In the broad contemporary visual art world of Indonesia, the abstract
painting has been somewhat marginalized, treated perhaps as if not
relevant in today’s world. Most exhibitions are dominated by pop-art,
comic style, realism/neo-realism, or new media arts. Given the above,
Sardono Kusumo’s “The Choreography of Colors” is quite distinctive.
Secondarily it stands out because the artist is a well-known and
legendary Indonesian choreographer.
In late 2005, Sardono W Kusumo started his new artistic phase by painting with oil on canvas. He was not new to the world of painting though. Some readers may remember that Kusumo participated in fine arts exhibitions in the 1970s, presenting sculptures as well painted works. For many years however, Kusumo’s main medium is dance.
About 4 years ago however Kusumo felt a rekindled passion to explore the possibilities of body movement through paint and canvas. He began spending entire days painting in his studio in Kemang, South Jakarta. Nearly 100 paintings were created during this period.
The exhibition is part of a celebration of the opening of a new area of Vivi Yip Artroom in Kuningan, South Jakarta. On the opening night, drawing upon his identity as a choreographer, Sardono created a site specific performance. By watching this performance, the audience feels an integration of dance and painting. Two female dancers, with oil paint all over their bodies move and dance on ten meters of canvas stretched on the floor. On the surrounding walls, ten paintings are displayed, mostly in large scale, 2 by 3 meters or sometimes, larger. The paintings are mostly colored dark, either blue or green, combined with few soft colors such as white, yellow or grey.
It is the idea to integrate body movement on a two dimensional surface that is strongly reflected in his paintings. In the exhibition room, one can see a video showin the process in which Sardono paints. This is a fascinating experience, a definitely interesting to see. Having watched him on the stage as a dancer, I reconnected my memories of this stage imagery when I saw the video. Usually he started the process by pouring the oil paints and water on his canvas, then he moved—both his body and his canvas—to create a spontaneous image yet full of surprises. His body moves intensively while he follows the wave of the paint. As Enin Supriyanto, the curator of the exhibition describes, Sardono now creates a choreography of colors.
Although he did not study painting, Sardono has a broad reference of visual art world, as some of his mates remember how he had been participating in this field in 1970s. Now, while creating his paintings, he is simply doing what his body tells him to do, no longer refers those books. He is using canvas and paint as new medium instead of the stage. To create a variety of style, he dares to try new techniques and he recognized immediately the effect of his movements on the visual image.
Sardono has never use brushes to create a painting. Mostly he applies the paint on canvas directly from his fingers, or sometimes from the tube. As if he dancing, he moves his fingers in variety of possibilities; spattering on the paint in random paths, to put paint on his palm and put on the palm to canvas in order to make up a certain pattern, or even just to paint with fingers circling. “Having used my fingers for years to dance, it is easy for me to predict how big the energy spread out from a movement, then I can imagine to how far the paint will be.”
The above statement is quite unique in the world of painting. We could say that it is truly something that separates Sardono from other visual artists. For more than 30 years, Sardono Kusumo has performed as a choreographer and dancer in many different countries and he studied movement of many indigenous cultures. He learned that body is the center of human creativity. I think, that is the perspective we should take in appreciating his works in this exhibition. Instead of using the formal indicator in visual art world, we need to move beyond the borders and look on how an artist evolved over time and never stopped exploring new ways to manifest his creativity.
We might do not see his painting works as good ones, but however, we have to underline this is part of his experiment in doing something new. It is the curatorial concept that should clarify this context and position, to put on the right place the relevancy of his experiment to our multidisciplinary art scene (Enin has mentioned some of these matters though in his curatorial notes, need more explanation though). But the display of exhibition itself should be less formal than usual painting exhibitions, since it is the spirit of experimenting that needs to be underlined. Instead of put the paintings on the wall tidily, I thought it would be more interesting to display the atmosphere of a studio. Video documentations that compare the process of his painting and his choreography would be also very helpful for the audience so that they can get enough source to see ideas to integrate dance and painting. We could also be part of the experiments rather then seeing something fixed and done.
In late 2005, Sardono W Kusumo started his new artistic phase by painting with oil on canvas. He was not new to the world of painting though. Some readers may remember that Kusumo participated in fine arts exhibitions in the 1970s, presenting sculptures as well painted works. For many years however, Kusumo’s main medium is dance.
About 4 years ago however Kusumo felt a rekindled passion to explore the possibilities of body movement through paint and canvas. He began spending entire days painting in his studio in Kemang, South Jakarta. Nearly 100 paintings were created during this period.
The exhibition is part of a celebration of the opening of a new area of Vivi Yip Artroom in Kuningan, South Jakarta. On the opening night, drawing upon his identity as a choreographer, Sardono created a site specific performance. By watching this performance, the audience feels an integration of dance and painting. Two female dancers, with oil paint all over their bodies move and dance on ten meters of canvas stretched on the floor. On the surrounding walls, ten paintings are displayed, mostly in large scale, 2 by 3 meters or sometimes, larger. The paintings are mostly colored dark, either blue or green, combined with few soft colors such as white, yellow or grey.
It is the idea to integrate body movement on a two dimensional surface that is strongly reflected in his paintings. In the exhibition room, one can see a video showin the process in which Sardono paints. This is a fascinating experience, a definitely interesting to see. Having watched him on the stage as a dancer, I reconnected my memories of this stage imagery when I saw the video. Usually he started the process by pouring the oil paints and water on his canvas, then he moved—both his body and his canvas—to create a spontaneous image yet full of surprises. His body moves intensively while he follows the wave of the paint. As Enin Supriyanto, the curator of the exhibition describes, Sardono now creates a choreography of colors.
Although he did not study painting, Sardono has a broad reference of visual art world, as some of his mates remember how he had been participating in this field in 1970s. Now, while creating his paintings, he is simply doing what his body tells him to do, no longer refers those books. He is using canvas and paint as new medium instead of the stage. To create a variety of style, he dares to try new techniques and he recognized immediately the effect of his movements on the visual image.
Sardono has never use brushes to create a painting. Mostly he applies the paint on canvas directly from his fingers, or sometimes from the tube. As if he dancing, he moves his fingers in variety of possibilities; spattering on the paint in random paths, to put paint on his palm and put on the palm to canvas in order to make up a certain pattern, or even just to paint with fingers circling. “Having used my fingers for years to dance, it is easy for me to predict how big the energy spread out from a movement, then I can imagine to how far the paint will be.”
The above statement is quite unique in the world of painting. We could say that it is truly something that separates Sardono from other visual artists. For more than 30 years, Sardono Kusumo has performed as a choreographer and dancer in many different countries and he studied movement of many indigenous cultures. He learned that body is the center of human creativity. I think, that is the perspective we should take in appreciating his works in this exhibition. Instead of using the formal indicator in visual art world, we need to move beyond the borders and look on how an artist evolved over time and never stopped exploring new ways to manifest his creativity.
We might do not see his painting works as good ones, but however, we have to underline this is part of his experiment in doing something new. It is the curatorial concept that should clarify this context and position, to put on the right place the relevancy of his experiment to our multidisciplinary art scene (Enin has mentioned some of these matters though in his curatorial notes, need more explanation though). But the display of exhibition itself should be less formal than usual painting exhibitions, since it is the spirit of experimenting that needs to be underlined. Instead of put the paintings on the wall tidily, I thought it would be more interesting to display the atmosphere of a studio. Video documentations that compare the process of his painting and his choreography would be also very helpful for the audience so that they can get enough source to see ideas to integrate dance and painting. We could also be part of the experiments rather then seeing something fixed and done.
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