VALENTINE WILLE FINE ART

press release
Bentuk-bentuk is an overview of contemporary sculptural practices in Indonesia. Highlighting 3D works of art, the exhibition creates a framework for explorations that convey a sense of mischief and playfulness, subverting the seriousness of modern sculptural practices. The artists presented here come from diverse backgrounds. They are prominent names in Indonesia’s current contemporary art milieu, key participants in shaping the development of contemporary Indonesian art, which over the past decade has been marked by a significant shift away from the strident socio-political commentaries that have defined much of Indonesian contemporary art since the 1990s.
These artists are well exposed to the cosmopolitan environment of Indonesian urban centres such as Jakarta, Bandung and Yogyakarta. Many of them are comfortable working across disciplines and often engage with concept-driven practices. Their art-making approaches and concerns evince a knowing nod towards the graphic, whether they hint at the fecund cultural environment that has fostered such creativity or turn inwards to introspect personal experience and memory.

Their range highlights a broad spectrum of interests and influences. Through Handiwirman Saputra and Yusra Martunus, Jendela Group members as well as leading sculptors in their own right, we witness both artists' ongoing formal preoccupation with different ways of seeing – questioning the problems of presentation and representation, and the physical, intellectual and emotional values inherent in particular materials and form.

Abdi Setiawan, Agus Suwage, Eko Nugroho and S. Teddy are jesters, teasing us with their attentive playfulness, using powerful Pop images drawn from the everyday. Based on their socio-political and cultural contexts of their individual surroundings, their work tells us a little about the way they negotiate their way in these environments. Intimate yet unsettling, Yuli Prayitno’s surreal and somewhat corporeal presentation about love, probes into the darker reaches of our emotions.