Witness the Self-Evident: Budi Agung Kuswara at Komaneka Gallery
Who hung this show? I forgot to ask during the opening last Saturday at Komaneka Gallery. What was extraordinary to me, and what begged the question about who hung this show, was the spontaneous emergence of a narrative, revealed in the sequence of images considered in turn while circulating clockwise (as one often does) around the gallery space.
Beginning with a full frontal floating self portrait (detail above) that almost knocks you backwards down the stairs as you enter the space, and returning to it again after a clockwise circuit, a story unfolds. The artist earnestly explains that he did not intend any sequential relationship of the works as they were hung. Yet a story tells itself, as if it had an independent will to make itself evident.
Pretty Viscera: Davina Stephens at Ganesha Gallery
Something profound happened at the opening reception for Davina Stephens’ exhibition entitled “This Side of Paradise” (Ganesha Gallery, Four Seasons Resort Jimbaran, 18 December). What happened is perhaps best voiced by considering the contrasts in Davina’s most recent work. On the one hand these are images that could be, and have been, called soft, sentimental and decorative. On the other, they expose dark and visceral themes that are deeply disturbing.
Update on the “Ugo-Filippo Show”
Finally, here are photos from the Ugo Untoro/Filippo Sciascia vernissage at Biasa Artspace (which I posted about a couple weeks ago). Your patience has been rewarded. Sorry, no photos of Ugo. He’s kind of shy.
The tense reciprocity of Ugo and Filippo’s collaborative works is visually arresting, and crackles with static electricity. Viewers were transfixed.
Filippo expresses himself eloquently . . . on canvas, in words, and in gestures, as well.
Susanna Perini, found of Biasa Artspace and Biasa fashion house, with members of the Biasa team. She has supported and cultivated the talents of innumerable young Indonesians over the years, and imbued the whole Biasa world with an ebullient esprit de corps.
That’s Yours Truly, and Bruno, on the left. Just had to put this one in.
