Bahasa Indonesia
These two sculptors use two different materials for their works. Joko Dwi Avianto utilizes bamboo, reminiscent of our natural world, growing as though uninfluenced by technology; while Hedi Hariyanto works with plastic bottles or soda cans, a product of our industrial world (the combination of aluminum cans and soda pop).
Both artists address the states of change at work around us. The natural world is being pushed aside by the advances of industry; while on the other hand, the industrial world continues to provide for our creature comforts.
Joko, who graduated from the Arts and Design Faculty at Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB, Bandung Technology Institute), built an elephant out of bamboo, designed to twist and turn in such a way. The elephant in Joko’s installation is a distorted elephant, to a point that it even resembles a giant grasshopper nymph with a rigidly-curved trunk. Its body is exposed, displaying a complicated-yetsystematic intertwining green bamboo. This is especially true when one looks at its torso. Meanwhile, its legs seem rigidly straight, far from the sense of an elephant that we’re used to. In the end, the straight will sustain the complicated. Together they create an outer facade that bewitches the eyes.
Bamboo is a material that has been chosen by this artist—born in Cimahi, West Java, in 1976—in a number of his previous installations, in addition to rattan, ropes, and wires. During a happening art show Apa Ini, Apa Itu [What is this, what is that] in Klungkung, Bali, 29-31 December 2009, Joko used bamboo to connect two coconut trees standing in I Wayan Sujana Suklu’s backyard. Pieces of bamboo were arranged in such a way to create a basket surrounding the two trees standing close to each other. This installation did not merely advertise strength, but also to show an amicable relationship towards nature.
On the other hand, Hedi Hariyanto, who studied at Institut Seni Indonesia (ISI , Indonesian Art Institute), Yogyakarta presents an art installation titled Menapaki Jejak (Tracing the Trails). He created a 153 x 180 cm tunnel entirely out of soda cans or mineral water plastic bottles. There are two such tunnels. The first one is 308 cm long, the other is 410 cm long. Within them is a sort of stair where visitors can trace their way through the tunnels, enjoying the magnitude of form created by the neatly organized cans—reminding us of Andy Warhol’s 100 cans. The message is quite clear. In our modern capitalist world, we are continuing or following what others have done, especially when it comes to food and drink. All of which are caused by advertisements, of course.
Hedi Heriyanto was born in Malang, 18 November 1962, and has been known as a sculptor who is very conscious of socio-cultural issues in Indonesia evident in a number of his installations, such as Where is My Mom which critiques the tendency of those mothers who preferred to nurse their child with factory-made milk rather than her own. He has achieved several important accolades as a sculptor. In 1990 he received Best Sculptor Award from his campus at ISI Yogyakarta. In 2005, he won a monument competition Kudus the City of Kretek Cigarette in Kudus, Central Java.
Photo: Salihara/Witjak
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