Artist : Asroel
Genre : Paintings
Period : September 22 till October 21
Everyday, 10.00AM till 9.00PM
Location : Dragonfly Restaurant
Jl. Dewi Sita, Ubud
Tel: 972973
Surrealism was a literary and art movement that originally
developed in Paris during the 1920’s. Influenced by
Freudian psycho-analysis, its principle aim was the expression
of imagination as revealed in dreams, free of the conscious
control of reason, and free of convention. What resulted were
startling and fantastic imagery and ‘dream-like’
perceptions of space, with dream induced symbols, such as
melting watches, all painted with photographic attention to
detail. A darker world of the imagination. A world of mysteries
tinged with Gothic nightmare. Even today contemporary art
styles such as Neo-Realism and the Neo-Romantics all display
a strong surreal quality. However, away from the ‘fine’
art galleries, Surrealism can be found in a contemporary culture
art style that can be called ‘Neo-Gothic’, deriving
from the style and music movement ‘Goth’, the
followers of which who find the macabre images an ideal expression
for their youthful angst.
Neo-Gothic images can be found in the artwork created for
the CD covers of heavy metal rock bands. ‘Goth’
images can be airbrushed onto the bodywork of recreational
vehicles, and even surfboards. Images can find their way onto
T-shirts and other pieces of apparel, and Neo-Gothic images
can be a principle part of ‘hip-hop’ street graffiti.
Shunned by the ‘fine’ art market, never-the-less,
Neo-Gothic art speaks directly to its youthful audience, and
its message can be bold and confrontational, and often painfully
to the point.
Asroel is a Javanese artist, born in Jember in 1979, and in
his exhibition, ‘Footprints’, at the Dragonfly
Restaurant in Ubud, he utilizes many aspects of Neo-Gothic
art to tell the disturbing, yet, inspiring, story of his life.
During his mother’s pregnancy she suffered numbness
in her left arm, left leg and right arm. When Asroel was born,
it was without these vital limbs. “My earliest memory
is of being left by my sister to be stung by a hive of bees.
Another time I was trampled by a herd of sheep. Until I was
five or six, I could not move about on my own. I had to be
carried or pulled around on my backside. I was ashamed of
not being able to walk and went into a coffee plantation where
I practiced standing by sliding up the trunk of a tree. The
trunk became smooth before I was able to stand. From that
time on I was able to hop around on my one foot. That was
the beginning of my path to self-confidence. I became clever
in school. I had an interest in history and did well in art.
I taught myself how to write and draw with my right foot”.
In his exhibition Asroel sets the scene with the surreal painting
‘Silence’. This is a landscape of ‘another
world’. It could be an imagined ‘outer-space’
location, or, more probably, an ‘inner’ landscape,
which establishes the realm of the psychological drama which
will follow. A horrifying image, of an agonized woman dragging
a deformed baby from her womb, appears in the painting ‘Violent
Trance’. The woman is found floating in a dark void
in which subdued forms of moons and planets can be barley
discerned. The painting indicates the ‘bad omens’
of Asroel’s birth. As the narrative continues, further
paintings such as ‘Nightmare’, ‘Rat Herd’
and ‘Mask and Man’ appear to indicate many of
the physical and psychological obstacles Asroel had to endure
and overcome throughout his youth. Eventually, we find an
image, ‘Self- Portrait’, in which Asroel appears
to acknowledge his physical deformities. In this moving painting,
Asroel’s malformed body quietly contemplates a collection
of perfectly formed embryos. It is an evocative image about
‘acceptance’. Finally, in the painting ‘Wheel
Chair’, Asroel depicts for us what his life will always
be. Trapped forever in a wheel chair, Asroel shows that his
life will be an exploration of his imagination.
Through out the ten works on display, Asroel exhibits an amazing
ability to create extremely well-defined realistic images,
but, also, an outstanding gift to impregnate these images
with an overpowering amount of tension and drama. The paintings
beautifully capture the ‘Neo-Gothic’ genre, and
their violent impact will have most resonance and meaning
to a youthful audience, for which they are no doubt intended.
Perhaps, in these images, can be found a subtle message about
alienated contemporary life, which has much relevance to today’s
disgruntled youth. Asroel creates a narrative in a language
which his contemporaries will readily accept and fully understand.
Asroel married his Yogyakarta ‘sweetheart’ in
2006, and together they moved to Bali in an effort to concentrate
on making a living from his art. Asroel has become a member
of the Senang Hati Foundation for people with disabilities
www.SenangHatiBali.com. There he teaches other members how
to paint. His exhibition has been co-sponsored by the Dragonfly
Restaurant and the Senang Hati Foundation. It is worth a visit
to see the art of this brave young artist, and the work of
this Balinese charity foundation.
