Finding The “Place of Belonging” Through Exhibition at RUCI Art Space
Through globalization, humans get to experience a lot of cultures from abroad through traveling or information exchange. It gets harder to understand the actual “place of belonging” of an individual, and it needs a reflective and contemplative measure to acknowledge what makes us act a certain way. Three artists from three different countries reflect this notion through their paintings as shown at RUCI Art Space‘s latest exhibition titled “Place of Belonging”. There are artworks from Glenda Sutardy (Japan), Abenk Alter (Jakarta) and Mark Schdroski (Hong Kong) whose works have been exhibited at the art space from 8 December 2017 until 28 January 2018. Glenda Sutardy, Abenk Alter and Mark Schdroski utilize paintings as their medium of expression, in response to the information they have received consciously or unconsciously. Living in three different locations with different set of customs, cultures, and norms enable them to create an entirely different art from one another.
Abenk Alter, for example, had taken a master degree in Sufism which affects his current works greatly. His artworks were created when he saw the correlation between paintings and music. He chooses the colors of yellow that represents earth, red that represents fire, green that represents water and blue that represents air. Those colors are the manifestation of the vibration within all matter. He combines those colors with his signature line and pattern drawings, creating a balance that showcases Abenk Alter’s identity as an artist.
Mark Schdroski from Hong Kong saw paintings as a stress reliever from the hectic days in his country. Being a newcomer to the country, he found an unfamiliar surrounding within the crowd of the city. Uniquely, the artist always uses a relatively small canvas for his paintings. This represents Hong Kong’s small space of living for its inhabitants, assuming these paintings would be hung within their homes later on. The use of small canvas also allows the collectors of his paintings to recreate a bigger picture using fractions of the paintings. He uses chromatic spectrum of oil paintings, that lets him infuse joy into his artworks and it was truly a joyful experience to see his small but impactful paintings on display.
While Glenda Sutardy, who hails from Japan uses Japanese natural pigments in her grid series. She used to live in Australia before moving to Japan. Her old works in the land down under was affected by her emotional struggle, so we could see a lot of plus signs to represent her state of mind and also stars which are often found in the sky. She uses lots of dots that represents humans and all elements in universe, that are connected by a thread that represents universe itself. By moving to Japan, she uses natural pigments and she no longer paints big dots or stars as she used to. Instead, she paints a grid-like paintings that still connect smaller dots that represents Japanese lamp lights. They become a story from her own experience, symbolizing a connection to the universal grid which encompasses time from every direction. These paintings also give a blank space that lets the viewers to do their own interpretation towards the artists’ works. This was done in order to give them a chance to find their own ‘place of belonging’ on earth, on universe, and the current time they’re living. The exhibition is open everyday, so you’d better see it with your own eyes.
Photo: RUCI Art Space
Reporter: Intan Maharani/Editor: Novita Widia