We took a road trip to Singapore last Wednesday to attend the opening of JENDELA group’s exhibition “A Play of the Ordinary” at National University of Singapore (NUS) Museum. It was a spur of the moment decision as we wanted to kill a few birds with one stone: 1) cheer our friends on 2) see Handiwirman’s ‘knives’ which we’ve heard so much about during our recent trip to Jakarta and 3) get our ‘mee-pok‘ fix. Hee.

This show is a big deal for the group as it is their first major exhibition outside Indonesia. Combining old works dating as far back as 1999 with new ones, “A Play of the Ordinary” traces the group’s development over the past decade. Working in a distinctive visual symbolic language, using still life and landscape forms,  these five artists from West Sumatra have differentiated themselves from a predominantly figurative-based and socio-politically driven Indonesian art context and are now leading figures in their own right. Kudos to curator Enin Supriyanto for his sensitive and well thought-out presentation. As we walked through the thematically curated rooms, we witness their sense of humour and wit, their close friendship as well as the influence they have on each other’s artistic development. As for the knives, there were not 2 but 3 knives on show -a pair of pointed slicing knives from Handi, measuring 2 meters long each, and a giant cleaver by  Rudi Mantofani which miraculously turned up 2 hours before opening.

Here are the pictures. We’ll let you decide if you think they were worth the trip.

Useful info: Kelompok Seni Rupa JENDELA or JENDELA Art Group members are: Jumaldi Alfi, Handiwirman Saputra, Rudi Mantofani, Yunizar and Yusra Martunus. The word ‘Jendela’ means ‘window’ both in Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Malaysia. (AO)

Wiyoga Muhardanto, Buy One Get One Free

Our favourite at this year’s Jakarta Biennale, ARE(N)A (see previous post). Aptly located near the new Harvey Nichols store at Grand Indonesia mall.

Jakarta bisa. Jakarta can. The Jakarta Biennale and our three-day trip to the Indonesian capital proved a real inspiration in these times of cynicism and economic despair.

Biennale entrance at Galeri Nasional

I thoroughly enjoyed the Biennale in the two leisurely afternoons it took us to cover it. It was, if anything, somewhat short and sweet. Despite severe budget limitations, which have meant that each of its main components have lasted for just a month or less, it was a meaningful experience. With a curatorial team headed by Ruang Rupa co-founder Ade Darmawan, ARE(N)A takes Jakarta, and then Southeast Asia in the world, as its playground, without any grandstanding. I loved both the modesty and clarity of the curatorial approach and the earnestness of its objectives.

A “Zone of Understanding” comprises of outreach projects around the city using dance, performance, children’s art and my favourite idea, “Belles-Lettres in The City” (Jakarta Literary Festival) where poetry, literary and archival news quotations manifest as thought-provoking writing on Jakarta’s walls. In the “Battle Zone”, young Indonesian artists/designers and collectives (who, from their profiles, seem all to double as engineers, musicians, creative directors, film-makers) do their bit with ‘public art’,  taking over the streets, billboards, monument, football grounds and train stations; it also included the biennial Jakarta 32 “contest” for art students.

Angki Purbandono

Sadly arriving towards the end of the Biennale meant that we could only catch in person “Fluid Zones”, the central visual art element, which maps Southeast Asian artists under 40 and also works by other international artists made during recent residencies in the region. (We have to declare a vested interest - Adeline is a Networking Curator for this project). Curator Agung Hujatnikajennong from Selasar Sunaryo has pulled together a tight and revealing show spread over the Galeri Nasional and the new mall Grand Indonesia, leading us intuitively through the rough and tumble of Southeast Asian chaos via subtle thematic and strategic resonances. There was no shock-and-awe, and nothing in particular quite blew my mind (also perhaps due to familiarity with many of the artists and some of the works), but the overall sense of engagement, the intimacy and personal commitment of the show as a whole had me sold.

Handiwirman Saputra

Jompet

My hot picks would be in no specific order 1) Phil Collins’ ‘Duniatak akan mendengar’ (The World Won’t Listen) with its disturbingly convincing Morrissey would-bes (I almost sang along), 2) Handiwirman Saputra’s visceral wood and rubber installation Exterior, Inside View - Interior, Outside View (you have to not want to touch to understand), 3) Wiyoga Muhardanto’s fleshy objects, especially the nippled handbags of “Buy One Get One Free”, 4) Jompet’s wild feat of electrical engineering “Java’s Machine: Phantasmagoria”, 5) Malaysia’s own Roslisham Ismail (Ise)’s animated story of the legendary warrior Hang Tuah (”HI-S-TORY”) which was hilarious and 6) Craig Walsh’s ‘Incursion’ video in which a live seafood dinner takes over a cafe as it slowly drowns, in a window of the fancy food court of Grand Indonesia.

Roslisham Ismail (Ise)

Phil Collins

‘Fluid Zones’ ends on 27 February. A final component of the Biennale, ‘Territories and Boundaries Photo Exhibition’ curated by Farah Wardani, runs from March 29- April 11 at Galeri Cipta III, Taman Ismail Marzuki. Visit www.jakartabiennale.com.

Unlike Rachel in Paris, we actually spent just as much time eating, (drinking) and shopping in Jakarta. Our first stop in fact was the Made-in-Indonesia store Alun Alun where we happed on “Indonesia Hari Ini”, a mini survey of the local creative industry. There were cutting-edge often recycled design samples by initiatives like UNKL347 and Toimoi - we hope they’ll soon appear at Rogue-ish.

Adityayoga, Indonesia Hari Ini

We sampled generously the avant-garde cocktails and menu at Potato Head, graced by Eko Nugroho’s mural works, and apparently entirely constructed of found objects, the new brainchild of gallerists Jason Goenawan and Ronald Akili, and chef Sandra. We want one in Kuala Lumpur, but pigs are yet to fly (speaking of which look out for a new feature film by Edwin, Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly, slated for a number of international film festivals this year).

Potato Head

Even as the auction houses reel from the world financial crisis, with Fortune Auction (Borobudur Auction re-invented) holding a no-reserve sale this coming weekend (1 March), the gallery scene seems to be resilient and calendars busy. Curator-turned-artist manager/dealer says it’s business as usual. A new Menteng Art Space is on the horizon. We caught a long-awaited show by Bunga Jeruk at Edwin Gallery in Kemang, and another long-time-coming exhibition, by Yuli Prayitno should be up in the next couple of months, after their big Filipino artists show in collaboration with Valentine Willie Fine Art for which Adeline is moonlighting as Curator.

Bunga Jeruk

Outside the commercial gallery scene, the Jendela Group is in Singapore for a major show, A Play of the Ordinary at NUS Museum, curated by Enin Supriyanto. Nearer to home group member Jumaldi Alfi launches a new residency in Yogyakarta for researchers and curators in March.

All this in the midst of election fever in Indonesia. Obviously the Indonesian creative community has long learned to rise above political chaos and economic strife. Come April and the Legislative Elections, we’ll be far more excited about Agus Suwage’s Retrospective held in conjunction with his 50th birthday at Jogja National Museum and his new monograph. (BY)

RogueArt has officially signed on as a fan of Bea Valdes. One of the most sought-after luxury fashion designers from the Philippines, Ms. Valdes is renowned for her intricately crafted feather and bejeweled bags and necklaces. While her accessories and bags may have been the toast of Vogue, W and Harpers, it is Bea Valdes, the artist, and her work in “Bedtime Stories”, from her recent solo exhibition at SLab in Manila that had completely won us over.

Please bear with me while I gush.

A staunch support of local artisans and their craft, Ms. Valdes worked with her atelier of beaders to create a series of breathtaking depictions of animal figures inspired by fables and folk stories, intricately embellished with sequins, Swarovzki crystals and semi-precious stones. Combining her interest in fairy tales, the artist’s “first exposure to the idea of anything sinister, wicked, or dark,” and a fascination with taxidermy, her cast of lovingly created characters -a baby bear, fawn, squirrel, rat, bunnies, snakes and skulls- have been designed to charm our aesthetic sensibilities through their beauty, fine craftsmanship and immaculate finishing.

“Bedtime Stories” stands on the threshold between old and new, light and dark, the romantic and the macabre. Framed within each bijou-like animal is an amalgamation of sensibilities and style; we witness traces of Gothic and Victorian influences, Art Deco decorative style and echoes of Grimm Brothers and Disney.

She writes in her artist statement:

‘The term taxidermy is derived from two Greek words: taxis, meaning “arrangement” and derma, “skin”. I am continually intrigued by the concept of skin and applied surfaces. Being an agent of transformation, skin has the ability to either conceal or expose by validating or mystifying identity. Layers, grafted on or draped, serve to alter the self/essence associated with the form. One bead at a time, one minute at a time, and thousands of hours later,  we have woven stories on skin. As the object is re-surfaced, it evokes an atmosphere saturated with skewed nostalgia. In this liminal state, objects encased in decorated hides or cloaked in metal membranes straddle the threshold between ambiguity and certainty.’

For further information about the show and artist, do check out SLab’s website here.

Photos courtesy of SLab.

We thought we’d post this painting by Yogyakarta-based artist, Bambang “Toko” Wijacksono for some old-fashioned fun. The simplicity of its design and style evoke pleasant childhood memories of Mad magazine, Where’s Waldo and good old Ladybird storybook illustrations. And the piggies are just so adorable that we might be tempted to huff and puff and blow their house down! Hee!

Trivia: “Toko” in Bahasa Indonesia means “a shop” or “a store”. One of Bambang’s solo projects during the earlier part of 2000 focused on the notion of bartering. He transformed Cemeti Art House into a ‘market’ where members of the public were invited to trade their wares with him. Incidentally, Bambang is the go-to person in Yogyakarta if you ever need to find or buy anything. Seriously. Guaranteed never to disappoint!

As promised, here’s the second installment of Eko Nugroho’s work in 3-d. This stunning bronze pair was a part of “It’s all about Coalition”, a project commissioned by the National Museum of Singapore earlier this April. Photo of the bronzes courtesy of National Museum of Singapore.

The two other images below are from “The Golden Years”, an installation consisting of over-sized golden skulls, embroidered flags and mural from the Sea Art Festival at Busan Biennale this year. This work is an absurd take on the turbulent years of Indonesia’s history. Eko is pictured in both photos as the shots were taken during set up.

One of RogueArt’s favourite artists and persons in the world, Eko Nugroho opened his latest solo exhibition at Galeri Semarang on November 8th. Woohoo! While we are sorry we couldn’t be there to cheer him on, we do however have images from the exhibition to share with everyone.

We want to adopt the green hippo.

A versatile artist who works across numerous disciplines and media, Eko began experimenting with 3-dimensional life-sized forms in 2007. Cast in polyurethane resin or bronze, the artist’s stable of part-man part-machine creatures and objects made their first public appearance at his solo exhibition with Ark Galerie in Jakarta in March 2008. They have also graced the Glass Atrium of the National of Museum of Singapore for a special project commission in April 2008 as well as the recent Sea Arts Festival at Busan Biennale 2008 in September. We’ll post more Eko pictures next week. Promise.

Trivia: The title of this exhibition is based on one of his large scale embroideries from 2007 at VWFA’s Project Room show, “In Wonderland”. Here’s an image of the embroidery during the set up.

Psychogenic Fugue belongs to Patricia Eustaquio’s latest body of work, inspired by JS Bach’s piano exercise, The Well Tempered Clavier. This haunting crochet sculpture, cast from an existing piano, is part of a series of 12 works, silent odes to the sublimity of Bach’s music, recently unveiled at Patty’s highly anticipated solo exhibition Death to the Major, Viva Minor at SLab (Silverlens Lab) on October 16th.

Quick trivia: the existing piano belongs to Nona Garcia’s grandmother.

Our other favourite work from this show is Untitled (Piano), made of tooled leather and ceramic keys. Patty worked with leather craftsmen in Marikina to create the body and the piano keys are shaped from delicate ceramic.

SLab is the latest (and sexiest) addition to Manila’s new contemporary art spaces opening along Pasong Tamo Extension in Makati -Finale Art File and Manila Contemporary are in the vicinity. Those of you who have seen and experienced the bridge will know what we mean by sexy. It’s very Diego and Frida! SLab is dedicated to presenting contemporary Filipino art and is a part of the Silverlens Group, helmed by the formidable Isa Lorenzo and Rachel Rillo. To find out more check out http://slab.silverlensphoto.com

SLab interior