Poetical state of mind
The Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA) presents “Poetical state of mind. Works of Handiwirman Saputra, Jumaldi Alfi and Yusra Martunus”.
Co-organised with OFCA International, Yogyakarta, these three well-known contemporary Indonesian artists accepted the Academy’s invitation to showcase 22 works, including sculptural installations and paintings.
Imaginative and creative with their mediums, the three are founding artists of a well-known six-member contemporary art collective: the Kelompok Seni Rupa Jendela or Jendela Art Group. The artists, who are of similar ages, all graduated from the ISI Yogyakarta Institute of the Arts in Indonesia.
While each specialised in different mediums – Alfi studied painting, Handiwirman woodcrafting and Yusra sculpture – their art is largely conceptual and sensual, with underlying existential messages that go against the grain of popular social and political commentary that is typical in Yogyakarta art. As artists, their individual aesthetic brings to the fore questions about art creation and development.
Alfi presents meditative, evocative paintings and juxtaposes visual symbols to comment on the human condition; Handiwirman’s large-scale installations stimulate reflection, observation and perception, while Yusra’s sculptures prod viewers to create their own narratives.
This contemporary, Indonesia-focused showcase follows the 2015 exhibition “Land before our time: a vernacular in Southeast Asian art making”. “Poetical state of mind” urges us to carry out its titular command through contemplation, taking the viewer closer to the characteristics of Indonesian art and the unique position it holds within the Southeast Asian art discourse.
Accompanying the exhibition is third instalment of the Southeast Asian Art Clinic, organised by NAFA’s Institute of Southeast Asian Art (ISEAA) and supported by United Overseas Bank. This forum will engage students and lecturers on the sensibilities, poetics and discoveries in the context of the Southeast Asian art discourse, unbounded by geography and refined by particular thought and self-examination, unique to how we live in, make art and regard the region.
