Excellency said.
The exhibition will run until June 17 in South Jakarta before moving to Bandung, where they will visit several art hubs and also meet with art students. Francis proudly showed the shamrock-and-lapwing batik design for the embassy of Ireland made by Vania Gracia, a student at the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB).
“This is a great opportunity not just for students in Bandung to see this and to hopefully draw inspiration from it, but also for an Irish artist to work with Indonesian artists and just find and create new connections between them,” he concluded, noting that curator Mark Joyce will be present at the exhibition in Bandung.
