MASSA KINTAMANI
Solo Exhibition by CHUSIN SETIADIKARA
March 4 - April 1, 2004
CP ARTSPACE, JAKARTA




Chusin and Kintamani Market

It is coincidence that the exhibition of Chusin Setiadikara’s latest works has been chosen as the opening exhibition at the CP Artspace Jakarta, one of the facilities owned by CP Foundation that will help the foundation to achieve its mission. The solo exhibitions of Chusin Setiadikara at the National Gallery Jakarta in February 2002, and at the CP Artspace Washington, D.C, USA, in June 2002, mark an important point in the development of CP Foundation.

There are, indeed several coincidences that came up as we decided to choose Chusin’s works as our first project in the CP Artspace Jakarta, instead of showcasing the works earlier in the CP Artspace Washington, D.C, such as Sunaryo and Entang Wiharso. However, Chusin in not merely an artist who came at the right time. His concern and dedication in the development of the Indonesian art plays a significant role in strengthening the program of the CP Foundation. It also plays an important part in our efforts to draw a policy for the programs in the CP Artspace Jakarta – Washington, D.C.

That fact alone encourages CP Foundation to hold the exhibition of Chusin Setiadikara’s works to mark the occasion of CP Artspace Jakarta’s inauguration. The CP Artspace Jakarta is an important component in the programs of the CP Foundation in carrying out the policy for the exhibitions in Jakarta – Washington, D.C.

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In his solo exhibition in 2002, Chusin Setiadikara’s works displayed the two tendencies that marked his latest development. The two tendencies could be seen in how he development two subject matters: the nude and the Kintamani market.

Althought the two subject matters showed the same strength in the exhibition, the public seemed to be more interested in the nudes. It was also the nudes that drew the attention of the art critics and became the central issue of the exhibition. Seen from the perspective of the development of Chusin’s works, his nudes indeed mirrored the basic of his artistic search.

Roughly ten years before his 2002 solo exhibition, Chusin explored two matters in the art world through the paintings whose subject matter was Balinese women. The two matters were the problem of the visual composition in expressions, and the problem of expressions through realistic portrayal. In the linear history of art, each of these two matters has a complex discourse and they are considered as two diametrically opposing matters, which are therefore impossible to reconcile in a single expressive concept.

Chusin defies the linear history of (modern) art – and his means that his works must be observed and read as contemporary art works. He is certain that the two matters can be reconciled, that they are based even on a same principle. In his 2002 solo exhibition, Chusin succeeded in proving this belief.

The success could be read in varying signs. In the solo exhibition, his realistic paintings seemed to have left behind the discourse of the realistic portrayal, a discourse that had been considered a “dead” discourse in art history due to the advent of photography. Another sign was could be seen in how Chusin’s paintings no longer showed the problem of copying reality, which had indeed been the problem of realistic paintings and photography. Instead, Chusin’s realistic painting displayed more the matter of visual sensitivity, which was undeniably the basic matter of modern art that put the emphasis on the matter of form (or visual composition).

Visually, Chusin’s works were no longer confined within the limits of realistic portrayal. He composed his realistic images with no reliance on the techniques using oil-based paints (something that could make paintings looked like photographs). In his realistic imagery, we could see the technique using charcoal, which immediately put more emphasis on sensitivity rather than depiction. Meanwhile, his realistic paintings with oil-based paints were no longer tied to realistic colors, and this, therefore, made his paintings seem not realistic.

Some of the nudes that he displayed showed the experiment of applying white on white. There was also the matter of delicate contours in these paintings, which could only be apparent after a close look at them. This clearly was a matter of sensitivity.

It was as if Chusin Setiadikara was re-questioning sensitivity. In searching for the answer, Chusin explored the art of nudes (and portrayals of models) that accidentally was his specialty for years. He happened to have no other choice.

In nude paintings, there were two discourses that had been put in opposing extremes in the theories of art history. The two discourses that would then create two different traditions are: the discourse of representing reality (one of the ways is by copying reality); and the discourse of form (beginning form the observation of the structures of human bodies). Chusin seemed to be undergoing a back-to-basic journey. By re-emphasizing sensitivity, he blurred the borders between the two discourses (or traditions), which according to the art history were diametrically in opposition.

From his exploration, Chusin came with nude paintings that offered another reading; one that said that representative works (especially realistic paintings) could not get away from the matters of forms, and that the matters and composition of forms in art works were not confined to non-representational (or abstract) works. Chusin’s nude paintings displayed meticulors representation of reality and at the same time precise composition of forms (as was apparent in the composition of illusive spaces that he called the balance of positive and negative spaces).

Chusin arrived at this point after exploring nude paintings. The relatively simple problems of nude paintings enabled him to solve the complex matter that in the art discourses was believed to be unsolvable. However, Chusin did not stop at the nudes. He took his achievenment in the nude paintings to the paintings on the Kintamani market. As a subject matter, the Kintamani market in Bali offered complex problems. It was therefore impossible to use this subject matter to solve the complex problems in art.

The exhibition of Kintamani Mass, which is the opening exhibitions of CP Artspace Jakarta, displayed the paintings of the Kintamani market that Chusin has created during the period of 2002 – 2004. By displaying specifically the paintings with this particular subject matter, we can see how Chusin apply the matter of sensitivity to understand the reality. The sensitivity forms the base on which many intentions and emphasis in Chusin’s expressions stand.

Chusin started to paint the Kintamani market in 1993. He often comes back to it ever since, as he there finds many problems that he can then develop in his paintings. In the beginning, Chusin was interested only in showing the clash of the tradition and modernization. However, in his later paintings of the Kintamani market, it is apparent that Chusin then explores many other matters-such as the social-economic problems in the market; the making of the tradition of the market; and the market’s survival energy to withstand the many pressures around it.

Every day the problems of the Kintamani market become even more complex for Chusin. The problems bring him closer to the matter of representing reality. Chusin explores more deeply into the heart of the market and observes. In a ten-years time he has made thousands of pictures of the Kintamani market.

The Kintamani market is a traditional market situated in the hills of Kintamani, Bali. The market is strategically positioned between Denpasar, the capital of Bali, and the area of Buleleng and Singaraja, which have long been known as the distribution center for agricultural and daily products. In the history of Bali, the Kintamani market is recorded as the center for the trade and economy in Bali.

The Kintamani market is forever enchanting due to its position amid a wide-open area at the top and the side of a hill. The air is cool and clear and it makes the market feels airy. The market facs north and grows southward, with a steep stairway (as is portrayed in Chusin’s painting titled Kintamani Market III) that connects the Upper Kintamani and the Lower Kintamani markets. The stairway goes upward from the foot of the hill and creates the main enchantment of the Kintamani market.

Chusin was moved to paint the Kintamani market in the early nineties when there were rumors that the Kintamani market was going to be made a “modern” market. The Balinese refused the idea. Besides from disrupting the tradition, the modernization of markets always creates myriad of problems. During the process, the market’s tents were changed without much thought. Then came the big buildings without regards to the surrounding environment. There were also changes that destroyed the infrastructure of the traditional market, which existed from the tens of years of tradition. The traders who used the big, new buildings were not the ones who were formally trading in the traditional market.

Amid the controversies, the modernization of the Kintamani market took place. Some asphalt roads were built to connect the Upper and Lower markets. Some buildings were developed in the Lower Kintamani market.

Chusin closely followed the changes. In the beginning he was interested in the physical changes: the marginalization of the traders’ tents as the trading area became smaller; the asphalt roads that replaced the stone stairway; and the changes that took place as the market area became more crowded. However, from the pictures he took, it was apparent that Chusin then became interested to record the life in the market. He went into the crowd and recorded the unchanging faces of the people as they went through they day-to-day activities in the market.

Chusin recorded the optimism and later on he realized that this positive attitude of the people there had to do with a silent act of defiance. In the ten years’ time, the definance finally took a physical form: the Upper Kintamani market moved sideward and apparently left behind the area of the Lower Kintamani market, which had been seized by the agents of modernization.

Chusin’s paintings that recorded the problems of the Kintamani market were not a social commentary. Chusin does not view the changes in the Kintamani market with a negative attitude. He simply wants to record the changes in the market. Which has proved to have a rich and complex reality.

To express this reality, Chusin applies his achievement in recognizing the sensitivity in the nudes. Visually, there seems to be a parallel development in Chusin’s paintings on Kintamani market and the nudes. Both kinds of paintings no longer use realistic language of expression in a rigid way. Both speak through the means of visual compositions, the empty spaces, the lines, and even the charcoal lines.

Through this kind of language of expression, Chusin shows the intentions based on the impressions he receives as he faces the reality of the Kintamani market. He tends not to state his opinions. This is exactly the intentional representation. This representation is based on Chusin’s belief in a dynamic balance that continually shows changes. This belief is a window to better understand the sensitivity that he explores.

The sensitivity in Chusin’s paintings cannot fully be understand through the means of Western aesthetics. Explaning the dynamic he belief in, Chusin points out to the balance concept of the Yin and Yang. “In the Chineses philosophy, there’s day and there’s night. Were there no night, there would be no days,” he says. “Many people view day and night as two opposing things and they make day and night a symbol of constrasting reality. In the Chinese philosophy, however, day and night form one dynamic entity. They are all but inseparable.”

As an artist with a Chinese cultural background Chusin’a understanding in sensitivity is influenced by the traditional Chinese paintings. Representation in the Chinese art of paintings is known as paradigmantic representation. The subject matter in this painting art is a reality that becomes a paradigm. The exploration of reality is the exploration of this subject matter in the traditional Chinese art of painting, therefore, a subject matter – a mountain, a tree, an apple, a horse, or a particular landscape – is painted repeatedly by the painter over a long period of time. The subject matter is continually repeated. Without sensitivity, the subtle differences between one painting and the other would not be apparent.

Representation according to Western philosophy is a specific observation on a particular reality. During the process, the reality is “caged” ( a line is drawm around the existence of the reality) so that it can be differentiated from other realities. The ai is to find the essence of the rality.

Chusin defies such belief as he thinks it is impossible for him to find a balance if one reality is confined and its existence is drawn between borders. “Balance cannot only be seen in relation with other realities, “he says. “In one reality there are always other realities.”

Seen form the perspective of pluralism, it is highly probably that Chusin is exploring layers of reality. In the pluralism belief, reality does not consist of just one substance. The multi-layered and multi-substanced reality is always in a flux of changes.

In the development of contemporary art, there’s a tendency to explore a matter as a lifetime project. In this tendency, one subject matter can also become a paradigm. It is probable that Chusin is also seeking such paradigm. The paradigm is not necessarily the Kintamani market. In his latest paintings, he seems not to be confined to the atmosphere of the Kintamani market as a reality – except the paintings of Kintamani Market III, which he creates as a documentation to replace the Kintamani Market I he thought as missing in the “jungle of collected paintings,”

In his latest paintings he seems to be exploring the crowd of the Kintamani market. The crowd is no longer portrayed in a realistic composition. One figure in the crowd seems to be unrelated with the other figure. The figures in this crowd resemble figures in a theatrical stage that wish toexpress something. In these paintings there are also metaphorical images. Chusin iserts nude paintings in the middle of his market paintings, not to portray nudity in the middle of the market, but to express the pressure of the domination that the Kintamani market is going through.

The tendency creates a strong impression that the paradigm of Chusin’s exploration is not the “Kintamani Market” but the “Market” itself. He seems to want to explore the dimension of the market that can resurface in any market. The market, for example, is not merely an arena to sell or buy daily necessities. The market, which in the modern world takes the form of the supermarkets, malls, or shopping centers, is the space where the public reveals their aspiration to relate with one another, to socialize.

Jim Supangkat |Curator

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