Another Show

Hi everyone, I will be exhibiting my work once again at the China International Gallery Exposition this year. It will be at the China World Trade Center in Beijing and it ends on 28 April 2008.

Something Interesting

I recently visited an exhibition by Jeff Gillette called "Dismayland", and I have to say I finally found an artist who tackles themes that are rather similar to my own. 

His works involve an interesting juxtaposition of Disney characters outside the usual plushy confines of Walt Disney created settings, but instead are placed among barren, post-apocalyptic wasteland and decrepit conditions of third world countries. These places remind me of my hometown, Indonesia. 

There is a sense of beauty and surrealism in his paintings. Similar to my earlier works, they have created an illusion of vast space. They made me think. They made me think of the present connection between consumerist images, tourism and entertainment, and the poverty of the slums. 

His art is interesting.

Me, a pop icon artist?

Andy Warhol
2008
Oil on Canvas

John and Yoko Ono
Acrylic on Canvas

No More John and George on Abbey Road
Acrylic on Canvas

"Wendt Gallery is pleased to announce we will be hosting the first one man show for pop icon artist Dede Eri Supria in Fall 2011. The exhibition will be featured at both the New York City and Laguna Beach locations"

Me, a pop icon artist?

As I said in a previous post, I do not simply transfer reality onto canvas. This reality is the reality that I see in my own eyes. The world is different for me because I see these changes in our society from my own perspective. Even though I portray very clearly the events taking place in my surrounding, I paint realism not to portray something that represents this reality; rather, I paint from the construction that I have established.

Lately, I have been increasingly preoccupied with pop culture and pop icons. Andy Warhol, The Beatles, John Lennon and Yoko Ono... such ubiquitous subjects these are, and such a pervasive influence they hold over our lives. Do we, as people living in this moment, realize the extent that our lives have been changed by these pop culture icons and images, fed into our homes everyday through television and magazines?

The American hegemony is what I am concerned about here. I fear that with globalization and the continuing dominance of the Western culture, our society will slowly lose the essence of its culture as it gives way to these outside influences. Already, these influences can be seen in the way people live out their lives in Indonesia - people increasingly patronizing American fast food chains, subscribing to Western values and ideas, listening to Western music...

People who have been following my works through my career will know that the true meaning of my paintings do not lie in their surface appearance. Indeed, my art often utilizes symbolism to convey a far greater truth. In the three paintings above, I made use of pop icons in our urban society to create a fabricated reality that is capable of connecting with viewers and provoking a deeper emotional and intellectual response. Andy Warhol, in this instance, is such an apt subject to paint as he is the embodiment of pop culture and consumerism itself.

For those out there criticizing me for my change in artistic style, you don't know me well enough. This change has been continuous. I find, increasingly, that if I want to reach out to a greater spectrum of people, I have to adjust the subjects used accordingly so that my works can act as a mirror to allow for correlation with reality, as symbolized in my own style. It is a process similar to globalization, a process everyone has to adjust to in all aspects of our lives. My underlying message, my use of symbolism and obscurity has not changed. Instead, I feel that I have gained greater maturity in symbolizing reality, having moved away from my heavy use of visual elements such as the labyrinth in my earlier days. 

Two Exhibitions this year.

"Imagine Affandi", Gedung Arsip Nasional, Jarkarta 2007
Shanghai Art Fair International Contemporary Art Exhibition, Shanghai, China 2007

Do drop by any of these shows if you are free. 

Recurring themes #2

Something else I'm preoccupied with, especially in my earlier works: the life of urban workers. Or you can see it as a subset of theme#1 - social change. The main subjects in these paintings are members of the working-class trying to make a living, and even the lower-class "outcasts" struggling to make ends meet amidst the city dump

Survivors
2005
Oil on Canvas

Yellow Troops
1993
Oil on Canvas

The Urban Class
1981
Oil on Canvas

Though most of my paintings carry symbolic meanings with humanitarian themes or themes about the environment in which I live. My paintings are not at all meant as social criticism, because truly the themes I take from the life of the people are in themselves stark facts... The way I paint is determined by what I think is artistic. Whatever I do, it is as if I always have a feeling of moral responsibility towards life such as you find it here in Jakarta... Maybe I hope that, besides the artistic quality and beauty of a specific painting, people will also be drawn into thinking about the fact that all around us there are many problems which need to be faced. 

One of these problems are the low skilled workers we commonly see. While the cosmopolitan upper-middle class enjoy their lives, these people have to struggle just to survive each day. Their side of the story, amidst the consumerist lifestyle we subscribe to, is one that most would choose to ignore. I painted these paintings with an apathetic attitude, similar to the indifference that many people in our society have towards these people. This is perhaps why these painting have earned myself the criticism of being "cold" and "technical". 

I will stress again that I do empathize with the plight of these workers. However, I would like the viewers to interpret these paintings for themselves, and therefore I shouldn't be trying to pass judgement of the situation onto people.  I see myself merely as an artist with the responsibility of conveying these images to the public, images we see but often choose to ignore. I am concerned about the change that is leading to a slow deterioration of these people's lives, and I want the society to also be aware and cautious of these changes.

An excerpt from one of my interviews, relevant to this theme:

"We witness everyday the struggle of the urbanites to survive in Jakarta. These people arrive from villages faraway, live in the slum at the heart of the city, amid grand buildings. Or perhaps they come from the fringes of Jakarta, go early in the morning to work, and come back late at night. Just like boxers, these urbanites have to fight and win the game in order to live. They will be crushed if they are unable to survive. They don't do what they dream of. They must struggle with dirty and harsh jobs, with garbage, used cardboards, used things, pollution.

This fact becomes the trigger and challenge for me. There are many aspects of the city life in Jakarta that are so interesting to be portrayed; but it is the struggle of the urbanites that invariably brings me to paint. Painting these urban people, the beggars, the sweepers, the roadside vendors, the rag pickers, the garbage, and the used cardboards is probably unappealing. The challenge is to make them appealing and 'betraying messages.'"

Recurring themes in my art #1

A brief introduction to my art... Here are three recurring themes I find myself constantly working with. I've presented them in different styles throughout my career, but if you look closely, they are all very similar in terms of their underlying content and meaning.

Theme #1 - Social Change
Here are just some examples.

Hujan Beton (Rain of Steel Rods)

Tukang Daging
1981

Between the Red Steel
1992
Oil on Canvas

I was born and raised in Jakarta, a city which not only inspires my work but more than that. Jakarta offers all of life’s possible problems and enjoyments, so I have a certain sentimental feeling about it. The situation in Jakarta is created by the thunder of traffic and the smoke from factories that never stop, the building of the city which continues ceaselessly, the increasing number of inhabitants, and its tumultuous daily life which has become extremely complex. 

It is impossible to be exposed to these sights everyday without being influenced by it. My art, my preoccupation with urban change is therefore bred out of the context of my society.

In these paintings, I tried to present my observations of the urban dilemmas of these people living in a society of continuous - and often overwhelming - change. I take photographs of the metropolis apart and reassemble them into disconcerting, but strangely familiar views. I find a simultaneous presence and absence of humans in these painting - people who are physically there, but their thoughts are miles away, caught up in the strife and confusion of the urban life.

In Hujan Beton (Rain of Steel Rods), I tried to depict the cultural shock of those who come into the city for the first time of their lives from rural areas. The element of scaffolding, though not yet sophisticated, already features in my early works such as this. The workers have on their faces impassive expressions, eyes that do not reveal their emotions or inner thoughts. Are they anticipating their future in the city, filled with opportunities to better the lives of themselves and their families? Or are they weighed down by a sense of unease, confusion and insecurity at their prospects in surviving the city? 

I consider Tukang Daging as one of my earliest works in my mature style, painted in the 'super-realist' style I am known for. In this painting, I tried to present not only the reality, but also the atmosphere and mood of the moment. The table, the meat, the seller sitting impassively waiting for customers are all parts of a roadside market that can be found anywhere in urban Indonesia. I placed these elements against a backdrop of cracked and barren ground, where there is no correlation between the seller and his environment. In doing so, I aimed to highlight the sense of anonymity and alienation of the seller from his surroundings. The environment is bleak and absent of humanity. From my perspective, this is reality for the multitude of people living the same life as this seller.

You will notice that the piece of meat hanging from the wooden flanks of the stall occupies the center of the composition. It has a special meaning too, a metaphor for something. I shall elaborate no more; its significance is up to the public to decide.

In the final painting, "Between the Red Steel", I heavily utilized the element of scaffolding. These metal flanks are like the vigor and oppression of urban life, separating us from each other. Again, I played with the simultaneous absence and presence of humans in the composition - the people were physically there, but their gazes do not connect to each other nor the viewer. They exist as lone individuals in this painting, caught up in their own worries, indifferent to the presence of others. I fear that this is where our society will be heading - an environment devoid of warmth and humanity.

Reply to Andy Warhol

dede, what were your thoughts behind the colour palette for this painting?

I would like to address this question by Mr. Warhol on my post "Photorealism just doesn't cut it for me".

Similar to many of my other paintings, "Send in the Clowns" is painted with lots of red for the simple reason that it gives a sense of desolation, thus reflecting the plight of the poor living in the city. I think that the use of colours is an important part of my work as it helps in conveying the emotion that I want people to feel.

I hope that answered your question Mr. Warhol, and thank you for your comment.

Photorealism just doesn't cut it for me

I once said in an interview that “I paint the reality that is closest to me”

In case you start thinking that I am a photorealist painter, I am here to clarify: Yes, I am interested in the lives of the urbanites, how they go about living their lives on the outside. But what I am more curious to know is the underlying reality of these people. Their individual stories and background are no doubt interesting materials I can use for my paintings, but I want to reflect more. I want to reflect their collective consciousness, their mindsets and attitudes, their internal struggles. I want to reveal the truth of the subject as I see it, and convey that truth to my audience through art.

Painting merely what I see is not enough to convey this truth. I need to interpret these truths and paint them in a way that will make the strongest connection to people seeing my paintings. Through my art, I create a fabricated reality. In this sense, my artistic style has much more in common with the hyperrealist style than photorealism.

A recent painting of mine probably best exemplifies this.

Send in the Clowns
2006

Everyone wears masks. We are all clowns in this sense, concealing our truth from the world. I am fascinated by the notion of peeling away these masks and revealing the soul inside. In this society lost in materialism, will we still be able to find humanity underneath these masks?

Have we gone so far and lost our souls to the greed for greater material wealth? Aren’t we all clowns hiding ugly desires behind our masks?

Something to think about.

Let's put a smile on that face.

Clown
2006

Everyday, I see these outcasts, struggling to make ends meet in this cruel metropolitan culture. 

No they don't enjoy it. They don't do what they dream of. They must struggle with dirty and harsh jobs, with garbage, cardboards, used things and pollution.

For survival, they have no choice.

What they've become.

Kebyar Dance

Balinese Dancer
2004

Ready to Perform
2006

They are made to perform for money. The impact of tourism on our cultural change is manifested.

My First Exhibition in China

My work will be exhibited at the China International Gallery Exposition at the China World Trade Centre in Beijing this year,  alongside works of others such as Warhol, Zhang Xiao Gang and Zeng Fan Zhi. It ends on 16th April 2006.

A short video i found regarding people's thoughts on my work.

Finally, a chance to showcase my work

This year, I will be having an exhibition in Singapore. The details are as follows.

Exhibition: "Concerning Change"
Venue: Artfolio Space, Singapore
Opening: Friday 5th April 2002, 6.30pm
Closes on: 14th April 2002
Guest of Honour: Mr Gunalan Nadarajan (Dean of Visual Arts, Faculty of Visual Arts, LASALLE-SIA College of the Arts)

Our Culture is Dead

Save the Last Dance
2001

Since when did it become a commodity; a business? I am saddened. Our culture is dead.

Uncertainty

The Crossing
1998

They live in this fast-changing place, struggling to survive. What happens to them, no one knows.

Pigeon Reincarnation

This is my take on Icarus, the practical and realistic way.

A Show

I will be having a solo exhibition "Into the Labyrinth" at the Jakarta Stock Exchange Building later this year (1997). Feel free to drop by.

A day in life

You will not find much information pertaining to my personal live on the internet. As with many other South East Asian artists, I am a private person by nature. But here is just some background information about me, my family and my education. Maybe this will help you understand my work better

I was born in Jarkata, the seventh of eight children to a teacher. I learned to be a photographic draftsman from primary school age, when I started helping my father do enlarged drawings of photographs on commission. My early exposure to the principles of photography is perhaps the reason why composition played such an important part in my paintings later on - I found that the arrangement of my subjects had such unique power to tell stories, to give greater meaning to my paintings.

Because my father could not single-handedly support our large family, I had to work part time to contribute to my family's income. At first, I sold comic books and ice-cream in my spare time, something which inspired me to take up cartoon drawing. It was also this early foray into the adult world of economic survival in this city that made me particularly sensitive to those in a similar situation of hardship, later on in my life. Anyway, due to my interest in cartoon drawing, I later took drawing lesson from Dukut Hendranoto, a local artist who, non-dogmatically, encouraged us students to get in touch with our selves. He played an important role in shaping my artistic philosophy, which was not to stop at depicting the reality as our eyes see it, but the unique reality that we interpret for ourselves, from our own perspectives. I consider myself self-taught, except for this man who has given me so much valuable advises, even though my studies with him were less than formal. I still remember him fondly to this day.

By junior high school, I've already founded my first artist studio with three friends, and decided to become a painter. I applied to the Secondary School of Fine Arts (SSRI, Sekolah Seni Rupa Indonesia) in Yogyakarta, but dropped out a year before graduation. I was originally interested in realism, but the school did not encourage us to work professionally in this style. Sure, the school did teach us techniques pertaining to painting realistically, but realism was not deemed worthy of anything but a study tool, or as one of the preparatory stages to creating "real art" which must be expressionistically or decoratively distorted. I was mocked for my interest in realism in that school, and after deciding that the school environment was unsuitable for me, dropped out and returned to Jakarta.

After returning to Jakarta, I found work as an illustrator for news magazines as well as for calendars, some of them industrial. These two modes of working, in turn, influenced my painting. In order to be able to paint a relevant, visually catching, and communicative cover, I followed new events closely and did my own journalistic research. In this way, the idea that art was firmly connected to socio-political and economic affairs was solidly exercised. By painting industrial interiors and machinery, architecture and oil-rigs for calendars, I further trained my skill at depicting such objects, materials and textures. These subjects fascinated me so me as to prompt me to continue painting them at my own rate and leisure, without interference.

My art has been heavily influenced by these formative experiences in my early life. Though later on in my life I was exposed to different artistic styles such as the New Art Movement in Indonesia, my principles when it comes to art have more or less stayed the same. I remain classified as a social realist, and I continue to paint in a style laden with symbolic meanings with themes that I draw from my immediate surroundings.

On to an average day in my life.

Sosok Diantara Beton
1995
Oil on Canvas

To paint something like this, I spend a lot of time at construction sites, just observing the structures, the workers, taking in the mood and atmosphere of the moment. I would wander through construction sites with a camera, taking in the sight of workers hauling, pushing, lifting, carrying and hammering together yet another part of the city's scenography. I do this at a leisurely pace, because this isn't something that can be rushed. I need to take in all the details of the sight, get the feeling right before I can start painting.

Once back in my small loft-studio, I seclude myself from the outside world, sit cross-legged on the floor and sketch directly on a large canvas, either from an on-site sketch or from photographs, before starting to paint. I can remain absorbed in the act of painting until my presences is demanded from the room down below, which is dedicated to a gallery showcasing my works. I repeat this process until I finish the painting. Sometimes, the paintings will find themselves onto the gallery walls if I am adequately satisfied. Most of the time though, paintings which find no place on the walls get stacked against each other in a corner.

Not exactly the most exciting career, isn't it? Other than the exhibitions I take part in, and the odd interviews I take now and then, this is about how my life goes. But this is also how I gain experience and maturity in my art. For now, I am firmly grounded on this course which I have chosen to take. I can envision myself doing this for the rest of my life.

My dearest, why do you constantly merely do 2D painting? You have restricted yourself it eh unstructured fortress of the 4 sides or a cloths and wood chunks! Have you ever, considered perhaps exploring another medium for a change, perhaps using your bolidy fluids or perhaps acquiring certain exotic species of frogs from the magnique amazon jungle? 
think about it.

here to spur your imagination-MQ

In response to marc, painting is what i am most comfortable with and i am not obliged to change my style. I don't think i am being restricted in anyway. i am able to create sceneries that are impossible for photography to emulate. i am able to play with people's imagination of unreal-realities and engineer a visual reality. i am able to fuse different elements and subject matters together to create a scenario. i am able to fabricate a reality, a possibility. i am able to make use of different elements of art such as lines, colors, space to immediately create certain mood which is rather tough should it be conveyed in other mediums such as sculpture. Since my recurring themes are more on globalization, i would want to refrain from using items related to technology or relying on technology such as media (visualiser, video camera, sound systems) to create my works as they are mainly brought about by globalization. hence by using traditional mediums and methods, such as painting, i am able to create more impactful and meaningful works of art.


Also, i am able to control almost everything by painting. i cannot control the facial expression of someone and he or she may not be exactly portraying what i him or her to portray but i can control the facial expressions of the subject matter through painting. i am to able to place a sculpture/my subject matter in a particular environment just because such an environment doesn't exist, however i am able to do so through painting. i feel that i am able to convey my messages through painting. i am also able to immediately give the viewers a full picture of what is happening as there is only one way to view the work. perhaps it is also due to the different themes we are working with but i feel that it would be tough to use 3-dimentional works to convey my messages. personally, i feel that if i am able to produce my work myself, without the help of anyone, the works would have a stronger meaning and there will be a sense of accomplishment, I would say. 


After all, we have different styles and different themes but i guess i may try considering other mediums as time passes. However, painting will always be my focus and my main medium.


Dede 

Why I chose such overbearing red

Between the Red Steel (1992)


This is another painting where I portrayed average children to be restricted of freedom and individualty
 as they contained within the concrete and steel of urban society 

Labyrinth

"Labyrinth", done in 1987 to 1988, is perhaps the painting that I am most well known for. It may be the monumental quality of the composition, or the extensive use of the visual element of the labyrinth, or the technically demanding nature of it (no doubt one of the most complicated paintings I have ever painted) that makes this painting more well known than my other paintings.

This is a painting I feel great affinity with, perhaps because it is the embodiment of most of my concerns I've continually tried to express in my art: Concerns with the social change, the life of urban workers, and the impact of globalization and consumerism on our culture and society.

Labyrinth
1987-88
Oil on Canvas

Close-up

In 1990, a statement I gave:

"I am aware of the limitations of the media of the canvas, of space and time. These imprison one; I try to break through them with the use of symbols. With colours, nuances, and various techniques, such as arranging the composition, the one thing that I emphasize amidst all these methods or techniques is symbolism— a simple choice, but one nevertheless full of meanings and complex parables about the life around us which I record. For example, a narrow road which turns and bends, like a labyrinth— many ideas and problems arise in my mind from such a motif. I see people around me becoming apprehensive, anxious, frustrated, feeling a loss of identity. People become very lonely in the midst of the flow of life— therefore a work like "Labyrinth" is born: a description of urban people who face a life situation which is bitter and tortuous. "

Artist's Note

I was born in Jakarta, brought up in a plain, nondescript family amidst many others who struggled to survive in a large urbanized city. The glaring societal imbalance and chaos remains a prominent problem today and I feel strongly for the common people who are disadvantaged and suffer the most. I empathized with them hence I paint to express my take on this plight as a social commentary. In Labyrinth for instance, it implies how simple people are trapped by rapid and complicated changes in urban society, the inability to extricate themselves from the maze signifying how they cannot liberate themselves.