Emerging graphic artist Agung Prabowo explored his own fears and presented them for all to see as he took his first steps into the Indonesian art scene.

The artist, who prefers the moniker Agugn, is holding his first solo exhibition — “Natural Mystic” — in four cities until January next year with support from the culture and art institution Bentara Budaya.

After Bentara Budaya, Jakarta, the exhibition travels to Bentara Budaya, Yogyakarta, until Nov. 17 and then on to Bentara Budaya, Bali, from Jan. 4 to 11. The traveling exhibition is set to end at Balai Soedjatmoko Solo, Surakarta, Central Java, from Jan. 24 until 30.

“This exhibition is my prize for winning the Bentara Budaya art competition last year,” Agugn, the winner of the fourth edition of Bentara Budaya’s Indonesian Graphic Art Triennial Competition in 2012, explained.

He won the competition for Nirbaya Jagratara (Never Fear, Always Cautious), a linocut on his own handmade paper.

Linocuts are a variant of the woodcut print technique. It uses a sheet of linoleum rather than a block of wood, which is later inked with a roller and then impressed on to paper or fabric.

For Nirbaya Jagratara, Agugn applied a reductive linocut approach, which creates multicolored prints using a single linocut sheet and a series of progressive cuts, inkings and prints. This technique was pioneered by Pablo Picasso in the 1950’s.

Agugn was praised for a technical achievement that not only resulted in a suggestive artwork but also displayed colors inconceivable by his competitors.

“These prints represent my exploration of truth. They represent my fear of the unknown. I was trying to conquer the fear and replace it with curiosity, a willingness to find out,” said the 28-year-old native of Bandung, West Java.

Family Matters: (Courtesy of Bentara Budaya)
The unknown he spoke of especially evolved around accepting his new life as a father.

“There are myths and mysteries about pregnancy, delivery and the upbringing of children I had heard from friends, relatives and parents. There are so many things about being a father that I don’t understand,” said the artist who studied graphic arts at the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB).

All 28 pieces in the exhibition resulted from 10 months of hard work.

“I worked intensively for the exhibition. It is not only a way to express as an artist but also a heavy-duty course as a craftsman.”

“I have to do a lot of research before working on these pieces. I get to learn new skills and gain knowledge. The process definitely provided me with precious ammunition for my future works,” Agugn said.

Aminudin TH Siregar, a visual arts expert from ITB, said that Agugn represented a new generation of Indonesian graphic artists.

“Free from the anti-politicization air after the downfall of the New Order, Agugn’s generation faces a period of art in a much more complex arena of representation, reproduction and legitimacy,” Siregar said in his exhibition curatorial notes.

Siregar said that Agugn’s generation no longer needed to give answers to question about how reality should be represented in art, but rather how art should be used by artists in making sense of their daily life.

“Agugn’s ‘Natural Mystic’ series awakes the realization that we are communally helpless amid the frightening production of pseudo-truth.”

Nirbaya Jagratara: <)