17 Oct-09 Nov 2008 | VWFA Singapore | Curator: Enin Supriyanto | Artists: J. Ariadhitya Pramuhendra, Indieguerillas (Santi & Miko), Yogie Achmad Ginanjar, Uji Handoko, David Armi Putra, Kokok P Sancoko, Davy Linggar, Krisna Widiathama, Wedhar Riyadi, Terra Bajraghosa, Theresia Agustina, Tisa Granicia, RE Hartanto, Samsul Arifin, Beatrix Hendriani Kaswara, Angki Purbandono, Tromarama

Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing. — A quote from “adidas” print ad.

The above quote, cited from adidas print ad, may be useful for highlighting the underlying ideas of REFRESH exhibition. In today’s Indonesian art context, art market seems energetic. However, for the most part, this supposedly enthusiastic market is only relevant with certain kind of artwork, namely painting. And we still have to emphasize this: painting with certain visual styles and patterns. Hence, in some instances, relation between our art development and today’s enthusiasm of our art market is relatively still the same as what has been told by Sanento Yuliman in 1990 (Boom! Ke Mana Seni Lukis Kita? [Boom! Where Our Fine Arts to Go?])

Certainly, there are some other things in our social scene of today’s fine arts that have changed if compared to situation when Sanento Yuliman wrote his review years ago. To give an example, today’s market is characterized by the strengthening network of global art market that shows an increasing interest to Asian artworks, including those from Indonesia. A number of art collectors began to build their private museums though still inaccessible to public. Now a great number of art events are not only centered around Jakarta. Such activities can also be found easily in Jogja, Bandung, Semarang and other cities—though still revolving around big cities in Java and Bali. In short, if we try to indentify in detail what going on in the social scene of our fine arts today, we can find a number of new and interesting developments.

In spite of the developments, we feel that Sanento Yuliman’s critical notes and concerns are also still pertinent to contemporary situation and need to be taken into consideration. One of these is an issue he called as “impoverishment”.

Such is an acute and important issue as it is closely linked with artist’s ‘position’—or, to bolster its aura of acuteness, you may call it ‘responsibility’. This impoverishment actually happens when we see the fact that only certain kinds of painting nominated as the best by buyers and collectors. In spite of that, we can’t fault Indonesian collectors or see it as confirmation of their bad taste. We should also note that recent Indonesian art market has attracted not only buyers and enthusiasts in or from Indonesia. Quite the contrary, as I see it, this impoverishment has been more acute and interminable as artists themselves—both senior artists and those categorized as newbies in professional track—seem impotent or let themselves defenseless in the face of market rule. Our recent fine arts are those laden with paintings that show patterns, styles and visual approaches wrapped in mannerism: an intention to control styles and makes them look like those sellable in the market—even, the more degrading, is epigonism: to imitate styles and patterns of certain paintings.

Both situations may be seen as betraying the spirit of painting’s “reborn” as a form of visual articulation that contains conceptual qualities in contemporary art practices.

Furthermore, this impoment tends to be more acute as different kinds and forms of artwork in Indonesia are deemed insignificant, low-grade, marginal or, to be precise, “unworthy of collection”. Enthusiasts and buyers simply disregard non-painting artworks. At the same time, artists themselves take the very same stance. Many artists tend to degrade, or leave altogether, their talent for creating non-painting artworks. In short, the impoverishment of our artworks becomes increasingly complicated comparable to a vicious circle: a market whose taste and appreciation revolve round the exchange value, and practices of art creation that also impoverish themselves through mannerism and epigonism. We are facing a symptom of art creation as well as artworks reception that easily deterred when invited to traverse myriads of ideas and possibilities for creating new and “different” artworks. The very danger we are facing today is when artists and market agents eventually cling to the selfsame conviction: market rule is inevitable and must be accepted unreservedly. Offering something new and different to the market is simply a mission impossible.

Impoverishment is therefore paradox and irony in the sphere of contemporary art practices. Let’s imagine that a “chamber pot” made by R. Mutt (Marcel Duchamp, 1917) is the key for opening artist’s creative freedom toward the broadest space for art creation. Accordingly, freedom for art creation in today’s context is not merely an aspiration anymore, or dream waiting for realization. Freedom for art creation is thus an already available condition implying a number of consequences: to create with full freedom. The impoverishment of our fine arts today, therefore, is no more than an irony or even an annoying mockery in the eyes of creative artists.

REFRESH is an attempt to rejuvenate the atmosphere of Indonesian fine arts by presenting a number of artists who—by means of their works—have potentialities to throw us all out of the whirling vicious circle. REFRESH is more a way of thinking than a subject of exhibition. REFRESH is not exhibition of paintings, sculptures of objects, graphic prints, photos, installations or combination of these already mentioned. REFRESH is fine arts exhibition. REFRESH is also an acknowledgement of the existing vitality that drives ceaselessly Indonesian fine arts from the inside and capable of renewing itself all the time. REFRESH is not an appeal for revolution but invitation to activate systemic capabilities of human creativity which so far have been the main element of human evolution. REFRESH is not an anti-market statement but request for broadening, reviving and enriching the market—the place where various tastes, ideas and works may be displayed, appreciated and exchanged openly. REFRESH is not utopia of the bright future of fine arts but today’s challenge of which answer is still up in the air.

© 2008 Enin Supriyanto | goodbyenin@gmail.com