SPACE IN-BETWEEN
Solo Exhibition by Dewa NGK Ardana
May 5 - 26, 2004
CP ARTSPACE, JAKARTA




About The Spaces In-Between

During the 2003 CP Open Biennale in the National Gallery, the four paintings of Dewa Ardana almost uniformly captured the public attention. The audience stated various comments that basically showed that they were charmed. But the paintings were actually simple, not adorned with exquisite beauty, and seemingly conveyed no messages. These paintings of Ardana’s showed a number of garlic, scattered on the canvas planes. The garlic in diverse sizes and conditions (whole, sliced, or peeled garlic, or mere skins) were painted from various angles and point of views, pasted on evenly colored planes.

None of the audience’s comments could ascertain what had been the source of enchantment of those four paintings of Ardana’s. Some comments stated that the pictures of garlic done with meticulous realistic painting techniques were the main source of the painting’s enchantments. However, these comments were generally canceled. Doubts arose as the audience observes the paintings of garlic that resembled pictures of plants in the Museum of the Bogor Botanic Garden. What was so special about them?

It is indeed difficult to pinpoint where the source of the painting’s enchantment lies, as such root of enchantment is not commonly observed and discussed about due to its intangibility. This root of enchantment can only be felt. Feelings are not generally raised to the level of consciousness.

The source of enchantment of Ardana’s paintings is in the composition of spaces; spaces that exert their presence through the room between the scattered garlic on the painting planes. The “spaces in between” are not directly brought into our consciousness as they appear as planes of uniform colors.

The “Spaces In-Between” in Ardana’s paintings are the illusive spaces that require some understanding before they can be brought into our consciousness. When we observe the paintings, the garlic in the myriad sizes, portrayed from varying point of views, create an impression of unevenness in the colored planes of his paintings. The portrayal of the scattered garlic makes the evenly colored planes to appear spacious. The impression that arises from such condition is that the garlic in Ardana’s paintings are floating in some empty spaces.

It is composition of such illusive spaces that precisely enchants us, and not the garlic strewn across the paintings planes. The garlic only serves as the “poles” that define the illusive spaces. The enchantment exists due to Ardana’s natural sensitivity in composing the illusive spaces. In his four paintings exhibited at the CP Open Biennale 2003, the strength behind Ardana’s sensitivity could not be thoroughly ascertained. The 24-year-old painter still seemed to grapple with the search for meanings and aesthetic concepts that are close to his natural sensitivity.

In the solo exhibition titled “Spaces In-Between” in the CP Artspace-Jakarta, Ardana continues on with his search. He creates a kind of installation work composed of several paintings and some three-dimensional objects that are hung in the middle of the exhibition space.

His paintings, hung on the wall of the exhibition space, do not differ widely from the four paintings exhibited in the CP Open Biennale 2003. The paintings again portray garlic in various sizes on evenly colored planes.

Although each of the paintings can stand on its own as an independent artwork, they are related to one another. These paintings, whose sizes follow the calculation of modulation and whose colors betray delicate tonal differences, are intended as components of an installation work. By using this approach, Dewa Ardana tries to enlarge the illusive space in his paintings; connecting the illusive space of each of the work.

It turns out that Ardana does not stop with the connecting of these illusive. He also tries to hook up these illusive spaces with the concrete space. Therefore, in the exhibition room, he hangs three-dimensional objects in the shape of garlic in various sizes and shapes. He wants to create an impression that the garlic scattered in the planes of his paintings “jump out” of the paintings and float in the exhibition space. The three-dimensional garlic then become the “poles” in the concrete space.

In this exhibition, Dewa Ardana takes a leap. The Balinese painter, who is still studying in the Indonesian Art Institute in Denpasar, starts to realize that spaces – which cannot be seen but can only be felt – are his idiom of expression. His effort to fuse the matter of the illusive space and the affair of the concrete space is a strong sign of such realization.

Jim Supangkat | curator

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