THINK ON THESE THINGS
The Art of Wisnu Sasongko by Prof. Jaime Lara (Yale University)
Remarks offered at the reception for the artist in the ISM Great Hall, March 31, 2005. The Wesleyan Gamelan Ensemble provided music.
There is nothing worse than trying to explain art... and I will not attempt to do so today. I would just like to call your attention to certain ways of looking, as you do what this extraordinary artist has invited us all to do: to think on these things.Art is usually thought of as a work, like the action of creation itself. The word artist, closely allied to the word artisan, implies a skill and an energy that is expressed. The art we have on display today is not only a work or an action, but it is also a meditation. It is not just the result of thought; rather it is thinking out loud itself. Such, I think, is the essence of the art of Wisnu Sasongko.First, I would suggest that you initially stand back from the paintings, but then look closely. Allow yourself at first to simply feel the effect of color and shape, before identifying the human figures, animals, or locale. By all means, do read the tags that accompany each image, because they contain the deep insights into life and human beings that only come by detaching and contemplating the human situation. Allow yourself to take in the whole image but also its individual parts. Look at the animals, notice the occasional dabs of humor; look for PacMan listening to the Teacher of Life.Then notice that the artist uses several techniques associated with twentieth century modernism: painting on canvas, painting on paper, the use of mixed media and collage, appliqué, and the thick paint technique that we call impasto. Since about the time of Vincent van Gogh, modernist artists have employed this technique. Wisnu has used a palette knife or spatula to apply thick masses of paint. Occasionally, he aggregates the paint by adding some solid material, like sand, to make the paint even more textured and three-dimensional. He also employs paint modeling; that is, sculpting the surface, carving into the still-wet paint with the palette knife. So also look at the painting from the side to appreciate the buildup of layers leaping off the canvas. On his paintings done on paper, Wisnu also uses a light wash; that is, a thin transparent layer of acrylic color as contrast and frame to the thick brushwork and the impasto technique.I cannot help comparing Wisnu's paintings to those of Vincent van Gogh (although you notice that Wisnu has both his ears intact); but they also remind me at times of the solitary and lonely paintings of Edvard Munch; at other times of the surrealism and playfulness of Marc Chagall, while also evoking that unique Indonesian art form known as batik.Their subject matter spans all the emotions and big questions of the human heart. Written into one of his painting are the words of a Javanese saying, "Create peace within the richness and abundance of nature." The paintings call us to meditate on life in its beauty and in its ugliness; they remind us to obey nature, which tries to each us lessons; they entice us to come out from behind our masks, and to make of the secular city a place, a home of peace and kinship. As one of our students commented, "It appears that all of Wisnu's works are person-centered, concerned with people who are experiencing the divine in the midst of the seemingly ordinary events of daily life." Another student observed that, "Some paintings are larger-than-life faces with lovely and inviting eyes." There is something about larger-than-life that lifts us up and lifts us out of our petty selves and makes us remember that we are part of a larger body. For those of us who are believers, it is the corporate body of Christ.Finally, other paintings raise real adult questions, questions about whether the promises of God are utopian dreams, or real possibilities for people who live in a world where tsunamis and earthquakes and religious wars are recent experiences. But it appears to me that, at their core, all of Wisnu's works are statements of faith, as well as statements of hope. They are meditations on the deep realities, the below-the-surface realities seen in the light of grace. We are thankful to the artist for calling us, by color, by shape, and by the rich textures of his impasto,to meditate on these things. Members of Wesleyan Gamelan EnsembleLeft to right: Martin Jean, Jaime Lara,Wisnu Sasongko, Jonathan Bonk, and Harold Attridge.
Tags: ars
Tags: ars
