trans it
a sense of two cities
seriyoga parta

At a time when representation is returning as an important focus of attention in contemporary fine arts, realistic forms make up a significant language reference for composition in the art of painting. 
This significant language can be observed in a new group exhibition from fourteen young artists—

from the Klinik Seni Taxu Bali community:
Wayan Suja, Gede Puja, Gede Mahendra Yasa, Made Muliana, Agus Sumiantara, Ketut Moniarta, Dewa Ardana and Dodit Artawan. 

And from the Abstrax Bandung group:
Guntur Timur, C Gunawan Suryasaputra, Imam Setiawan, Wily Himawan, Dadan Setiawan and Z. Ramli; 

All of them start from a group consciousness, and more specifically in their artistic quest, they are concerned with developing painting in the framework of realistic form.

Before analyzing their work expression, let’s take a look at the conditions that surround the emergence of both groups.

Klinik Seni Taxu was born out of a group of Denpasar university students who were unsettled by the art situation in Bali. They felt the Balinese art world was in a “nondynamic” state , caused by  a  sense of domination from what was described as the  “one and only”  trend (influenced during the 1990s by an orientation toward a formalist shape) that is often called “Balinese abstract expressionism”.

It appeared that the creative pursuit in Balinese art evolved from and revolved around Balinese tradition, religiosity and culture. The fine arts infrastructure of Bali supported this “One and Only” approach and made it difficult for other forms of art to develop and gain appreciation. The spirit that exists in the Klinik Senu Taxu movement is one that wants to promote the development of Balinese art outside the traditional parameters.

The word Taxu, in the context of the movements’ name is derived from the word Taksu. Taksu, in the language of Balinese fine arts is used to indicate a form of art that possessed a magical power and had the ability to attain sacred value.

Over time this Taksu art became modified and diluted in form, presenting mindless imitations for sale to tourists. Slowly the sacred nature of the work became dissolved and the art became less meaningful. It gave rise to a ‘standard’ that limited artistic expression and stigmatized Balinese artists as people who paint exotic scenes for the pleasure of tourists.

In their response to this movement the group deliberately chose the word Taksu and morphed it into Taxu. Consequently their work turns away from the stereotypical exoteric and exotic predictabilities and focuses instead on contemporary issues.

Even though their artistic choices are directed at realistic forms which happen to connect with contemporary painting trends based on issues of representation, in practice they have never fastened themselves in an absolute way to the formal language of realism.

KST representational language extends not only to two-dimensional medium (painting) but also to other media such as installation and video art.

Kelompok Abstrak was born from Bandung which is renowned for its formalist art, its “western laboratory”—as the arts of Bandung have been dubbed under the auspices of the Fine Arts Institute of ITB (the Bandung Institute of Technology). “This is related to the growth and development of a type of abstract art in Bandung between 1960 and the 1980, a time that marked the existence of a school of thought that quite strongly encompassed the fine arts of Bandung, and was pioneered by none other than he Bandung Institute of Technology”. This school of thought was resisted by the young artists of Bandung  such as Tisna Sanjaya, Arahmaiani, Semzar Siahaan, Irawan Karseno, Acep Zamzam and others. They began to present a form of fine art outside the lines of Bandung formalism, art that took sides with social issues as well as leaning toward installations, performance art and so on. 

Kelompok Abstrax contains a spirit of resistance; the group is composed by young artists frustrated by the issues concerning visual art in Bandung, and whose motion is ever expanding and widening. The group consolidates its position as one in contrast to the formalism stigma of the arts in Bandung by adopting the name Abstrax (in Indonesian Abstract is written Abstrak ) used as a phonetic trick to point at their artistic explorations outside the realm of abstract art alone.

By choice they use a representational language of realistic form (i.e. portrait and landscape) on which to base their exploration.

In the consciousness of the artists in this exhibition, realistic forms are meant not only as an idiom, but also as a vehicle for dissecting contextual problems.

They use realism as their ‘mainframe’ from where to operate through color, composition, subject matter, in an effort to raise questions about the language of realism itself, reality, mimesis; about the process of perception by a camera shot, and even about bringing realistic form into the area of formalism. Similarities emerge: in a taste for pastel color choices, flat backgrounds; affinities exist in the composition of subject matter on the plane of the canvas, coloring tendencies in their works that have a pulse within the artistic quest. It becomes apparent that these artists from two different groups and two different cities—Bandung with its formalism, and Denpasar with its traditions and local content - have been led to a similar choice: realist forms.

Their paths now meet in Bali at biasa artspace, to blend in a momentary pause before further contining to move, collide, and prove their valid existence in wider domains of the fine arts.