What do children playing soccer in a cartoon cityscape; Charlie Brown's kite-eating tree, alive-and-well in Indonesia's capital; parachuting shopping bags; and a Dali-esque rendition of a bowl of noodles have in common?

These images populate the ongoing Ruang Perempuan: Jakarta through Women's Eyes exhibition in which seven women photo artists are showing their responses to an artistic challenge thrown out by the Jakarta Art Council in connection with the Jakarta Biennale 2009, a kaleidoscopic presentation of events from the various artistic disciplines, which started at the beginning of November 2008 and runs through March 2009.

The photo artists, Aiko Urfia Rahmi, Christina Phan, Evelyn Pritt, Ruth Hesti Utami, Julia Sarisetiati, Malahyati and Stephany Yaya Sungkharisma, each answered, in a singularly personal and individual manner, the challenge to explore the Biennale theme "arena" which covers the urban dilemma of the sharing of a limited amount of space by a large number of people of diverse social, cultural, ethnic, and national backgrounds.

Each of the young photographers, ranging in age from the mid-twenties to mid-thirties, not only came at the challenge from distinctly different conceptual and emotional perspectives, ranging from the broader social scope to intimately personal observations; they also approached the process of producing a finished photographic image in very diverse ways; ranging from a simple snapshot and print approach to highly complicated digital computer software manipulation.

Evelyn Pritt, who studied visual design communication at Pelita Harapan University, presented three barebones, show-it-like-it-is snapshots of Jakarta titled "Land is Expensive".

All three photographs feature tracts of land in various stages of development: a fenced-off empty lot; a plot of land occupied by demolition rubble, a slab of concrete and a rag-tag group of youthful soccer players; and an almost completed mall-apartment complex jammed into the midst of a crowded traditional residential area.

Malhayati introduces a series of images featuring the graffiti ubiquitous to Jakarta's major roadways with the posted statement: "The walls of Jakarta are one huge personal journal". In one of the photographs, three young boys enthusiastically chase a ball in front of a huge wall painted with an urban-scape of tall buildings and an unfurled red-and-white Indonesian flag. In another photo, motorcyclists rush by in front of a kinetic blue abstract painting splashed across a dirty white wall.

Aiko Urfia Rakmi, who studied animation at the Jakarta Arts Institute and art and design at TAFE in South Australia, displays a series of photographs of various found objects discovered along Jakarta's streets and alleys and in its many nooks and crannies.

The series is titled: "We Are All Artists". One of these images features a silhouette of a sparsely foliaged tree full of cheap wax-paper children's kites caught beyond retrieval in its clutching branches.

Other random images, also displayed on a large neatly constructed black backdrop, are: patterns left by tire tracks in a dusty red soil field; two weather-battered cattle skulls standing out against mud red earth; and an up-close-and-personal look at a concrete sidewalk embedded with bottle caps and scrawled with names and cryptic messages of urban experience.

Perhaps most interesting among her works on display in this show may be the series of photographs of derelict found-object mannequins in various stages of dress and undress.

Christina Phan, a professional commercial photographer working for a private sector company, presents a thoughtful series of urban images -- the glass walls of sky scrapers, skeleton-like lamp-posts, traffic lights, elevators, trash bins and tree-lined street scenes -- juxtaposed in such a way as to elicit a profound emotional sense of the loneliness and alienation an urban landscape can create within a human soul, while gently reminding us that the human spirit has the resilience to survive, to hope and to transform itself within any environment.

Ruth Hesti Utami, born in 1974, a former journalist who discovered her love for photography at a workshop, presents one very large image of the Jakarta skyline viewed by mysterious fabric swathed figures through an upper-story window of a skyscraper.

Julia Sarisetiati offers up one large image, which mixes photography and graphic design, of shopping bags slowly descending on pink striped parachutes from the sky over the historic Hotel Indonesia traffic circle with its social-realism sculpture of a freedom fighter couple reaching up in joy at independence and new-found hope for a better future.

Julie Sarisetiati comments that this work is: "A snapshot of hyper-reality. A satirical comedy. Just like our zealous embrace of certain brands".

Stephany Yaya Sungharisma, a graduate of visual communication design from Pelita Harapan University, says of the premise for the photographic/graphic design images that she presents in this show: "We live in a cold, cold heart. There's a magic in a little eye to eye and it might help us all, to get through one rough day".

In her take on urban life, she sets out a series of slick, surreal images of dismembered body parts in odd settings, such as a noodle bowl, a glass of deep red beverage, and the end of a shower nozzle.

These and other works by this group of young female photographers can be seen on the following dates at:

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Exhibition:

Dec. 2-7, 2008 at Galeri Cipta III, Taman Ismail Marzuki, Jl. Cikini Raya 73, Central Jakarta Dec. 9, 2008 - Jan. 9, 2009, at Galeri Oktagon, Jl. Gunung Sahari, Central Jakarta

Discussions:

Jan. 9 at 6 p.m. at Galeri Oktogan: Closing and dialog with exhibiting photographers Jan. 13 at 2 p.m. at Galeri Oktagon: Discussion onand Photography"

For further information: Jakarta Arts Council: (62-21) 31937639, 3162780, 39899634

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