[Indonesian_open] FW: Indonesian Art Exhibition in Sydney

[Wittman, Leonie]

Teman-teman yang baik
Sydney-based people may be interested in the following.

Leonie


-----Original Message-----
From: KJRI Sydney [mailto:infokjri at gmail.com] 
Sent: Monday, 18 February 2008 10:18 AM
To: KJRI Sydney
Subject: Indonesian Art Exhibition in Sydney

Jumaadi at Legge Gallery - All Welcome.

Sydney based Indonesian artist Jumaadi has created a series of
enigmatic new work he calls Story from Cloud, Rain & Sky, a narrative
devoted to places and experiences he would have liked to share with
his father. The work will be on display at Legge Gallery, 183 Regent
Street, Redfern, from 26 Feb - 15 March. Opening 6-8pm Tuesday 26
February.

Jumaadi was awarded the Inaugural John Coburn Award for Emerging
Artists as part of the 56th Blake Prize for Religious Art. For the
judges, Jumaadi's work was "like a broken-up and laid out manuscript.
Evoking the multiplicity of experiences and giving vignettes in the
confusing lives of its actors, it references much in art as it does in
life which causes one to pause, consider, and yet enjoy its street
-wise comic -book illustrations, as well as its deft intelligence.
Viewing this work, like judging the Blake prize itself, was like
sitting in a gallery of restless stories." Blake Prize 2007

 "It is rare for an artist to combine depth and charm in the way that
Jumaadi does, and rarer for this combination to work so well for
audiences from two cultures as different as Indonesia and Australia.
Jumaadi's work draws on the mythological and the modern everyday. His
images are very Javanese and very much universal. His figures are
easily recognisable and yet have an elusive mystic quality.

Jumaadi achieves his balance of contradictory forces because he works
in Australia within a strong tradition of modern Indonesian art. There
are a number of other Indonesian artists with whom his work shares
some qualities: artists such as Hendra Gunawan, Djoko Pekik and Heri
Dono. Like them Jumaadi draws on immense reserves of what might be
called 'folk art', the cultural objects from theatre, harvest rituals
and daily life that pervade the country-side of Java. Like these other
artists there is a humour and a power for humanity that does not need
language to communicate, although like other Indonesian artists
Jumaadi recognises the power of the word in art.

Unlike many of his predecessors and contemporaries in the Indonesian
art world, Jumaadi does not feel the need to comment on passing
political moments. Rather he seeks to address bigger issues of how we
exist in the world, and how we make contact with others. That is why
Jumaadi's work is very much a product of living in Australia, a
product of a deep need to make contact, to create a dialogue about our
common humanity. There are elements in his paintings that are alien to
Australian experience: we don't live under volcanoes, or crowd onto
buses like Indonesians do. But we do love, and strive to keep up, or
cross the gap, like Jumaadi's man holding a tree. And sometimes we too
may make contact with angels."

Adrian Vickers
Professor of Southeast Asian Studies
The University of Sydney

Works can be viewed at www.leggegallery.com or
www.jumaadi.blogspot.com or contact Jumaadi on 0413 681 027 or email
jumaadi at hotmail.com

-- 
Information Section
Consulate General of the Republic of Indonesia
236 Maroubra Road
Maroubra NSW 2035
Tel. (61 2) 9344 9933