Paintings, Hair-dye Colors on Canvas by
Edy Suranta Ginting,
at Café Des Artistes, Jl. Bisma 9X, Ubud. Tel: 972706.
Certain things are appreciated for their beauty, sensuous
forms, and skill of creation. They are admired and treasured
in both a utilitarian setting and in an art gallery. Batik
material is a good example, as it is used as a ‘cheap’
material for clothing (the tie-dyed ‘hippy’ T-shirt)
to ceremonial tailored shirts and sarongs. By stating a change
of function, from practical purposes to an aesthetic one,
batik can be collected and exhibited extensively. Artists,
such as the Cubists, and more recently the Italian arte povera
movement, have used everyday materials including felt, sand,
twigs and newspapers instead of traditional materials, like
stone and paint. These materials were used in fine art to
explore new ways of representation, and expressing form and
content. Further, ‘art’ from another place, such
as mass-media and advertising, doesn’t always meet our
criteria for art shown in an art gallery. Pop art, an art
delving into popular taste and kitsch, was initially considered
outside the limits of fine art and faced a hostile rejection
when it first appeared in the mid 1950s. Now, paintings by
Andy Warhol or Roy Lichtenstein fetch hundreds of millions
of dollars at art auctions. Today, the influences of pop art
are discernable in a substantial amount of modern art, both
Western and Eastern, though present-day pop art has moved
on from criticisms of mass-media and consumer products to
encapsulate artistic statements which explore a variety of
social, political and cultural concerns.
Edy Suranta Ginting is a young Indonesian artist, born in
North Sumatra, in 1979. In his ‘funky’ exhibition,
Lika-Liku (Wondering Line), it is obvious that Edy has taken
note of some of the aims of conventional pop art and arte
povera. Like pop artists, Edy crosses the border between vulgar
and fine art and extracts familiar objects out of their usual
frame of reference, and thereby exposes them to a new meaning
and aesthetic appreciation. Edy’s paintings are influenced
by his love of Indonesian batik and tattoos.
Over the years, batik has evolved into numerous traditional,
formal and mystical styles. Specific patterns have been formulated
to represent certain aspects of nature. In his painting Cloud
II Edy recreates the traditional batik pattern that represents
clouds, reduced to a decorative linear design.
Tattooing has been a cultural practice since Neolithic times.
Tattoos have served as rites of passage, marks of status,
symbols of spiritual devotion, decorations for bravery, sexual
lures, and marks of fertility. The meaning of tattoos can
vary widely in different places and cultures, but it is a
worldwide phenomenon. Edy’s painting Fight reproduces
a popular Indonesian tattoo, worn by many Indonesian males,
showing a battle between a naga (dragon) and a garuda (eagle).
The tattoo implies the struggle between good and evil.
However, what is interesting is that Edy’s paintings
are created with an unusual fine art medium. He uses henna
hair dye as color on his canvases. Henna has been used for
body art and hair dye since the Bronze Age. It has many traditional
and commercial uses, the most common being as a dye for skin
and fingernails, and as a dye for leather and cloth. Mixed
with other roots and herbs it can create a wide range of colors.
Henna is a vital part of the batik and temporary tattoo processes,
and it is important to understand that Edy has chosen this
color medium as a physical expression of his visual themes.
Edy also applies henna dye to his canvases using a traditional
batik method. His henna lines are made with a canting needle.
This is a wooden handled tool with a tiny metal cup, and tiny
spout, out of which the dye seeps. Hence, the erratic ‘Lika-Liku
or Wondering Lines’ constantly found throughout his
paintings are created in an indigenous and traditional ethnic
manner, and are entirely within the creative objectives of
his artwork.
The legong dance is part of the lexicon of Balinese imagery.
Images of the dance are found all over the island, from traditional
performances to blatant advertising, suggesting the mystery
and romance of Bali. It is an obvious target for any young
pop artist. In his painting Legong Dance Edy shows a stylized
representation of a legong dancer, reduced to essential lines,
and surrounded by a decorative background. The canvas emphasizes
his ongoing interest in noting contemporary Indonesian and
Balinese pop iconography.
The canvas The Footprints is a much more enigmatic work, which
can bring to mind Manís first steps on the surface
of the Moon, or, that particular moment when Robinson Crusoe
discovered Fridayís footprints in the sand of his deserted
island. However, it is more probable that in this painting
Edy is commenting on the ritual of young Balinese babies taking
their first steps on the Earth. This is an important Balinese
ritual, and, along with the tooth filing ceremony, it represents
a major role in the traditional cycle of Balinese life.
With his sharp eye for observing Indonesian social and cultural
traditions, and by basing his visual images on existing sources
of batik patterning and tattoos, along with his inventive
and pertinent application of henna dye, Edy Suranta Ginting
has created a very witty and entertaining exhibition. However,
the sense of ‘hip’ humor and ironic satire, to
be found in his work, will have most appeal to a youthful
Indonesian audience, which values the symbolism and ramifications
of his found and popular pop art imagery.
