Monday, July 08, 2013

Me, Lunang, and NOKNjam

limited edition of NOKNjam artist series about lunang
special project: NOKNjam Finding Lunang. Made for ArtJog 2013, an international art fair event which Iwan Effendi is featured as The Commission Work Artist. NOKNjam produced this special edition. Only five custom made NOKNbag with very high quality materials and high passionated craftmanship. Come with original autograph and certificate of authenticity. Find NOKNjam Finding Lunang by me for ArtJog 2013 at Taman Budaya Yogyakarta, Indonesia, on 6th - 20th July 2013.






monster of the sea, hand painted with acrylic

the voyager                      

hand painted monster


inner body, silk screen

inside the flam, silkscreen print man of the sea

leather compass and hand painted eye


Lunang embroidery

etching image buckle


edition signature


foto: Kiko Arya Suksma



Monday, July 01, 2013

LUNANG

Lunang adalah seorang bocah laki-laki, aku menemukan dia di dalam masa pencarianku atas budaya maritim sebagai tema yang disodorkan oleh ARTJOG, tema yang hampir tidak terbayangkan sebelumnya, Lunang menjadi awalanku memahami maritim
Lunang adalah mitos yang ada dan tiada
Lunang adalah masa lalu, dan masa depan

Lunang: Pencarian dalam Kisah-Kisah

Ini adalah kisah tentang seorang anak laki-laki yang sosoknya terus menerus terlihat di berbagai belahan dunia. Anak itu seperti tiba-tiba saja ada di sana. Konon, anak laki-laki itu terlihat bermain ombak di sebuah pelabuhan di belahan dunia yang paling jauh. Entah bagaimana, ia juga terlihat berlarian di Barat, Timur, Utara, Selatan.. entah seluruhnya dalam waktu yang bersamaan atau tidak.
Sosoknya yang terlihat asing dengan kulit sawo matang terbakar matahari, kepala gundul, perut buncit, dan dahi jenong; konon sering terlihat berlarian bebas di pelabuhan. Keberadaannya adalah misteri. Orang-orang pelabuhan dan para pelaut terus membicarakannya –mencoba mengungkapkan misterinya.

Mungkin ia adalah bocah pengembara yang menjelajah dunia dengan seluruh keajaibannya. Mungkin, secara kebetulan, sosok yang mirip dengannya begitu umum dijumpai di berbagai penjuru dunia. Mungkin juga, ia hanyalah kisah yang dihembuskan para pelaut yang kebosanan. Bagaimana ia sampai di sana, di mana pun ia berada, tidak ada yang tahu.

Berpuluh-puluh tahun kemudian, ia menjadi mitos. Kisah-kisah berkembang atasnya. Kisahnya ditemukan di dalam catatan-catatan para petualang dari seluruh penjuru dunia. Para penjelajah bumi memiliki cara masing-masing untuk menceritakannya. Sebagian ajaib, sisanya tidak masuk akal. Seperti halnya kisah-kisah pada umumnya, kisah ini memiliki kebenaran terkandung di dalamnya walaupun sedikit saja. Bagaimanapun, mitos adalah sesuatu yang diciptakan untuk menjawab pertanyaan yang rumit. Sebagian unsurnya adalah kebenaran. Anak itu, seperti terus menerus mempermainkannya. Para pelaut dan penghuni pelabuhan bergantian bertukar cerita mengenai keberadaannya. Kisahnya berhembus bersama asin angin laut yang lembab dan hangat. Kisah tentang Lunang, si anak laki-laki yang ditemui para pelaut di dalam ekspedisi mereka mencari sumber kehidupan baru.




Tentang pengembaraan, pencarian, dan penemuan.
Bagi Iwan Effendi, Lunang adalah sang nusantara. Indonesia yang kaya akan rempah-rempah merupakan pulau harta karun bagi mereka yang tinggal di Barat. Berbagai kisah berhembus tentangnya –penuh janji dan dibumbui kisah petualangan yang akan membuat jiwa anak laki-laki di setiap pria dewasa tergelitik. Hadiah yang besar akan didapatkan bagi yang berhasil pulang dari pencariannya –walaupun tidak banyak yang berhasil dalam prosesnya.

Nusantara pernah menjadi sebuah mitos, seperti Lunang. Kabar tentangnya berhembus simpang siur di setiap pelabuhan. Kisah-kisah tersebut dipenuhi keajaiban, misteri, dan harta karun. Jauh sebelum para penjelajah menaklukkan Nusantara, tanah ini adalah terra incognitia-- daratan yang tidak dikenali. Daratan asing yang belum terjamah. Bagaimana mungkin orang-orang mempercayai sebuah kisah mengenai daratan jauh yang tidak dikenali tanpa pernah melihatnya? Begitulah kepercayaan atas sedikit kebenaran yang terkandung dalam kisah-kisah menjadi penting dalam sejarah penjelajahan dan penemuan-penemuan di dunia.

Kisah tentang keberadaan Nusantara memerlukan kepercayaan yang kuat dari mereka yang mendengarnya. Kisah tentang harta karun yang tumbuh subur di daratannya dimulai dari sebuah wabah flu yang konon mematikan dan hanya bisa disembuhkan oleh pala. Pala, yang sebelumnya tidak terlalu dipedulikan asal-usulnya, mulai ditelusuri keberadaannya. Ekspedisi demi ekspedisi dilakukan untuk menemukan pohonnya dan konon, para pelaut bisa mencium aroma hangat rerempahan dan pala bahkan sebelum sempat melihat daratannya. Sebelum penaklukkan, politik, dan perdagangan masuk –pelayaran merupakan permainan anak lelaki yang sarat dengan unsur petualangan dan rasa penasaran yang polos dan membuncah.

Atas nama petualangan, usaha untuk bertahan hidup, dan menemukan sumber alam baru; Nusantara menjadi bagian dari perlintasan dan tujuan utama petualang samudera dari berbagai penjuru dunia. Begitulah Nusantara, apabila ditilik dari sudut pandang itu, ditemukan. Namun sebagaimana keberadaan Lunang –si anak laki-laki yang begitu saja ada di pelabuhan di berbagai penjuru dunia, Nusantara telah ada jauh sebelumnya. Sebuah daratan yang tidak dikenali bagi sebuah sisi belahan dunia yang lain, adalah sesungguhnya daratan yang telah ada. Maka seperti Lunang, asal-usulnya adalah misteri. Namun sebagian orang takut pada hal-hal yang tidak dikenalinya, demikian lah mereka mulai mempelajari Nusantara sementara lainnya mencoba menaklukkannya.

Ajaib ketika melihat betapa banyak makhluk-makhluk dongeng yang digambarkan sepanjang peta ‘jalan’ menuju Nusantara. Kisah-kisah mengenai naga, ular laut raksasa, dan putri duyung tergambar di dalam peta-peta lama tersebut. Konon rupanya daerah yang belum terjamah dalam peta kerap digambarkan dalam bentuk lukisan makhluk dongeng. Dalam The Hunt-Lenox Globe (1503-07), terdapat beberapa daerah yang bertuliskan Hc Svnt Dracones (i.e. hic sunt dracones, here are dragons) yang alih-alih menggambarkan lokasi tinggalnya para naga yang berbahaya, merupakan tanda bahwa area tersebut berbahaya dan belum terjamah. Istilah ini konon muncul di sekitaran pantai timur Asia, yang mungkin saja terkait dengan pulau Komodo..atau mungkin juga sebatas peletakan mitos untuk menyederhanakan jawaban atas misteri-misteri yang ada di daerah tersebut.






Pencarian Sosok Lunang sang Nusantara
Dalam usahanya mempelajari sejarah maritim Indonesia, Iwan Effendi memilih berguru pada kisah-kisah dan peta lama. Di dalam kisah-kisah tersebut, Iwan menemukan sosok Lunang dan di dalam peta lama, ia menemukan sedikit sejarah budaya kelautan Indonesia. Maka kisah Lunang ini adalah tentang pencarian-pencarian dan berbagai penemuan yang dialami oleh orang dari masa lalu maupun secara kekaryaan oleh Iwan Effendi sendiri. Pameran proses ini merupakan ‘ekspedisi’ menelusuri dua hal: 1. Pencarian sejarah maritim Indonesia dan 2. Penemuan atas sosok Lunang dan segala teka tekinya.
Bagi Iwan Effendi, sosok anak kecil Lunang merupakan penggambaran peradaban laut yang dicarinya. Budaya laut yang ada di Indonesia adalah pencarian yang terus menerus yang apabila ditemukan, usianya masih sangat muda. Bagaimanapun juga, masa kanak-kanak adalah sebuah ruang tunggu; sebuah masa yang menyisakan ruang untuk pembelajaran. Mungkin seperti halnya Lunang, keberadaannya telah lama, namun kesadaran tentangnya baru saja ditemukan.

Budaya kelautan yang ada di Nusantara letaknya begitu dekat dengan mitos-mitos, kemunculan, kepercayaan, dan pertemuan. Iwan memilih bercerita dengan menggunakan seorang anak laki-laki sebagai pusatnya. Ketika ia memilih menceritakan penemuannya akan budaya maritim nusantara melalui sosok seorang anak kecil yang terus menerus terlihat di setiap pelabuhan di berbagai belahan dunia; ia menyisakan ruang untuk misteri, kepolosan, rasa ingin tahu, dan petualangan. Apakah Lunang bertualang untuk mencari sesuatu? Apakah sosok Lunang hanyalah mitos yang kerap dihembuskan para pemimpi? Apakah Lunang mencari atau ia lah yang dicari? Bisakah mereka yang bertemu dengannya mempelajari sesuatu yang baru darinya?
Banyak kisah serupa yang muncul di tengah misteri laut. Seorang penyair kenamaan Indonesia pernah menceritakan secara puitis tentang seekor ikan paus merah yang terkadang muncul saat senja keemasan sempurna. Punggungnya berdarah oleh panah yang tertancap tegak lurus, dan tangisnya menceritakan tentang luka yang beratus-ratus tahun lamanya diceritakan oleh musafir yang berkeliling dari satu pelabukan ke pelabuhan lainnya –tanpa pernah benar-benar melihatnya. Terkadang misteri lautan luas dan budaya perpindahan atas misi petualangan ini dimulai dengan hal yang sederhana: mempercayai.
Kisah-kisah atas Nusantara juga pernah digaungkan oleh Marco Polo, dalam tulisannya tentang “Java le Grande” (the great island of Java). Marco Polo konon mempercayai bahwa Jawa adalah pulau terbesar di dunia –sementara para penjelajah setelahnya mempercayai bahwa yang dianggap sebagai Java le Grande adalah mungkin New Holland (benua Australia), dan Marco Polo menceritakan tentang keagungan pulau Jawa tanpa pernah benar-benar menapaki pulau Jawa. Konon Marco Polo hanya sampai ke Java Minor (pulau Sumatera) dan mempercayai teorinya tentang Java le Grande. Bertahun-tahun kemudian teori-teori ini terpatahkan oleh para pakar geografi yang membuat berbagai pembuktian atasnya.

Hal ini mengingatkan akan sebuah kisah dalam buku Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Pangeran Kecil, di mana terdapat seorang pakar geografi yang secara tekun mencatat sungai dan gunung-gunung yang bahkan belum pernah ia lihat. Namun bukankah hal tersebut menarik dan menggelitik untuk sesekali mempercayai dongeng indah yang diceritakan seorang petualang? Sulit memisahkan antara yang fiksi dan yang nyata dalam petualangan laut semacam ini.
Hal tersebut mungkin merupakan salah satu hal yang hanya dipahami oleh benak kanak-kanak. Hal itu pula yang mungkin membuat sosok Lunang misterius penuh teka-teki. Seperti layaknya sang Pangeran Kecil yang mengembara ke seluruh semesta dan daratan bumi. Konon, kata hati seorang anak sama dengan kesadaran itu sendiri. Pencarian tentang Lunang adalah pencarian tentang kesadaran.
Tidak penting lagi apakah Lunang benar-benar seorang anak kecil atau kah sosoknya yang hanya menyerupai anak kecil. Sosoknya yang seperti tipikal sosok anak lelaki Jawa sebagaimana biasa digambarkan pada masa kolonial menunjukkan sekelumit identitas Lunang. Penggambaran Lunang sebagai anak laki-laki bukanlah tanpa alasan. Bagaimanapun juga, budaya maritim adalah budaya anak laki-laki. Walaupun demikian, laut adalah sesosok wanita dengan insting seorang ibu yang melindungi anaknya. Apabila para penjelajah adalah sosok yang maskulin, laut yang dijelajahinya adalah sosok yang feminim. Poros dan keseimbangan tetap menjadi salah satu elemen penyajian hasil akhir karya ini dan Iwan Effendi memilih menggunakan bentuk karusel untuk menggambarkan petualangan Lunang. Karusel tersebut memiliki sebuah pusat utama sebagaimana dalam mitos-mitos ketimuran, selalu ada pusat bagi segalanya. Karusel tersebut yang menggabungkan aspek gerak dan visual menjadi pusat dunia Lunang.. poros perputaran para pencari. Maka kisah ini bukan lagi hanya menjadi kisah tentang pencarian dan penemuan, namun juga tentang mempercayai sekelumit kebenaran dan sejarah dalam kisah-kisah.


Mira Asriningtyas, kurator LIR space 

Sunday, February 10, 2013

wata cala

here i have some watercolor image during my big project preparation







Saturday, December 08, 2012

Drypoint in Manila

I stay in manila for about 1 month, kind of artist in residence sponsored by Manila Contemporary, to do observation, and meet many artist. 
First i will show about workshop that i attended, There is printmaking space for workshop in CCP (Cultural Centre of Philippines) called PAP, Philippine Association of Printmakers
In this one year i've been interest with printmaking techniques, so i join drypoint workshop, instead of learn about new technique, i can meet many printmaking artists, and for me join workshop is another way to meet people...



























































































and here the Mr. Benjie Torado Cabrera and Angelo Magno, who help me doing my first drypoint






Wednesday, November 28, 2012

IWAN EFFENDI X NOKN JAM!!

here i have my collaboration with a messenger bag brand from jogja, the image showed in my solo exhibition at yavuz fine art singapore "the splash from the past", and the other image was showed in kendra gallery bali and garis artspace jakarta...



Monday, July 16, 2012

mwathirika t shirt

his name is TUPU



artjog12

illuminate my story
an interactive puppet and video installation
iwan effendi feat. papermoon puppet theatre, in ARTJOG 12


History must always be retold. Even if it's the same story, with different soryteller and with the different viewers will get different grasp that might resulted into a different future also.





this interactive installation tells the story of papermoon puppet theatre performance tittled setjangkir kopi dari plaja (a cup of coffee from playa) the love story of a couple students in the 60's which failed due the 1965's tragedy in indonesia, the boy became an exile in cuba.




Friday, July 13, 2012

NGUDANG


Ngudang
Hold, Touch and Play
show at kendra gallery, bali june 29-july 29 2012

 One
 “Ngudang” is a Javanese term for activities that happen between adults and infants or young children. The goal is to communicate, using gentle language, often High Javanese, along with song. Ngudang is almost always filled with praises for the good looks, beauty, or cleverness of the child. It is one of the first forms of intergenerational interaction – based on which more sophisticated communications will be built.

In the culture of Java, children occupy a very important position. Children are the carriers of fortune. This view may be a remnant of the farming culture of the past, which relied on extensive labor. Having more children meant having more workers, which meant greater productivity, and ultimately, lots of good fortune. That's roughly the logic of the connection between children and fortune in old Javanese culture.

As times have changed, farmlands have been replaced by factories and shopping malls, yet the cult of the child has remained. Only it has changed in form. Active verbal communication patterns have slowly been replaced by gadgets. Children's toys, with all their age designations, have replaced the old verbal communication patterns. Modern children live in cramped urban dwellings accompanied by toys and the sounds of the television. There is no more High Javanese language; the songs of praise are gone. They have all been replaced by digital technology tools and devices. Pregnant women need not sing; all they have to do is place their i-pod earphones on their bulging stomachs, and turn on classical music or strains of sacred verse. Nor is it necessary to cajole little children into conversation and banter – just leave them, engrossed, with an i-pad in hand; this is sure to keep them entertained, and let their parents keep busy with their laptops and apps.

That's more or less the scene for modern, middle-class families in the big cities of Indonesia today. Meanwhile, in lower-class families, ngudang has been supplanted by the active blare of loudspeakers made in China and the maudlin cries of soap operas on TV, or by trashy plastic, battery-operated toys, produced by super cheap labor in mainland China.

This exhibition by Iwan Effendi and Papermoon Puppet Theater raises the ngudang phenomenon as its theme. The most obvious reason for this is the artists' fascination with communication and its patterning.

Papermoon is the brainchild of Maria Tri Sulistyani, a.k.a Ria, and Iwan Effendi. It was born of their obsession to communicate in a different way. To communicate with people of all ages. For them, it was only through puppets that they could realize this.

Ngudang, as a unique model of communication, is (now gradually) getting replaced by sophisticated tools and devices. Ngudang is two-way communication. Even though the ones involved use different languages: one, “human language” and the other, the language of infants. Ngudang also constitutes a response to a misunderstanding, about how people should communicate. All too often, communications are misunderstood in relationships, as a result of encounters in which the same language is used. Whereas in everyday life, communications commonly take place, and even run smoothly, when two different models of language are used. As in ngudang-style communication.

It is here that Papermoon finds its context. The communication patterns Iwan and Ria create are based on difference. Puppets and humans talk – puppets and humans interact – humans and humans communicate. These three stages of communication demonstrate how puppets can create a bridge for communication between people. 


















Two
Puppets are a key part of Iwan's and Ria's artworks. Their works beyond the stage performances of Papermoon almost always feature this element.
Puppets, in their view, are another form of human being, which may be an extension of the human hand, or substitutes for people themselves.

As shown in Ria's work: a collection of boxes with glass windows, made of multi-colored bits of salvaged wood. Inside the boxes are peculiar articles, made of papier mache, paper clay, wood, and found objects. These strange objects illustrate something – a story. Ria calls these works dioramachronicles.

Those glass-covered, used-wood boxes are representaives of a world, microcosms of the world. Within them, Ria captures details of stories she has picked up, based on the hopes of a lot of other people, who have sent their messages of hope to her. Which Ria then “weaves” into diorama boxes. Makes paper dolls, then attaches bits of newspaper, along with other tiny objects, out of which a story is slowly composed.

A diorama shows the details of a larger story. Usually located in a museum, it depicts an important event, considered to have historic value. It's a threedimensional scene from a particular historical narrative. In Ria's context, the narratives on display are formed by hopes. The hopes of a number of different people. Each hope, respectively, is placed in a box under glass, like a mailbox with a window. Symbolically speaking, RIa's dioramachronicles are mailboxes. Her friends send hopes, but RIa does not realize these hopes, she only illustrates them.

The question then arises: why would these people want to entrust their hopes to Ria, and then let these hopes be embodied in works of art?  

When we read these hopes, none of them are “new”; they are hopes that we hear all the time. Because they have to do with the basic hopes people have, to stay alive: equal rights, a green environment, and so on. Since the hopes are cliches, Ria has no difficulty embodying them within her dioramachronicles. Indeed, the friends who leave Ria their messages are well aware of how art (too) can serve as a message sender. By entrusting their messages to her, they are consciously making them more visible, to a larger number of people. So a hope that begins as a gripe is turned into a campaign. As a campaign, that cliche hope might one day inspire a lot of people to do something.

Most of the dolls Ria makes are small-sized. One reason for this is that their containers are not very large, but it is also intended to make the viewer look at them close up. Up close, we can see the details, observe the pale faces of the paper dolls.  At a glance, the doll faces look like tandak (the faces of dancers). They are covered in white powder, leaving only a bit of red at the lips. From all of this we know that Ria's work is designed to be “spied on” or "peeped at". By placing these things in small boxes, the act of peeping becomes real. Forget about looking at them from a distance, the way you do when you look at paintings.
We must come closer. In fact, it's as if we have to cock our ears, to hear the dolls whisper, about the stories they carry.









Three
Iwan Effendi is a painter who has recently been working with diverse combinations of media. Having discovered how much fun it is to work in puppet theater media with Papermoon, he has now begun to work with still different forms: three-dimensional works, assemblages of found objects and mechanical motion, drawing and other techniques.  He began the process of making his current works by looking at the potential of found objects, be they of wood or other materials. He still departed from a theme, only the theme was non-specific.

The first time I visited Iwan's studio, he seemed to be still confused. Stacks of wooden boxes were piled in one corner of the studio. In another corner of the space, sat a pile of charcoal, some of which appeared to be sculpted. At first it seemed he was starting a process using these media. And then he told me he was running out of ideas, and those half-finished objects were just trash. Unlike other friends of his generation, Iwan seemed restless, or rather, easily bored by conventional media. He had begun his career painting on canvas, paper, or wood, using acrylic paint. Now he was trying out other media. Experimenting with unconventional media proved to be something new for him.

After establishing and being active in the puppet theater, Iwan became interested in two things: history and motion. His latest works encapsulate both these trends. As mentioned above, he began with charcoal, pieces of wood, and found objects. Then he assembled all these things into a sort of “puppet”. Indeed, it was not like the conventional puppets he had made, but something resembling the structure of a puppet. Wooden boxes arranged in order: large ones on the bottom, small ones on the top, like the body and head of a person. To these geometric box shapes he added a set of simple machinery, which can move the hands or certain other parts of the work. When we associate this work with the exhibition title, it becomes clear why this artwork resembles a small child. Ngudang more or less means communicating with a child who can't speak fluently yet. One of the most important things about ngudang is touching and making gentle physical contact. We find the same thing in Iwan's latest works. Touching, gently moving parts of the artwork, is imperative. Without such actions, these mechanical works would not work in accord with their underlying idea. 

Iwan likes viewers of his works to be active. Some of the works are to be placed on the floor. You can imagine such works as a little child who is ndeprok (Javanese: comfortably sitting on the floor) waiting to be invited to communicate.

Some of Iwan's works apply alternative coloration techniques, such as burning. Iwan's obsession with charcoal stemmed from his observations about how history is linked to certain traumas, which are imprinted in the minds of young people in Indonesia today. The idiom of charcoal might be right, but at first he had to force it, by positioning the charcoal as an element in his prospective work. The charcoal was like a tumor in the breast of a beautiful woman.  Stuck in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Following a series of discussions we held, Iwan changed his approach. He no longer used readymade charcoal, but made it himself. He “burned” his works deliberately to get a carbon effect. Through a controlled method of burning, he created a series of fire “sculptures” out of the soot that solidly attached itself to the wood. Some of the wood turned into charcoal, some of it remained uncharred.

By burning, Iwan obtained a situation that is symbolic of historical phenomena that – (having been) deliberately ommited or forgotten – turn to ash/carbon. At the same time, he also obtained a distinctive visual effect.

In another series, Iwan accidentally discovered that the soot that got attached to the wood, after scraping, would take on associative shapes, which, when finished, became more complete: forms of children, or human body organs. Amazed by the results he got from the various unintentional effects of his effort to find “other media”, Iwan seemed to get a second wind. His experiments had brought him back to a creative state again. As noted above, his sense of over-saturation with the uniform approach of art in recent years, forced him to return, to dig for the roots of the problem in his own art. It was not merely a matter of ideas but also, a matter of materials, or the relationship between the two. And out of this saturation, the mechanical artworks were born.  

I think that there are few young artists today who see the correlation between material and idea as an important thing. As a generation that lives under circumstances of extensive sign consumption, there is really no need for them to embark on esthetic quests as Iwan has so laboriously done. Everything is already provided by the digital world. The quest is often treated as an exercise in futility. It is enough for them to mimic. No effort is made to elaborate on what they are consuming. They are satisfied enough with what they have consumed. Growing up in such a “stagnant” situation, the games and experiments Iwan has conducted put him one step ahead of his peers. He has the courage to venture out of his comfort zone. 












Four
The Papermoon puppet theater group was founded by Ria and Iwan in 2006. Ria's background as a theatrical performer and her love of the world of children and fairytales led her to the world of the puppet theater. Together with Iwan Effendi, she brought a theater that was initially branded as (just) children's theater in a different direction. That children could enjoy this kind of theater, so be it, but this did not mean that it stopped there; it could also be a “purer" medium of expression. A different kind of expression was initiated, in performances that began to address adult themes. This went on, up to about a year ago, when they successfully staged Mwathirika, a puppet theater piece based on the genocide of communist sympathizers in Indonesia in 1965. Their success in working on “adult” themes enabled the theater group to successfully get past the stereotype of puppet theater in Indonesia, as educational theater for children.

Iwan and Ria are truly inseperable from the group; as its founders, they give its performances color. Ria's ability in directing combines with Irwan's ability to give an artistic touch to the puppets and stage settings. On the occasion of this exhibition, they will take advantage of the gallery setting, which also happens to be a cafe. Judging from their last stage performance, Secangkir Kopi dari Playa (A Cup of Coffee from Playa), their capacity to respond to spaces is amazing. They transformed a warehouse full of dusty antique furniture into an imaginary space that allowed the audience to conjure exotic locales: Havana, Jakarta, and love were materialized. In the gallery space they will respond to the cafe tables as performance platforms. As in their previous works,  audience interaction will be required here. It is through audience interaction that the theatrical performance gets realized. Without efforts by the viewers to pull the strings or hold the puppets, the performance would not exist.

This exhibition at Kendra marks a new point of departure for Iwan Effendi, Ria, and Papermoon. Although they depart as a group, all of them essentially bring their own agendas to the exhibition: Iwan, with his mechanical artworks, Ria, with her dioramachronicles, and Papermoon, with its site-specific puppet theater. Let's hope that their agendas will be achieved: we, as onlookers, are the eye witnesses to this important step they take.  


Agung Kurniawan, curator and supporting artist,  31-05-2012
(Translated from the Indonesian by Sherry Kasman Entus)