Artistic inroads from Indonesia
- Source: Global Times
- [10:19 July 27 2010]
- Comments
Garin Nugroho, Edwin, Faozan Rizal and Gotot Prakosa are four independent filmmakers featured in the exhibition. Covering several generations, their work reflects the changing face of Indonesian culture, ranging from politics (such as Prakosa's Kantata Takwa, a semi-documentary protest against the Suharto regime) to the absurd (such as Edwin's A Very Boring Conversation, a very peculiar 6-minute film by a director famous for his playful, logically loose constructions.
There is also quality to be found in more traditional media. There are several impressive oil paintings in the exhibition, including I Nyoman Masriadi's Negotiation and Mangu Putra's Police Line 5, a beautifully painted though harrowing set of portraits of young children in Bali.
Agus Suwage, whose work "is largely devoted to life, its absurdity as well as its pleasures," according to curators Jim Supangkat and Biljana Ciric, offers a number of pieces including Too Young to Die, Too Old to Rock and Roll #1#2#3. It consists of three see-through plastic guitar cases which are filled with cigarette butts, tablets and "human" bones, respectively.
Arahmaiani, an artist well-known for her political and social activities displays a work from her Flag project - an ongoing community-based art mission that operates in several countries.
She is currently working with people from Yu Shu, the quake-hit area in Qinghai in the northwest of China. Arahmaiani is also a staunch critic of the West and of her own culture and rallies against existing stereotypes, especially with regard to Muslim culture.
"The artist uses herself as a medium between the weak and the powerful by trying to channel the message of the weak and overcome the barriers of stereotypes," said Supangkat.
"She is both attached to the community, but also maintains a distance that she needs to preserve, making the artist the sole action-maker."
This exhibition has much to offer, though there are a few pieces that don't quite engage.
The Live Another Thousand Years Project invites artists to "curate their own presen-tation of archival material related to their personal histories," according to Ciric.
It consists mostly of everyday objects that, though significant for the artists in question, are not particularly interesting for others.
The contents of an artist's traveling suitcase or a collection of old 35mm film casings are feeble displays, especially when compared to some of the remarkable pieces this exhibition has to offer.
Date: Until August 19, 10 am to 9:30 pm
Venue: MoCA Shanghai
Address: Gate 7, People's Park, 231 Nanjing Road West 南京西路231号人民公园7号门
Admission: 20 yuan
Call 6327-9900 for details
