Kinetic art is usually associated with art involving movement but has rarely been associated with work made by Indonesian artists.

The Kinetic Art Exhibition titled “Motion/Sensation” organized by Edwin’s Gallery at the Jakarta Art District in Grand Indonesia reveals that Indonesian artists have been making kinetic art long before the term became an understanding in art creation.

Heri Dono, for instance, is known for the low-tech devices that he uses to attract viewers to his art installations. By the early 1980s when he thought painting was finished, Heri Dono — who had immersed himself in scientific reading about Gestaltung, design, form and Newton’s gravitational theory — began something that took him out of his lethargy; he made Aquarium with moving elements splashing in water “to heighten a sense of sensation”, he said.

Since then, motion through low-tech devices has appeared in almost all of his 3-D works and installations. His installation Flying Angels, with flapping wings generated by low-tech devices, has been shown in many parts of the world. The current show’s installation, Watching the Marginal People, which was made in 2000, features heads of monstrous creatures with moving beaks and sounds emerging from a transistor.

Kinetic Octora, Laura in Paradise. JP/Carla Bianpoen

Handiwirman, for example, shows an interactive sewing machine with a sculpture of a woman’s head beside it. When you turn the handle of the sewing machine very fast, tears come out of the sculpture’s eyes. “Why the tears?” I asked the artist. “Ngga tega [I feel sorry]”, he said.

Bagus Pandega’s Autism Spectrum is given a special dark space where it invites one to use the mike and shout. Immediately, the connected gramophone starts playing, the light ball erupts into a colored flicker and one can tap dance to the rhythm of a tone. This is a reflection of how technological advances have led to human’s self-gratification, an indulgence that has no need for living communication.

Rudi Hendriatno’s beautifully crafted Wood Engine must be manually generated. Others are just to look at.

Octora, an artist who engages with the female in her works, is represented with a wooden doll’s sculpture titled Laura in Paradise, putting the accent on a red silicone heart whose pumping heartbeat is made visual. She said at some point she realized how complicated life was, and being a doll or a puppet would make life easier. Yet, there are times that one must act like a human being, and that’s where the heart comes into play, she said.

Yani Mariani’s Soulmate sculpture, featuring two giant balls made of steel plates with little birds on top, starts trembling when a switch is pushed, and may be a metaphor for a partnership in which what happens to one affects the other.

Hardiman Rajab’s use of suitcases as a metaphor is also apparent in this show. NATO (No Action Talk Only) is the title of the suitcase with lids featuring a mouth with a row of teeth that moves up and down.

Edwin Rahardjo, the owner of the 25-year-old Edwin’s Gallery, makes his entry as an artist with a work titled Floating Fleets, featuring an installation of six winged objects made of a mix of aluminum durl, carbon fiber, metal and a generating motor; it is a work to send one’s imagination meandering. Edwin said it is up to the viewer’s imagination to decide what the work features. It could be a fleet of planes, or angels flapping their wings and flying in the heavens or dragonflies roaming in nature.

But is everything moving kinetically? And what about the video? Why is Mella Jaarsma’s video titled Square Body in this kinetic show?

Curator Agung Jennonghujanikka explained that not everything moving is a kinetic piece of art.
A train, for instance, has nothing to do with kinetic art.  As for Mella’s video, it is in fact a documentation of the performance, presented in the show titled “Beyond the Dutch” at the Utrecht Centraal Museum in 2009 and 2010. What is important is the moving of the actual dress in slow motion mimicking the Javanese bedoyo dance, the shadows playing a role like in wayang. Agung said Mella’s work is unique in its linking the kinetic with performance, theater (the shadow play) and dance (the slow motion of the bedoyo).

The exhibition, which also includes works by Agus Suwage, Deden Sambas, Jompet Kuswidnanto, Septin Harriyoga, Wiyoga Muhardanto and Yuli Prayitno, provides a new perspective on Indonesian artistic practice, indicating a trend that visibly deviates from the early kinetic art created in the West.

And, it is a lot of fun.

‘Motion/sensation’
Indonesian Kinetic Art Exhibition
until August 21, 2011
at Jakarta Art District
Grand Indonesia East Mall, LG
(ex Harvey Nichols space)
Jakarta

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/08/13/‘motionsensation’-an-exhibition-kinetic-art.html