The Substation

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Roy Voragen

Performative Space

The Substation

Art and Culture in/of the City-state Singapore

IIAS Newsletter 62 (Winter 2012): 40-41

Bandung Network 6

The last couple of days Soledad and Stan of String Theatre (UK) were staying here. Yesterday they gave a performance and workshop at Oma Anna. Later this month they participate in Pesta Boneka, which is organized by Papermoon in Yogyakarta.

Review of ‘The Gathering of Histories’ seminar at ITB

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Roy Voragen, “Art Histories: The Aporias of Modernization in Southeast Asia,” Tempo Magazine, 9 December 2012, 76-7. This essay is a review of ‘The Gathering of Histories’: An International Seminar on Art History and Visual Culture in Southeast Asia, at ITB’s art school, Bandung, 12 November 2012

Documentation Roma Arts artist-in-residency Jef Carnay

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Documentation of Roma Arts artist-in-residency Jef Carnay
Bandung, November 2012
Supported by: Valentine Willie Fine Art
In collaboration with:
ASNARUPA
Asbestos Art Space
and Galeri Gerilya

Remember

Jef Carnay's Roma Arts artist-in-residency has come to an end and he returned to Manila. For his residency, we collaborated with Asbestos Art Space (performance & installation) and Galeri Gerilya (presentation and performances) in Bandung.

QUALIA

Qualia

by Jef Carnay

curated by Roy Voragen

Roma Arts presents Qualia by Jef Carnay at Asbestos Art Space

Jef Carnay is a Manila-based visual and performance artist. Qualia is the result of his residency at Roma Arts, Bandung, November 2012. Carnay’s presentation includes a new installation and performance at Asbestos Art Space. And Qualia is based on the artist’s everyday experiences in Bandung during his residency.

Opening & Performance 24 November 7pm

http://www.facebook.com/events/337146516384461/

Until 27 November 7pm

Asbestos Art Space

Jalan RAA Martanegara 86 Bandung

www.facebook.com/asbestos.artspace

asbestosartspace.wordpress.com

About Jef Carnay

Jef Carnay is a Manila-based visual and performance artist who exhibits his works in local and international art galleries, museums and alternative spaces; he performed at both local and international art events; he also curated live art performances. He’s fascinated with people’s behavior in situations, and he plays around the ideas of ‘what if’s: possibilities of alternative situations and narratives. He’s in constant collaboration with the many inside ‘himself’. He also explores humor, for it’s easier to swallow a bitter pill of reality when it’s coated with a little loony sugar. He’s now exploring the concept of what’s seen against what’s being experienced: what actually can be seen doesn’t tell the whole story, there is always more of what is physically present, some intangible concealed notions alongside the evident. And Qualia is based on the artist’s everyday experiences in Bandung during his residency at Roma Arts, Bandung, November 2012. Carnay’s presentation includes a new installation and performance at Asbestos Art Space, 24-27 November 2012.

http://langoyisdalangoy.wordpress.com/

Tentang Jef Carnay

Jef Carnay adalah seorang seniman rupa (visual) dan seni pertunjukan berbasis di Manila, yang telah memamerkan karya seninya di galeri lokal/internasional, museum dan ruang-ruang alternatif. Selain itu dia juga kerap melakukan kurasi pada beberapa seni pertunjukan secara langsung. Carnay selalu tertarik akan perilaku individu maupun kelompok orang dalam berbagai situasi, dan bermain dalam ranah ide konsep ‘bagaimana bila’: kemungkinan yang menghadirkan situasi dan narasi alternatif. Secara terus menerus, dia selalu berkolaborasi dengan berbagai figur yang berbeda di dalam ‘dirinya’. Dia juga mengeksplorasi humor,  yang memudahkan dia untuk menelan pil pahit realitas kehidupan ketika hanya dibalut oleh secuil gula kegilaan. Pada saat ini dia melakukan eksplorasi  konsep apa yang dilihat terhadap apa yang dirasakan: apa yang sebenarnya bisa dilihat belum tentu menunjukkan keseluruhan cerita, selalu ada sesuatu yang lebih dari sekedar kehadiran fisik dan beberapa hal abstrak tersembunyi dalam wujud gagasan bersama bukti kehadirannya. Pameran bertajuk Qualia didasarkan pada pengalaman keseharian sang seniman di kota Bandung selama program residensinya di Roma Arts, Bandung, November 2012.  Presentasi Carnay pada kesempatan ini menghadirkan karya instalasi baru dan seni pertunjukan di Asbestos Art Space, 24-27 November 2012.

http://langoyisdalangoy.wordpress.com/

About Roma Arts

Roma Arts, founded in 2011, promotes passionate, ambitious and focused ways of producing, presenting, experiencing, and writing about the diverse forms of arts. Roma Arts gives keen attention to art practices, forms of presentation, experiencing the arts, and discourses on art. In 2012, Roma Arts started a residency program to foster creative person-to-person contacts.

Roy Voragen 

Tentang Roma Arts

Roma Arts, didirikan pada tahun 2011, mempromosikan cara memproduksi, presentasi, mengalami, dan menuliskan pelbagai bentuk seni. Roma Arts memberikan perhatian khusus pada praktek pengkaryaan, bentuk-bentuk presentasi karya, penghayatan seni dan wacana seni. Pada 2012, Roma Arts menginisiasi program residensi untuk memelihara hubungan kreatif secara personal.

Roy Voragen 

Jef Carnay’s Roma Arts residency is supported by Valentine Willie Fine Art

November 16 at Galeri Gerilya Jef Carnay presented On Pins and Needles, and we invited performance artists to respond to the presented videos. Jef responded to a video by the late Marcus Vinicius. Jef's performance was a beautiful homage as well as a farewell.

On Pins and Needles - a selection

On Pins and Needles

Roma Arts artist-in-resident Jef Carnay will present On Pins and Needles at Galeri Gerilya 16 November 5pm. This TUTOK project is a collection of performative videos and live art documentation from around the world.

Friday 16 November 5pm

With impromptu live performances!

Galeri Gerilya

Jalan Raden Patah 12 Bandung

www.facebook.com/GaleriGerilya

twitter.com/galerigerilya

Selection of videos from the On Pins and Needles Project:

Anida Yoeu Ali – 1700% Project

http://onpinsandneedlesproject.wordpress.com/2012/08/10/anida-yoeu-ali-2/

http://1700percentproject.wordpress.com/

Opaline Santos

http://onpinsandneedlesproject.wordpress.com/2012/08/10/opaline-santos-2/

Jef Carnay – Note to self: It can get cold. Keep yourself warm.

http://onpinsandneedlesproject.wordpress.com/2012/08/10/jef-carnay-3/

http://langoyisdalangoy.wordpress.com/

Kosal Khiev – Why I Write

http://onpinsandneedlesproject.wordpress.com/2012/08/10/kosal-khiev-3/

http://spokenkosal.com/

Marcus Vinicius – The artist is warrior

http://onpinsandneedlesproject.wordpress.com/2012/08/10/marcus-vinicius-3/

http://www.marcusvinicius.tk/

Qualia by Jef Carnay

Qualia by Jef Carnay

Roma Arts presents Qualia by Jef Carnay at Asbestos Art Space

Jef Carnay is a Manila-based visual and performance artist. Qualia is the result of his residency at Roma Arts, Bandung, November 2012. Carnay’s presentation includes a new installation and performance at Asbestos Art Space. And Qualia is based on the artist’s everyday experiences in Bandung during his residency.

Opening & Performance 24 November 7pm

Until 27 November 7pm

Asbestos Art Space

Jalan RAA Martanegara 86 Bandung

www.facebook.com/asbestos.artspace

asbestosartspace.wordpress.com

Jef Carnay is a Manila-based visual and performance artist who exhibited his works in local and international art galleries, museums and alternative spaces; he performed at both local and international art events; he curated local live art performances. Currently he is one of the board of trustees of the Filipino Visual Arts and Design Rights Organization (FILVADRO), moreover, he is a member of the core committee of TutoK (an artists initiative). He is an active member of NeWorlDisorder, an open, collaborative and loose multimedia art initiative. He is also a convener of the art event 'Bulong', a night of poetry, songs and other performances. And he is the lead vocalist of the band 'earthfishfish'.

Roma Arts, founded in 2011, promotes passionate, ambitious and focused ways of producing, presenting, experiencing, and writing about the diverse forms of arts. Roma Arts gives keen attention to art practices, forms of presentation, experiencing the arts, and discourses on art. In 2012, Roma Arts started a residency program to foster creative person-to-person contacts.

Roy Voragen

Jef Carnay’s Roma Arts residency is supported by Valentine Willie Fine Art

Drawing workshop Jef Carnay at Oma Anna

Yesterday Roma Arts artist-in-resident Jef Carnay gave a drawing workshop at Oma Anna to the neighborhood kids. He asked them to draw him as they see him, 12-year old Nadhilah gave him a slimmer appearance...The kids had so much fun that they asked Jef to come back next week!

On Pins and Needles by Jef Carnay

On Pins and Needles 

Roma Arts artist-in-resident Jef Carnay is a Manila-based performance artist and he will present On Pins and Needles at Galeri Gerilya 16 November 5pm. This TUTOK project is a collection of performative videos and live art documentation from around the world.

onpinsandneedlesproject.wordpress.com

Saturday 16 November 5pm

With impromptu live performances!

Galeri Gerilya

Jalan Raden Patah 12 Bandung

www.facebook.com/GaleriGerilya

twitter.com/galerigerilya

Jef Carnay is a visual and performance artist who  exhibited his works in local and international art galleries, museums and alternative spaces; he performed at both local and international art events; he curated local live art performances. Currently he is one of the board of trustees of the Filipino Visual Arts and Design Rights Organization (FILVADRO), moreover, he is a member of the core committee of TutoK (an artists initiative). He is an active member of NeWorlDisorder, an open, collaborative and loose multimedia art initiative. He is also a convener of the art event 'Bulong', a night of poetry, songs and other performances. And he is the lead vocalist of the band 'earthfishfish'.

Roma Arts, founded in 2011, promotes passionate, ambitious and focused ways of producing, presenting, experiencing, and writing about the diverse forms of arts. Roma Arts gives keen attention to art practices, forms of presentation, experiencing the arts, and discourses on art. In 2012, Roma Arts started a residency program to foster creative person-to-person contacts.

Jef Carnay’s Roma Arts residency is supported by Valentine Willie Fine Art

Bandung Network 5

Manila-based artist Jef Carnay (http://langoyisdalangoy.wordpress.com) comes to Bandung for his residency at Roma Arts. He will show work he creates in Bandung at Asbestos and he will also give a presentation at Galeri Gerilya.

Linda Sim Solay's solo exhibition Continuum of Consciousness at IFI-Bandung has been closed. The exhibition brochure can be downloaded here. The next artist-in-resident at Roma Arts will be Manila-based performance artist Jef Carnay, who will stay in Bandung in November.

A double act voyage of shadows, luminosity and skilful play

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A double act voyage of shadows, 

luminosity and skilful play 

A review by Roy Voragen

From the beginning until the end

A duet exhibition by Haryadi Suadi and Radi Arwinda

Selasar Sunaryo Art Space

Jalan Bukit Pakar Timur 100, Bandung

www.selasarsunaryo.com

Curated by Agung Hujatnikajennong

Catalog can be downloaded here.

Roma Arts presents in collaboration with Institut Français Indonesia-Bandung Continuum of Consciousness by Linda Sim Solay

Continuum of Consciousness

Linda Sim Solay

A Roma Arts production in collaboration with IFI-Bandung

Curated by Roy Voragen

Supported by Oma Anna

Opening 12 October 7pm officiated by Tisna Sanjaya

Artist talk 13 October 4pm

The exhibition runs until 25 October

Institut Français Indonesia-Bandung

http://www.institutfrancais-indonesia.com/bandung

Jl. Purnawarman no. 32, Bandung

Singapore-based, 30-year old photography and installation artist Linda Sim Solay did a one-month residency at Roma Arts, Bandung, in June, and she returns to present her work at Institut Français Indonesia-Bandung. I first met her at a seminar Roma Arts organized at Selasar Sunaryo Art Space, December 2011. During her residency, the then work-in-progress installation had the working title Samtana (a Sanskrit term for stream of consciousness). While in Bandung last June, she worked with a focus and dedication rarely seen. She tested different ways to apply glue to glasses she brought along. She made trips to Pasar Baru to find the right scent for her installation. We visited several art spaces across Bandung to find a suitable space to present her work and the black box auditorium at IFI in Bandung is the perfect match. We had meandering, long talks about ideas dear to her she wants to express through her art. And in collaboration with Institut Français Indonesia-Bandung, Roma Arts proudly presents Continuum of Conscious, Linda Sim Solay’s art installation. Her art installation consists of elaborately glued together crystal glasses, which have been in her family for generations, forming a delicate column through which light will flow from the base to the top and back (light sources and mirrors are at the top and base). The installation also involves scent and sound elements; for the sound she was assisted by sound artist Bani Haykal, whom I met at his solo exhibition at the Substation, Singapore, earlier this year. Linda Sim Solay attempts to create an open space with little sensory distraction, which – hopefully – makes our senses more focused. The space can be perceived as a continuum: there are no starting- or endpoints; light, scent and sound will continuously flow throughout the space. And a continuum transcends what can be intellectually analyzed; art, then, can go where our intellect has to halt. Our senses, the sensual, beauty too, are imminent to appreciating life in general and art in particular.  

Artist statement – Linda Sim Solay – Continuum of Consciousness

Continuum of Consciousness references the stream of mind or consciousness, and hereby the continuity of individual and collective energy over space and time. It may appear as incomprehensible to us that existence with all information contained herein may indeed be infinite, even when considering that energy does indeed remain constant. With the stream of consciousness being said to carry information and awareness of all experience independent of time, it can be seen as an indefinite pool of historical, personal and sociological sensations and their resulting knowledge and awareness. Inspired by this concept as found in various spiritual teachings, particularly in schools of Hinduism and Buddhism, the installation explores the experience of sentient awareness of continuous reality beyond faith or system of belief. It aims to embody an intimate experience of self beyond its seemingly ephemeral nature, embedding notions of universality, awareness and ultimate progress and continuous growth. The created space can be perceived as a continuum, allowing for both focus and contemplation of its personal experience, without sensory starting- or endpoints. Notably, the very nature of a continuum lies beyond intellectual analysis.

2012
~ 400x10x10cm
Glass, LED lights, sound, scented seeds
Sound: Bani Haykal

Biography Linda Sim Solay

Linda Sim is a 30-year-old Swedish-Austrian artist, currently living in Singapore. Her practice in fine art photography and installation focuses on psychological and philosophical evolutionary thematics and contemporary science. Her work is orientated around shaping audience-internal atmosphere, spiritual proximation and potential for perceptive immersion. After earning her BA in Media Arts from RMIT University Melbourne in 2005 majoring in Fine Art Photography under Dr. Les Walkling, she has exhibited extensively both in Europe and Australia in over 30 solo, collaborative and group exhibitions, and has undergone artist residencies and extensive travels to over 30 countries.  Currently studying for her MA at Lasalle College of the Arts, Singapore, Linda's research on the use of scent in contemporary art has earned her the Golden Key Asia-Pacific Postgraduate Award as well as the Lasalle Scholarship. Recently she furthermore received the GK Visual&Performing Arts Achievement Award for her previous installation "Timensions" which thematically explores current models in Quantum Physics and String Theory; developed in collaboration with the Centre for Quantum Technologies at the University of Singapore.

About Roma Arts

Roma Arts, founded in 2011, promotes passionate, ambitious and focused ways of producing, presenting, experiencing, and writing about the diverse forms of arts. Roma Arts gives keen attention to art practices, forms of presentation, experiencing the arts, and discourses on art. In 2012, Roma Arts started a residency program to foster creative person-to-person contacts.

For the e-leaflet see here.

http://www.lindasim.com/

http://fatumbrutum.blogspot.com/

http://www.aogindonesia.com/

http://www.institutfrancais-indonesia.com/bandung

http://www.facebook.com/events/530671633625292/

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151063669036573.423300.609631572&type=3

Logical Aesthetics - exhibition catalog Irfan Hendrian

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Irfan Hendrian will have his solo exhibition at Via Via, Yogya,
4-30 October. And I wrote an essay for his catalog.

Logical Aesthetics - Irfan Hendrian

Irfan Hendrian will have his solo exhibition at Via Via in Yogya, 4-30 October.

My essay for his catalog can be downloaded here.

Dadang Christanto: Trauma and Amnesia

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My review essay of Dadang Christanto's solo exhibition at
Yuz Museum, Jakarta, for Tempo Magazine (English edition).
The exhibition runs until 24 September.

Some thoughts on Public Art/Public Space roundtable discussion at Common Room, 21 September

Spaces and places frame life; furthermore, the ways we use these spaces and places are framed by the ways we talk about them. When the stories we tell and are being told about our cities gain a sense of inevitability they become oppressing. There always are – and should be – alternative ways of looking at our cities. Two perspectives on cities that might be relevant for our discussion: first, creative cities (see my essay: http://bit.ly/PdjAmg); second, the right to the city (see my essay: http://bit.ly/OrrT1o; a third perspective is that of the global city, which isn’t too relevant for our discussion). Discussions on creative cities often center on the idea of the creative class (Richard Florida); however, if we speak about the creative class we have to speak about classes and, therefore, conflicts, which are all too often overlooked. While I’m attracted to the call for the right to the city (Henri Lefebvre, David Harvey), I also see that such a call tends to overlook that the streets of are not vacant (especially in Indonesian cities). Both these perspectives can easily be manipulated into apolitical marketing tools (city branding: art and architecture to beautify the city to attract tourists). How can our practices and ideas contribute to public space? And public space is here understood as political, thus how to make public space more inclusive as well as more antagonistic?

Public Art/Public Space: Art, architecture and everyday life - roundtable discussion at Common Room

Public Art/Public Space
Art, architecture & everyday life

A roundtable discussion at Common Room Networks Foundation

Jl. Kyai Gede Utama no. 8, Bandung, Indonesia

Twitter: @CommonRoom_ID

http://commonroom.info/

Common Room Networks Foundation in collaboration with Roma Arts

The roundtable discussion is part of NU Substance festival

21 September 2012, 3pm

Participants:

• Gustaff Iskandar – founder and director of Common Room Networks Foundation: http://commonroom.info/ and http://gstff.wordpress.com/
• Marco Kusumawijaya – architect, urbanist, founder and director of Rujak Center of Urban Studies: http://rujak.org/ and http://mkusumawijaya.wordpress.com/
• Heru Hikayat – curator and member of Platform3: http://infoplatform3.wordpress.com/
• Rika Febriyani – urbanist and philosopher: www.warungjakarta.blog.com and www.youtube.com/user/RikaAndSilviaProject/videos
• Muhammad Albaiquni Zico – artist: http://zicoalbaiquni.blogspot.com/ 

Moderator:

• Roy Voragen – Bandung-based writer and founder of Roma Arts

Public art can take different forms. Firstly, it can take the form of publicly funded statues to signify a coherent narrative of the nation, e.g. statues of national heroes like General Sudirman (when such a narrative of the nation changes then those statues are often taken down, as in the former Soviet countries happened when a great many Lenins and Stalins were symbolically taken down). Secondly, it can take the form, as stipulated by law in some countries, that a certain minimum percentage of the construction budget of large projects should be spend on art. These two forms could, at best, be ways to beautify the city. And a beautiful city can be pleasant, however, it is questionable that these two forms of public art will lead to a more democratic public space. The third form of public art takes the form of fleeting interventions in the city, e.g. installations or graffiti. Often these are considered vandalism (some years ago a work by Tisna Sanjaya was destroyed by the government in Bandung as it was labeled trash). But why isn’t the renovation of the Hotel Indonesia Circle by former governor Gen. Sutiyoso considered vandalism? Can art and architecture influence behavior so that the quality and quantity of democratic public space could improve? Or are we then asking too much of art and architecture?

Materials on ‘Public Art/Public Space – Art, architecture and everyday life’:

http://www.box.com/s/d7kgvxae6t87kj6bhj4l

NU Substance at Common Room

NU Substance 2012: contested space
Festival for Open Culture, Technology & Urban Ecology
Organized by Common Room Networks Foundation
Bandung, 15-30 September 2012

For more information see here.

Review of Arte Polis 4 conference

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My review essay of Arte Polis 4 conference at ITB in Bandung for the IIAS Newsletter (download PDF here).

Marika Constantino will speak about her stay at Roma Arts, Bandung, at 98 B, Manila

Roma Arts

Mei Suling, designer at Oma Anna, created a Roma Arts logo.

Roma Arts, founded in 2011 by Bandung-based art writer Roy Voragen, promotes passionate, ambitious and focused ways of producing, presenting, experiencing, and writing about the diverse forms of the contemporary arts in Indonesia. Roma Arts gives keen attention to art practices, forms of presentation, experiencing the arts, and discourses on art. Roma Arts organizes workshops, artist talks, seminars and roundtable discussions in collaboration with, thus far, Oma Anna, Selasar Sunaryo Art Space and Common Room Networks Foundation. In 2012, Roma Arts started a residency program to foster creative person-to-person contacts. Roma Arts had so far guests from Japan, Singapore and the Philippines (Roma Arts collaborates with Manila-based artist initiative space 98B). Artist-in-residents have the option to do a site-specific project at Roma Arts or make an exhibition elsewhere, for which Roma Arts collaborates with existing art spaces (in 2012 Roma Arts organizes an exhibition at the French cultural institute IFI in Bandung and in 2013 at Selasar Sunaryo Art Space, options for an art space will depend on the needs of a particular artist). Furthermore, Roma Arts mentors young and upcoming artists to help them create and exhibit a project.

Twists and Turns – A mural by Marika Constantino

Twists and Turns

‘Balancing Paradoxes and Paradigms’ – A mural by Marika Constantino

Manila-based visual artist Marika Constantino and I first met at Arte Polis 3 (http://arte-polis.info/) in 2010, a biannual conference organized by the department of architecture at the Institute of Technology Bandung (ITB). During this conference I organized a roundtable discussion on public space and Marika was one of the discussants (subsequently, I published an essay in Tempo Magazine based on this discussion). And when she told me that she would return to Bandung to participate in Arte Polis 4, we started discussing what we could do during her stay at Roma Arts. We decided on two projects: first, a talk about 98B (http://www.98-b.org/) in collaboration with Common Room Networks Foundation (http://commonroom.info/, for more info: http://fatumbrutum.blogspot.com/2012/07/marika-constantino-gave-talk-about-98b.html); and second, a mural at Roma Arts (Jalan Cibeunying Kolot III no.41, Sadang Serang, Bandung). And she was anxious about both; both meant a stepping out of her comfort zone. And both turned out fantastic.

In three ways the mural was a first for Marika. First, she had never worked before with this medium. Second, she had never worked on such a large size (1080x120cm, the largest she ever worked on was approximately 200x100cm). And third, she had never worked outdoors with a live audience: kids who helped out, who looked over her shoulder and commented on her work; thus far, she had always separated creating from exhibiting work, solitude of and focus in the studio from the art space. Creating a mural comes closer to her curatorial practice, especially the project ‘Juan for Trees (143s)’ at the Cultural Center of the Philippines for the 2009 Green Earth Day (http://www.culturalcenter.gov.ph/).

Every day, kids play in front of my house: they play badminton, soccer and with kites on the street until dusk at around 6pm (there are no street lights). They also come to my house to see my dogs in action: Bobi – the 3-year-old, hyperactive boxer – and Ucil – the 9-year-old mellow Golden Retriever. To me it came as no surprise that they would gravitate around Marika as soon as she started her work on the mural. However, when we invited them to come into the house and help cutting and painting the figures for the mural, I wasn’t too sure if they would have the attention span to do a good job, but in fact they did. At first only the boys came in, some of whom like to tease other kids, so the girls didn’t come in at first, but when they saw the boys were taking it seriously some girls joined the fun. And after they were finished, we added their names onto the figures.

When the time came to glue the figures onto the wall, the kids came back to look for their name. And while looking for their own name, they pitched in to glue the figures onto the wall. When this was finished, Marika added a layer of emulsion and small mirrors. She added the mirrors only after the sun had set, so the kids would find a surprise the next morning. And when they returned, they interacted with the wall by making funny faces in the mirrors. But is this participatory art? Perhaps not; and for a simple reason: they don’t have a notion of (contemporary) art. They helped a new friend and had fun in the process.

Some regard public art as vandalism (especially graffiti). Some others regard public art as political. Public art isn’t always vandalism (what about all the statues in our cities celebrating ‘our’ heroes?). And public art isn’t always political (it is people who create public places for their political purposes). Marika’s mural is neither vandalism nor political (it is farfetched to judge her mural in terms of the recent Arte Polis 4 conference, i.e. as connectivity and place making).

Without a single exception, all my neighbors responded positively. They pointed at other possible walls to be turned into murals. And they called Marika’s work beautiful, attractive, pretty, great and etcetera. Even though, in contemporary art beauty has become a taboo – an artwork has to mean something discursively, as if the sensuous isn’t meaningful.

A mural sounds more permanent that it probable is. How many soccer balls will bounce of the wall in the coming months? Grass will seep through the cracks in the wall, sunshine and rain will do their work as well. All this, inevitably, will alter Marika’s work, a work with her signature repetitive pattern. And our perception of this repetitive pattern is permutated by movement – on foot, bike or by car – and changing light conditions. And how will the experience of creating a mural change Marika’s future creative process and output?

I thank Marika for our warm friendship and her spirited work on the fantastic mural. I also thank Ricky for his extensive documentation (http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3806627759084.159909.1079114434&type=1), all the friends who stopped and pitched in (Professor Haider, Jeanne&Scott, Ami, Irfan, Rika, Siesca&Danu), my wife Mei, her three Oma Anna assistants – Anis, Pipin and Nita – and, of course, the kids who all kindly helped. For all of us, this challenging project has been a life enriching experience.

Roy Voragen

Roma Arts, Bandung, Indonesia

July 2012

Marika Constantino's mural at Roma Arts - artist statement

Balancing Paradoxes and Paradigms

Paradox – impossibility, enigma, puzzle, contradiction, irony

Paradigm – example, model, patter, archetype, standard

The concept of this work is based on the abovementioned definitions.  As we go through our own paths we must somehow find a sense of equilibrium in managing the supposed unattainable and the norm.  It also takes into consideration two perspectives.  From the eyes of the child, everything is play.  With imagination, things are doable, viable and fun.  As the owners of the street, I wanted them to see themselves in the mural.  Having the kids participate in the creative process will hopefully give them ownership of the final output.

On the other hand, adults tend to forget these child-like moments of exuberance and excitement.  We must not.  Let us reflect on the times when we ourselves felt much enthusiasm and looked forward to the possibilities that the next day had to offer (as the kids showed me while I was working).

The mural also intends to symbolize the many directions and options we can, should and do take.  At the end of the day, it is a matter of choice.  On the off chance that it ends up not to our liking, there are other avenues.  Like children who have resilience and adaptability… we learn, we adjust and we move on.

Marika Constantino

Roma Arts, Bandung, Indonesia

July 2012

Marika Constantino's mural at Roma Arts - day 3&4

More photos:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3806627759084.159909.1079114434&type=1