Paintings, Expanded Canvases and Objects
by Adi Bachmann,
at Adi’s Art Studio & Gallery,
Jl. Bisma No. 102, Ubud. Tel: 977104.
In a town bursting at it seams with art galleries, you would
think that the last thing that Ubud needed was another art
gallery. However, Adi Bachmann, a newcomer to Ubud, along
with his wife Komang Sarining, have decided to open a new
art gallery with a unique concept. ‘Adi’s Art
Studio & Gallery’ will operate as a non-profit concern.
The gallery will not take commission from the works on sale,
and all financial arrangements will be left to the artists
and the clients to negotiate. It is Adi’s idea to showcase
contemporary art that has been made in Bali, by resident Western
and Balinese artists and craftsmen. The aim is to present
a new exhibition every three months, and Adi has already set
up a program that will continue until 2010. As Adi says, “This
might sound crazy, but it is necessary to have goals in life
and try to reach them. I am 63 now, getting on to 64 soon,
and time is running out”.
To announce his presence in Ubud, and publicize the creation
of his new gallery, the first exhibition is a collection of
Adi’s own works. The show is called ‘Adi’s
Bali’, and every piece of art on display expresses some
of the inspirations, ideas and events that Adi has experienced
since he first came to Bali, from Germany, in November 2005.
During the two years that Adi has been here he has created
over 130 pieces of work, almost all of which are on display,
so the exhibition is a little cluttered to say the least.
Some prudential pruning could have enhanced the impact of
Adi’s work, but this does not deny the superb technical
skills that Adi displays, along with his sly ironic sense
of humor, which infuses his art. Within his show Adi takes
us on a whirlwind trip through significant moments of 20th
Century Western Art, which has meaning or relevance to his
own art. These moments include brief stops in Dadaism, Art
about Art, and the ever popular and enduring Pop Art.
As a youth Adi became an apprentice in typesetting and typography.
This means, as Adi says, that “you have many ready made
pieces, letters, lines, ornaments and photos from which you
can compose something totally new. This ‘composing business’
had a great impact on my work as a graphic designer, and now
as an artist. If I have an idea, I take ready made items and
compose something new out of them. Or, the other way around.
If I have a ready made piece, I look at it and have an idea”.
Throughout his artworks, whether they are paintings, expanded
canvases, or free-standing objects, Adi exhibits an amazing
ability to appropriate existing images, or select unusual
items, and make something entirely new, and often humorous,
out of them.
The painting ‘The Colors of Bali’ demonstrates
Adi’s skill as a graphic designer. Here, various signs
and icons, usually found in an industrial, architectural or
environmental situation, are removed from their normal circumstances
and reproduced in a grid setting. The subtle interplay between
each icon appears to express a journey undertaken, or a narrative
implied through semiotics. However, the result is to reduce
Adi’s impressions of the colors and atmosphere of Balinese
landscape into a typographical chart. The brushwork, which
is very flat and expressionless, suggests a mechanical form
of reproduction. A painting style which is much loved by Pop
Artists.
With his works ‘Jackson Pollock in Anturan’ or
‘Mondrian in Ubud’ Adi has taken some famous imagery
and recreated it as expanded canvases, giving a three dimensional
impact to these well known artists paintings. This forces
us to reappraise the original images, and to question Adi’s
aims. Is it homage or humorous criticism? Is Adi implying
how banal the original images have become, and their need
for revitalization? The most amusing ‘Art about Art’
piece in the exhibition, however, is ‘Lovina Logo’.
In this work Adi plays with Robert Indiana’s 1966 painting
‘Love’, but, within this canvas, Adi is not only
toying with the format of Indiana’s work, but he is
also playing with the emotional concept of ‘love’.
Lovina is the Bali beach town where Adi fell in love with
his wife Komang. Maybe there is more to the ‘Smiley
Face’, built into the painting’s logo, than initially
meets the eye.
Wandering through the exhibition you will be surprised to
find what a sharp eye Adi has for identifying Balinese Pop
Icons. Works such as ‘Hati-Hati’, ‘Gecko
Arrangement’ and ‘Spicy?’ comment on, in
turn, Banjar street signs, sarongs patterned with Balinese
lizards, and fiery local condiments. Even the present fad
of Balinese youth to dress in military camouflage is commented
on in the constructed piece ‘Militaristic Dressing’.
Perhaps it takes a fresh and unbiased new eye to recognize
and reaffirm these local icons for us. Even the notorious
Indonesian squat toilet does not pass Adi’s attention,
and he presents this bathroom fixture in an hilarious salute
to Marcel Duchamp’s ready made ‘Fountain’.
There is a lot to take in with Adi Bachmann’s exhibition.
The show does verge on the ‘over-kill’. But, there
is a lot of wit to be found in his work. Put bluntly, Adi’s
exhibition is a hell of a lot of fun.
