Art Jakarta 2017: The rise of youthful forces

9 Aug 2017

“The work which stand out of Yavuz Gallery’s booth was Zico Albaiquni’s fascinating painting The Tomato Farmer whose incredible vibrancy was achieved by using various pigments collected from all over Europe. He explained that every natural pigment comprised angular particles, which acted as prisms when touched by light. Interestingly, painting the Tomato Farmer was his entry point for examining the devastating evictions occurring near his home. Delving deeper into the painting evoked even more interesting angles, demonstrating the intense interaction between art and solutions to social concerns.

Boedi Widjaja, also organized by Yavuz, delved deep into the psyche and the feeling of yearning in an installation comprised of 28 Indonesian male headdress pieces (peci) in the form of a flower arrangement. Modified into pinhole cameras a corresponding number of paper negative prints of press images of Indonesia’s first president Sukarno speaking at various occasions, accompanied the headdresses.

“Sukarno spoke of the peci as an emblem for Indonesian national identity — an identity I wasn’t able to tangibly grasp while growing up in Singapore,” Boedi said.”

Carla Bianpoen from The Jakarta Post rounds up the 2017 edition of Art Jakarta, highlighting artworks including Zico Albaiquni’s The Artist Studio: After the Tomato Farmer” and Boedi Widjaja’s 放下武器跟我走 (Lay down your weapon, follow me), presented by Yavuz Gallery.