We Wanted To Be The Sky - Andy Dewantoro

a solo exhibition by Andy Dewantoro

2

We Wanted To Be The Sky Rifky Effendy, Kurator

“Photographs furnish instant history, instant sociology, instant participation. But there is something remarkably anodyne about these new forms of packaging reality.�

(Susan Sontag, On Photography, 1977)

Fotografi, dalam tubuh karya-karya Andy Dewantoro menjadi suatu idiom , sekaligus juga acuan penting untuk menghasilkan karya lukisan maupun objek-objeknya. Medium fotografi merupakan proyeksi ide/ gagasan yang bersifat independen , dengan wataknya yang jernih dalam memberikan informasi terhadap suatu cermin kenyataan. Lebih jauh lagi, fotografi baginya berperan penting untuk mengabadikan situasi yang sesuai dengan suasana, mood yang ia inginkan, alih-alih fotografi bisa memproyeksikan gagasan tanpa kendala teknis, seperti ketika ia menghadapi kanvas atau materi lain. Sifatnya yang bisa merekam realita secara instan memberikan kemungkinan tak terbatas bagi Andy untuk menjelajahi lebih jauh terhadap subyeknya.

Andy selalu tertarik dengan situasi pemandangan yang ambigu , di dalam foto-fotonya tampak lengang, tak tampak manusia, hanya ada bangunan -bangunan rumah, pabrik, jalan, lorong diantara pepohonan rindang dan semak belukar. Kita pun tidak benar-benar mengetahui dimana lokasi Andy memotret pemandangan itu. Baginya lokasi, tempat atau konteks tempat tidak begitu penting pada foto-fotonya, tetapi atmosfir atau suasana yang memantul dari pemandangan itu yang memungkinkan dirinya merasa disuatu tempat yang lain, yang ada jauh di dalam benaknya. Imej foto menjadi cermin yang memancarkan kondisi psikis sang fotografer, membentuk ruang imajiner. Walaupun tentunya dalam mengambil gambar, ia harus berada di lokasi tertentu dan menjelajahi ruang nyata untuk memotret tempat tersebut. Tetapi ‘settingnya’ sudah ditentukan oleh Andy jauh sebelumnya, dengan kata lain , citra/image tersebut telah muncul di dalam pikirannya. Sehingga foto-foto di sana bukanlah semata dokumentasi perjalanan, tetapi sebagai bentuk afirmasi dari sebuah pengalaman melihat, pengalaman fotografis.

Inilah gejala menarik dan esensial dari era fotografi.

Pemikir Yahudi-Jerman, Walter Benjamin, pada dekade

1930-an dalam risalah The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, pernah mengemukakan persoalan hilangnya elemen “aura” , apakah itu benda seni dan benda lain, dalam fotografi dan penyebaran cetakan di era modern. Aura diartikan sebagai nilai hakiki, nilai yang autentik, bagi suatu objek atau artefak. Hilangnya aura dari sebuah objek disuatu tempat tertentu terjadi ketika citra/ imej (foto objek itu) diamati ditempat yang jaraknya jauh dimana objek aslinya berada . Contohnya kita telah mengenal dan mencermati lebih dekat lukisan Monalisa melalui buku atau katalog, poster, kartu pos, dan situs-situs di internet. Tetapi pada dasarnya pengalaman ruang dan waktu dalam konteks melihat tersebut tidaklah melibatkan konteks ruang-waktu tubuh atau ke-autentik-an dimana benda itu berada.

Tapi anehnya hal tersebut tidaklah menghentikan orang untuk datang ke Paris untuk melihat langsung lukisan Monalisa di Louvre. Ini yang disebutnya suatu pengalaman “pasca auratik” . Alih-alih Monalisa sebagai ikon/imej populer yang telah menjadi nilai ekonomis/komoditi global. Nilai-nilai politik dan ekonomi inilah kemudian mengundang secara massal orang untuk mendatangi lukisan itu.

Foto sebuah pemandangan pada karya fotografi Andy Dewantoro mungkin saja sebuah mental imej. Sebagai imej, pemandangan itu menjadi semacam proyeksi dari psikologis suatu suasana yang ia rasakan dan dialami sebelumnya: apakah itu kekosongan, atau puitis terhadap hal-hal lainnya. Ia telah mengonsumsi imej suatu bentuk pemandangan dari berbagai sumber yang ia pernah lihat. Gejala ini bisa disebut de ja vu, ia mungkin pernah melihatnya, bisa dari sebuah kalender, film, kartu pos, dan lainnya. Gambar tersebut menjadi bermakna khusus ketika bersentuhan dengan pengalaman, suasana atau kondisi psikis tertentu. Imej di dalam pikiran kemudian muncul kembali ketika melihat

pemandangan yang serupa. Hal itu muncul ketika ia mengunjungi atau mendatangi kembali suatu lokasi untuk kemudian memotretnya. Hal ini bisa diartikan sebagai suatu ‘ziarah ke situs-situs’ yang “pernah dilihat di suatu tempat yang entah dimana”.

Pameran We Wanted To Be The Sky, sebagai judul diambil dari salah satu foto karya Andy, di sana tampak tulisan besar terpampang dari sebuah konstruksi papan reklame besar yang menghadap sebuah sungai dengan beberapa perahu dan galangan kayu. Di seberang sana tampak deretan gedung, pepohonan dengan langit biru dengan gumpalan awan yang beriringan bergerak. Tak ada seorangpun tampak di sekitarnya. Ia merekamnya, mengabadikan momentum yang begitu berarti baginya. Foto pemandangan yang mengundang susasana dengan teks yang menggelitik. Teks reklame itu mungkin memaknai apa yang didalam pikiran sang fotografer, menuju sebuah ruang yang luas dan tiba-tiba terhampar teks baru.

Karya-karya fotografi Andy Dewantoro menyajikan narasi pictorial yang secara langsung dan tak langsung mampu berdialog dengan pengamatnya. Kejernihan foto memancarkan realita baru yang kemudian bisa dipahami oleh siapapun. Tetapi mengapa ia memilih objek pemandangan sepi itu? Tentunya itu suatu bentuk keputusan artistik dari seorang seniman yang bisa kita amini sebagai sebuah bentuk karya seni yang lebih demokratis. Mungkin saja kita semua pernah mengalami hal-hal yang sama atau berbeda makna ketika melihat sebuah foto. Fotografi dalam karya-karya Andy berubah, dari real menjadi sureal, dengan tak ada elemen hadirnya manusia di sana. Pemandangan itu menjadi artefak dari sebuah reruntuhan budaya manusia modern, suatu bayangan yang mengerikan bila itu terjadi. Tapi bisa juga sebuah cermin ketenangan yang hakiki. ---

3

4

blur

archival inkjet print on kodak paper, mounted on aluminum composite 60 x 80 cm (each) 2012

5

6

garage

7

archival inkjet print on kodak paper, mounted on aluminum composite 53 x 80 cm (each) 2012

8

museum

9

archival inkjet print on kodak paper, mounted on aluminum composite 53 x 80 cm (each) 2012

10

tunnel archival inkjet print on kodak paper, mounted on aluminum composite 60 x 80 cm 2012

11

12

We Wanted To Be The Sky Rifky Effendy, curator

“Photographs furnish instant history, instant sociology, instant participation. But there is something remarkably anodyne about these new forms of packaging reality.”

(Susan Sontag, On Photography, 1977)

Photography, in Andy Dewantoro’s body of works is an idiom, as well as important reference to produce his paintings and three-dimensional objects. Photography medium is projection of ideas/thoughts that are independent, with its clear nature in giving information to portray a reality. Furthermore, to him photography plays an important role to capture to condition that is related to ambiance, mood that he wanted to capture. Photography can project ideas without technical constraint, the same can’t be true if he is to deal with canvas or other materials. The nature of instantly capturing reality gives unlimited possibility to Andy to explore more about his subject matter.

Andy always fascinated by ambiguousness of landscape, his photographs gives sense of loneliness, no human beings, there were only buildings, houses, factories, streets, alleyways in between shady trees and bushes. We don’t know the exact location where Andy shot these landscapes. For Andy, location, place and context of where about is not crucial to the photographs, but the atmosphere and ambiance reflected from the landscape allows him to be somewhere else, far beyond his imagination.

Photography image became a mirror that reflects the psychological condition of the photographer, shaping an imaginary space. Although in taking these pictures, he has to be in a certain locations and explore real spaces to shoot those spot.

However, the settings has been set by Andy way before he visited the location, in other words, the images has appeared in his minds. Therefore, the photographs are not merely documentation of his travel, but they are an affirmation of his experience of seeing, experience of photography.

This is an interesting and essential phenomenon in photography era. Walter Benjamin, Jewish German philosopher, in 1930s in his publication The Work of Art in The Age of Mechanical Reproduction, once said proposed the lost of ‘aura’ as an important element, whether they are considered art object or other kind of objects, within photography and the spread of its prints in the modern world. According to him aura is the authentic value of an object or artifact.

The diminished aura of an object in a given location happened when the image of the object in the photograph is observed from a point far away from where the original object is located. An example is when we try to analyze and understand Monalisa through books, catalogues, posters, postcards, web sites. The experience of space and time within the context of seeing does not involve the context of the body of space and time or the authenticity where the object located. Strangely, it does not stop people to come to Paris to view the actual Monalisa at the Louvre Museum. Monalisa is an icon or popular image that has economic value and global commodity. These political and economical values then invites multitude number of people to see the painting.

The landscape photograph in Andy Dewantoro’s photography work may be a mental image. As an image, the landscape has become projection from psychological sense from an ambiance that he felt and experienced before. This phenomenon may be interpreted as de ja vu, where he way have seen, from a calendar, film, post cards etc. These images became meaningful when they touch with certain experience, ambiance or psychological conditions.

Image in his thoughts then re-appear when he saw the same scenery. This sensation appeared

when visited a location to do his shots. This can be interpreted as ‘pilgrimage’ to the sites where he have seen somewhere in the unknown.

We Wanted To Be The Sky exhibition, is taken as the title from one of Andy’s photograph, where huge writing was put up on a construction of a billboard facing the river with boats and boardwalk. On the image we could see rows of buildings on the other side of the river, trees and blue sky with clouds marching slowly. Not a single human being was presence in that spot. Andy captured and perpetuated the momentum that was meaningful to him. The landscape photograph invited ambiance with ticking texts. The billboard texts might have inspired what’s in the photographer’s mind, taking him into a wide space and suddenly there were the new texts.

Andy Dewantoro’s photographs provide pictorial narratives that are directly and indirectly communicate with the audience. The clarity of his photographs sent out new reality which later can be easily understood by others. But why did he choose loneliness and emptiness landscapes ?

Of course it was an artistic decision from an artist that we can agree to as artistic form that are more democratic. We may or may not have experienced the same way as what Andy experienced. The object/ scenes in Andy’s photograph changed from real into surreal, with the element of absence of human being. The landscape became an artifact of a collapse modern human culture, a scary portrayal if it actually happened. But, it could have been a portrayal of absolute bliss. ---

13

14

empty days sleepless nights

1

archival inkjet print on kodak paper, mounted on aluminum composite 80 x 120 cm (each) 2012

2

15

16

3

4

archival inkjet print on kodak paper, mounted on aluminum composite 80 x 120 cm (each) 2012

17

18

archival inkjet print on kodak paper, mounted on aluminum composite 80 x 120 cm (each) 2012

5

6

19

20

7

8

archival inkjet print on kodak paper, mounted on aluminum composite 80 x 120 cm (each) 2012

21

22

archival inkjet print on kodak paper, mounted on aluminum composite 80 x 120 cm 2012

9

10

archival inkjet print on kodak paper, mounted on aluminum composite 100 x 150 cm 2012

23

24

archival inkjet print on kodak paper, mounted on aluminum composite 80 x 120 cm 2012

11

Andy Dewantoro Born 1973, Tanjung Karang, Lampung, Indonesia

education [1995-2000] Interior Design, Faculty of Fine Art and Design, Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB)

residencies [2009] Art Camp Lazarea, Gyergyoszarhegy, Transylvania, Romania

selected solo exhibitions [2011] Half Full Half Empty, Valentine Willie Fine Art, Kuala Lumpur [2010] empty – space – landscapes, Galeri Semarang, Semarang, Indonesia [2008] Silent World, Ark Galerie, Jakarta, Indonesia

selected group exhibitions [2012] A TRIBUTE TO A MENTOR, Indonesian Modern and Contemporary Art Exhibition, Gedung Tribakti, Magelang, Indonesia Re.claim, Galeri Nasional, Jakarta, Indonesia

CONTEMPORARY INDONESIAN ART EXHIBITION, Sin Sin Fine Art, Hong Kong ART STAGE SINGAPORE 2012, Semarang Contemporary Art Gallery, Marina Bay Sands, Singapore

[2011] LINTAS, Edwin’s Gallery, Jakarta, Indonesia

Flight for Light: Religiosity in Indonesia Art Art:1 Space, Jakarta, Indonesia The Indonesian Eye Contemporary Art Exhibition

Saatchi Gallery, London, England Indonesian Artist Group Show, Sin Sin Fine Art, Hong Kong Bazaar Art Jakarta 2011, The Ritz Carlton, Jakarta, Indonesia

We Are Now Open, GARIS artspace, Jakarta, Indonesia ART|JOG|11, Taman Budaya Yogyakarta, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

CONTEMPORARY LANDSCAPE, Lawangwangi – Art & Science Estate, Bandung, Indonesia HOMO LUDENS #2, Emmitan CA Gallery, Surabaya, Indonesia Indonesian Eye Contemporary Art Exhibition: Fantasies & Reality, Ciputra Artpreneur Center, Jakarta, Indonesia ART STAGE SINGAPORE 2011, Semarang Contemporary Art Gallery, Marina Bay Sands, Singapore [2010] A Moment to Absctract, 9th Anniversary Galeri Canna, Galeri Canna, Jakarta, Indonesia Resonance, ARTSEASONS, Jakarta, Indonesia Indonesian Art Now: The Strategies of Being, ART|JOG|10, Taman Budaya Yogyakarta, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

25

26

CONTEMPORANEITY, Biennale Indonesia Art Award (IAA) 2010, Galeri Nasional, Jakarta, Indonesia Reach For The HeART 10/11, Sin Sin Fine Art, Hong Kong

COLD MEMORIES, viviyipartroom, Jakarta, Indonesia

SPACE & IMAGE, Ciputra World Marketing Gallery, Jakarta, Indonesia Bandung Initiative #5 : Veduta, Vanessa Art Link, Jakarta, Indonesia [2009] LAYER OF VISUALITY, Artsphere Gallery, Jakarta, Indonesia

PAN Amsterdam 2009, Canvas International Art, Amsterdam RAI Parkhal, The Netherlands TWO SIDES OF SOLITUDE, Garis Artspace, Jakarta, Indonesia DIVERSE - 40 X 40, Sin Sin Fine Art, Hong Kong

[2009] NATURE PEACE, Geumgang Nature Art Pre Biennale 2009, South Korea Indonesia Young Artists Exhibition 2009, Cheongju Arts Center, South Korea

SPACING CONTEMPORARY, JAF #2, Taman Budaya Yogyakarta, Indonesia The KorkeP - 35th International Art Camp’s Exhibition, The Gallery of The Lazarea Castle, Romania

AWARENESS - Indonesian Art Today, Canvas International Art, The Netherlands HYBRIDIZATION, North Art Space, Jakarta, Indonesia [2008] Jogja Art Fair #1, Taman Budaya Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Pada Sebuah Pesta, V-Art Gallery, Yogyakarta, Indonesia Loro Blonyo Kontemporer, Gedung Tri Juang, Magelang, Indonesia MANIFESTO, Galeri Nasional, Jakarta, Indonesia Young Contemporary Southeast Asian, Richard Koh Fine Art, Kuala Lumpur RUANG & SUBYEK, Galeri Lontar, Jakarta, Indonesia

[2007] ARTVERTISING, Galeri Nasional, Jakarta, Indonesia [2006] SIMPLICITY, Elcanna Gallery, Jakarta, Indonesia [2005] SPRING FESTIVAL, Four Seasons, Jakarta, Indonesia [2004] ABSTRACT, TOIMOI, Jakarta, Indonesia

thanks to

Catalogue for A solo exhibition by Andy Dewantoro ‘We Wanted To Be The Sky’

Allah SWT

Curator Rifky Effendi

Esti Nurjadin Rifky Effendy Jim Supangkat Akiq AW Agan Harahap Angki Purbandono Wimo Ambala Bayang Davy Linggar Jerry Aurum Kartika D.

Published by D gallerie Jakarta, Indonesia May, 2012 Edition 500 copies Designed by Kotasis Kamar Desain 3x3x3 Yogyakarta, Indonesia www.kotasis.com

Kairo Ganesia D. Wisnu WS Caosa Indryani Ardhi Sjadzali Ratna Sjadzali Adhi Hardiansah Erwin ET Kotasis Jogja Dan semua pihak yang telah membantu terselenggaranya pameran ini.

Printed In Indonesia

27

Jl. Barito I No.3, Kebayoran Baru Jakarta, 12130, +62-21-739 9378 dgalleriejakarta@gmail.com www.dgallerie.net