Artist : Sasya Tranggono
Genre : Water Colors
Period : May 22 till June 30
Everyday, 8.00AM to 6.00PM
Location : Alila Ubud Gallery Tel: 975963
Once upon a time I use to dabble in Water Colors, but my washes would turn murky and I did not possess the dexterity, or speed of hand, to make my marks on the canvas in the little time the medium allows. I soon gave up on Water Colors! However, the experience has left me with a begrudging admiration for those who have mastered this most difficult of art forms. Sasya Tranggono is a new emerging artist who came to prominence last year in Jakarta when she exhibited, in the prestigious CP Open Biennale 2003, a series of Water Color Still Lives based on the traditional Sudanese “Wayang Golek” (Wooden Puppets). These paintings met with much acclaim, and Sasya’s gift with Water Colors has since rapidly become her trademark.
In her current exhibition Painting My Soul, at the Alila Ubud Gallery, Sasya has turned her attention towards floral themes and motifs. Water Color is the ideal medium for these paintings for with Sasya’s graceful brushstrokes and fluid washes she has been able to capture the fragility and delicateness of the petals and stamens of her chosen mauve, fuchsia, orange and yellow flowers. These flowers glow with a marvelous vitality and life. Sasya has also chosen to show within the works the processes undertaken in their creation. Beneath her washes traces of the original pencil drawings can still be observed. These drawings give sharpness and clarity to the images. Most unusually she has elected to finish the works with a clear high gloss varnish, which adds depth to the paintings, highlighting the brushstrokes and providing additional sparkle to the colors. This varnish also imparts a distinct photographic edge.
Working from original photographs, Sasya places much emphasis on the composition of her floral subjects. Photographic techniques such as tilting, cropping and foreshortening are found in the paintings. The stems of the flowers create strong vertical and horizontal lines while the petals and stamen burst forth a profusion of color in unexpected places. The simple floral segments are always placed against a stark white, or occasionally, bright turquoise background. Again the effect is highly photographic, making the flowers the clear center of attention. Nevertheless, the key to understanding Sasya’s Water Colors is her use of the photographic close up.
When seen in extreme close up the relationship between flowers and certain sections of the female anatomy is hard to overlook. Sasya uses these floral close ups to discuss aspects of femininity, both physical and emotional, that are important to her as a woman and as an artist. The bronze, autumnal painting “Going, Going and Gone” depicts masses of circular spore blown by a gentle breeze into the outstretched petals of a lush yellow flower. It is impossible not to think about spermatozoon, ovum and reproduction when viewing this work. In this impressive exhibition Sasya Tranggono not only demonstrates her superb skill as a Water Colorist, but she also has much to say about the feminine state and the mysteries of fertility and procreation.
