Kita

CEBU, Philippines - In art, Philippines and Indonesia become one again.

As a part of the first Filipino and Indonesian contemporary art intercultural exchange program, the Art Portal in Cebu in cooperation with the Montebello Villa Hotel presented the first of the three exhibitions from June 8 to 13 dubbed "Kita: The Philippine/Indonesia Art Exchange."

Five artists from Indonesia travelled to the Philippines for a 20-day visit which included visits to galleries, museums, artist's studios, and collaborative art projects and workshops. As of this writing, they are at the Exhibition Center for Contemporary Art in Manila until the 24th.

Five of our Philippine artists are also scheduled to visit Bali for 10 days during this program and will participate in similar activities. Final exhibition is set at the Gaya Fusion Art Space in Ubud, Bali from June 30 to July 7.

Contributing artists from the Philippines are Celso Pepito, Radel Paredes, Darby Vincent Alcoseba, Epifanio Atencia, and Adler Llagas. Those from Indonesia are Antonius Kho, Syahrizal Zain Koto, Ade Artie Tjakra, Wayan Linggih, and Made Somadita.

Richard Horstman, curator and consultant from Ubud, describes the mixed media works of Wayan Linggih as those that focus on the human condition. He explained that the subject's facial expressions on Linggih's works are "constructed using layers and washes of paint" and that Linggih allows the paint to run down the canvas surface to "suggest the impermanence of the experience and that all things are in a constant state of change."

"In some works," he added, "the media is rendered cloudy and opaque adding a powerful surreal element to the composition."

Linggih's subjects depict anguish and tension or quiet contemplative moods and his curiosity is directed at the truth beyond our feelings and the mysterious dualistic nature of our emotional experience.

Meanwhile, central to Antonius Kho's mixed media compositions is his adoration of the feminine form. Horstman pointed out that Kho's ideas translate onto canvases akin to mosaic patterning. His works feature backgrounds rendered in color pencil and the subjects in acrylic paint. Most interesting is that Kho utilizes cubism principles to construct the subject's face and prefers flowing curves over straight lines to soften the rigidness of the cubic portions.

As for Ade Artie Tjakra, gestures and the dynamic motion of the body provide powerful inspiration for her. Born of Chinese heritage and now living in Jakarta, she is a well-known sculptor and painter. Horstman explained that at the core of Tjakra's works, abstract art serves to allow that which is unintended or unexpected by the practitioner to become manifest.

She displays colorful, spontaneous abstract compositions whereby the artist functions as a channel for the universal creative essence. Another work of hers on paperboard entitled "Gerak 2 (Motion 2) is described to be an "explosion of expression via rapid application of media into an abstract figurative form."

Ade uses only black and white, Horstman stressed. "This is a reflection of universal polarities and the dualistic nature of the human experience."

Syahrizal Zain Koto is a renowned Indonesian sculptor. His works are described to be akin to four-dimensional images from his subconscious which have been forged by the relentless energy of the natural elements and remain as testaments to the passage of time. "The surfaces of his elongated and contorted bronze figures are polished smooth or remain textual and raw and manifest into mythical creatures that are a fusion of both man and beast," Horstman said.

Balinese painter Made Somadita has this fascination for animals. And that this has been a long and ongoing well of inspiration, says Horstman. Recently, his style has evolved from realism into semi abstract compositions.

Explanation went that "by making this transition, Made has granted himself the freedom to reinterpret his subjects into a more spontaneous fusion of imagery that also reflects upon a source that is derived from the Balinese Hindu culture.

"Within the sacred scriptures, the Hindu gods are depicted accompanied for example by tigers, elephants and cows," Horstman further said.

Made believes that humans are similar to the members of the animal kingdom and that our sub-conscious draws upon various animal archetypes to express itself.

Kita: We are one

Cebuano artist Radel Paredes, in his welcome speech during the opening of the event, mentioned how the Philippines and Indonesia have always been close neighbors and, in fact, once belonged to the same Majapahit Empire that was based in Java.

"Our forebears shared common practices, values and views based on a mix of Sanskrit, Islamic, and indigenous beliefs that predated the conquest of the Europeans. This is prevalent today in the notable similarities of our cuisine, arts and crafts, and language," he said.

Paredes noted that until now, it is still easy for Filipinos and Indonesians to learn each other's language, as Bahasa and Filipino share so many common words. He cited that the words "kami" and "kita," for instance, mean "us" and "we," respectively in both Bahasa and Filipino.

"No other word is thus more fitting to suggest our common racial origins than the word kita. In Filipino, kita also means "to see" or "to meet" thus implying both the claim on common identity and the act of seeing and meeting," Paredes further emphasized.

In Filipino, kita-kita means to be constantly seeing or in touch with each other and that it implies continuing interaction or a meeting of minds.

According to Paredes, the act of seeing is implied in the visual arts which also require a kind of communication between the artist and the viewer. "Not requiring literacy, the visual language is, of course, a more universal language. In its barest form, art thus invokes a kind of immediate understanding that breaks the barriers of culture."

Thus, the word "kita" was chosen as a title for the rare occasion of an actual interaction through contemporary art between the Indon and Filipino artists.

The word embodies the meeting of minds and the solidarity of artists from two nations that used to be one.