TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
'Tracing The Subtle Signs' solo exhibition shines light on ballpoint pen art
Change Size
A close-up of Windi Apriani's 'Remnant Light II' created with a ballpoint pen on canvas. (JP/Masajeng Rahmiasri)
A
solo exhibition titled “Tracing the Subtle Signs” by artist Windi Apriani just kicked off in Jakarta’s longest-running private gallery, Edwin’s Gallery in Kemang, South Jakarta, Tuesday.
The event that marks Windi’s first solo exhibition since 2014 is set to run until Feb. 4 and is free admission for the public. The exhibit comprises 12 paintings created since March 2016. Windi's signature cross-hatching technique with a regular ballpoint pen on canvas dominates her work.
Windi said ballpoint pens had always been her favorite medium since her final year at the School of Visual Art and Design, Bandung Institute of Technology, in 2010.
“I like the process of pen shading. It’s like a process to remember God,” she told The Jakarta Post in the exhibition’s opening ceremony on Tuesday night. She also used oil-based paint to color the base of the canvas and to add sheer accents, this time in red, to add a lomography effect in her paintings.
(Read also: Marveling at Magritte's 'Treacherous Images' in Paris exhibition)
The 30-year-old explained that it usually took around one or two months to create a two-meter painting. “I used to be faster, but I have slowed down since I got married and have to take care of my child,” she said. She also stated that it normally took less than a dozen regular ballpoints to finish the two-meter drawing.
In most of the paintings displayed in the exhibition, the audience can see Windi’s signature self-portraits. The portraits are made by manually tracing two photographs, which are later joined in an overlaying style. Such method is used to represent relativity of time and space in daily movements, Windi said.
A. Rikrik Kusmara, curator of the exhibition, describes this change as Windi’s approach to showcasing a trademark without drawing a representation of herself in the paintings.
He also added that “Looking at Windi’s paintings, we can get an intense, enigmatic aesthetic experience. The detail of the consistent line drawings give an impression of shapes with high sensitivity,” he also said.
(Read also: A Kiwi in the paddy)
Aside of Windi’s self-portraits, there are two other important aspects in her drawings, which are light and textile elements. Windi describes light, which she has just started to use frequently as present in the current exhibition, as one of her more favored elements. It completed her drawings and brought forth the contrast between darkness and light, she said. Meanwhile, she thinks textiles are a fun challenge to take on in her shading technique, which requires an intrinsic attention to detail.
Both Rikrik and gallery owner Edwin Rahardjo agreed that Windi was a special case because she had a unique, subtle and sensitive drawing technique that was combined with constant productivity, despite her young age. “We are assured that Windi will present very interesting developments,” said Edwin. He also said such qualities would surely attract collectors. (asw)
