TIARMA
DAME RUTH SIRAIT
Tiarma
D.R Sirait have been actively involved in many events--fashion shows, traditional-textile
developments, or contemporary art exhibitions--in Indonesia and abroad. As a fashion
designer, Tiarma creates works that do not show the mainstream tendency in the
fashion industry or in haute couture. She prefers to create dresses and clothes
that are more personal and whose use will be limited--for example in band or theatrical
performances, or in parties. Some of her designs have a specific theme, connected
with an issue or with some youthful lifestyles. Sometimes she puts the themes
forward in a sarcastic way.
The use of various fibers and many synthetic elements
is dominant in her works and defies the conventional wisdom in the fashion industry.
In her 1999 WEARABLE shows in Yogyakarta and Ubud, Bali, Tiarma displayed her
kinky and sensual lines, worn on the opening night by young female models. The
irony shown in the particular lines revealed a gender problem, where women are
eternally situated under the male gaze, the male libidinal urges, and the commodification
of the global industry.
Through
her works, Tiarma tries to touch everyone's heart and at the same time questions
the conventional norms, so that everything that results from this artistic strategy
becomes highly provocative. Take, for example, the works in her 2001 exhibition
in Bandung, where she displayed her three-dimensional designs. By using tapestry,
carpets, and other interior elements, Tiarma reconstructed the meanings of the
matters into forms of metaphors. She thus transformed these interior elements
into a playful language, moving around in the realms of collective memories of
the industrial age, providing fictional surprises just like in a world of fantasy,
in cartoon strips, or in games.
In
Synthetic Love, Tiarma told of love whose essence could no longer be found nowadays1.
“Love” is put in the metaphors of brightly colored dresses, corsets,
gloves, handbags, and hats, using signs from artificial and synthetic matters
such as plastic and nylons. The design reminded us more of the imaginative world
of today's children. As a whole, Tiarma's works have so far been a reflection
of the contemporary art world, where the lines dividing “art” and other
forms of visual artistic endeavors--e.g. fashion--are disappearing.
Rifky
Effendi
Born
on October 14, 1968 in Bandung
Studied at Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB),
Bandung (BFA ; 1994), Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), Australia
(1997)
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITION
2001 Kedai Kebun Gallery, Yogyakarta
SELECTED
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
1999 “ANTIRAPE”, Yogyakarta and Ubud, Bali
“VIETNAM
ROSE”, Contemporary Batik, Ipoh Arts Festival IV ’99, Malaysia
2001
“Message of Medium” (Contemporary Art Craft Exhibition), Bandung Art
Event (BAE), Bandung
2001- 2002 “26 Women Artists”, JakArt@2001,
Bentara Budaya Art Centre, Jakarta
2002 5 Fiber Art Artists, Lontar Gallery,
Jakarta
“Rhizoma Exhibition”, British Council, Jakarta
“TALI
IKAT : FIBER CONNECTIONS”, Culture Centre, Yogyakarta
GLOBAL
VS LOCAL
Big
power such as a global, established power is strong enough to grow bigger to be
even more powerful and dominating while the little people amidst their struggle
to survive could only manage to produce local products. Their efforts to adapt
global products are not successful enough; their products ended up as some kind
of museum artifacts to be stored and enjoyed as part of a memory... Could global
producers let small producers to develop their existing products without suing
them to the court? They, after all, are only scraping for tidbits from the big
power who
is getting stronger and bigger every day.
1
Hour Local Meets Local Performances
Global
VS Local Installation
HAVANA
BIENNALE
8th
Havana Biennial from 1th. November- 1th. December 2003
Havana
is today one of the important capitals in the contemporary art world with an 8th
Biennial just concluded. With its last edition in November and December 2003,
the Biennial attracted thousands of international curators and museum groups,
suggesting the new mainstream streak mix in Cuban culture and art. Havana has
just inaugurated a first world New Museum of Fine Arts, which features Colonial,
Modern and Contemporary Art. Artists from the Generations of the 80s and 90s are
well represented.
The
8th Havana Biennial was held from November 1 through December 1 of 2003 with the
participation of approximately 150 artists from Latin America, the Caribbean,
Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Europe, Australia, Canada and the United States,
who will show their works in different spaces, galleries and institutions of the
city. Under the motto Art with Life, the 8th Biennial exhibited a group of works
of those artists related to the multiple forms of life of our peoples that comprise
proposals in defense of a critical and reflexive perspective of the daily or immediate
reality, passionately exalt all forms of beauty or transit through irony or humor,
and openly or by means of subtleness expose the wide spectrum of problems that
affect us day after day in our nations and in our relations with the rest of the
world.
As
in previous editions, Cuban contemporary art was represented in all city galleries.
At the same time, among the special exhibitions and projects there was a Festival
of Performances, the exhibitions SIDAIDS, Forms of inventing oneself a smile,
SENSACIONAL, of Mexican design (popular urban iconography), a solo exhibition
of the works of Marcos Kurtycz and a communal project organized by Cuban artists
Roberto Diago, Manuel Mendive and Eduardo Roca (Choco).
The
Biennial welcomed artists, critics, historians, collectors, experts and personalities
from different countries, who enjoyed the possibility of discussing in the Art-Life
Forum topics related with art and daily life, the biennial, curators, new forms
of art exhibition and cyber-art, among others.
The
venues of the Biennial comprised the Morro-Cabaña Historical-Military Park,
the National Museum of Fine Arts, Casa de las Américas, Pabellón
Cuba and Wifredo Lam Contemporary Art Center, among other cultural institutions
and spaces of the city.
Hilda
María Rodríguez, director of the Biennial and the Lam Center, commented
that the this festival of art was convened in the spirit of Arts with Life, "
to facilitate reflections on daily life, its conflicts and good times, problems
and sketches of our cities," and the role of art in the spaces of coexistence.
She
also noted that the link with peoples, with different sectors, attempts to "establish
potential bridges of conciliation and to call attention to physical and social
aspects of our urban scenarios."
In
that content the Espacios (Space) project in the Alamar district developed by
artists from Brazil, the United States, Guatemala, the Ivory Coast, Colombia,
Chile, Mexico and Cuba, and the Isaroko design in La California tenement block
by Cubans Roberto Diago, Eduardo Roca and Manuel Mendive are particularly notable.
Meanwhile
in the Pabellón Cuba the group RAIN, founded in Los Angeles in 2000 and
composed of artists, architects and curators, is imposing its own contribution:
the physical transformation of a specific space, thanks to the intervention of
the artists, who are "obliged" to do their work in line with the conditions
created. RAIN has previously visited various cities and now the "Pabellón
Cuba is once again under construction."
As
Hilda María Rodríguez says, given that "the Biennial's plural
nature is a kind of sine qua non condition," performance art once again has
an outstanding place in this 8th edition, not only works done by individual artists,
but through the art performances' `Encounter' (known as Black Market International)
led by Le Lieu Center of Actual Art from Quebec with the Lam Center.
Although
the Biennial director acknowledged that the sudden withdrawal of funds by European
foundations affected, principally, an Asian and African presence (evidently due
to the distance), artists from Egypt, India, South Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe,
Senegal, Nigeria, Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, Benin, the Ivory Coast
and China have all arrived in Havana.
In
spite of its governments, Europe has its presence (from Germany, Finland, Malta,
Italy, France, Spain, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Austria).
And
the Latin Americans and Caribbean artists are here in force (Mexico, Ecuador,
Brazil, Martinique, Colombia, Chile, Argentina, Guatemala, Peru, Venezuela, Puerto
Rico, Uruguay, Paraguay, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Panama).
Cuba
is represented by 18 artists at the Biennial, the Enema Collective and the Departamento
de Intervenciones Públicas, but the pulse of contemporary art on the island
can also be taken in 53 personal exhibitions and 47 collective ones.
Context
and Scenario of the Biennial
The
city of Havana has been the ideal frame to go deeper into the improvement of the
relationship among citizens, between the citizen and his habitat and to promote
reflection on the integration of the artistic fact into life in a certain specific
space. On the other hand, the city, especially the historic area, has all the
conditions for designing cultural actions that stimulate the participation of
the population in the community as another way of making ever more real the integration
of man in its cultural, technical and social expressions.
It
is important the participation of the public and of the institutions that form
the present urban grid, among which, of course, mention should be made of those
devoted to art. The Havana Biennial aimed at involving a larger network of old
spaces and new spaces aimed at modifying its traditional structure of communication
and exhibition.
An
important role in this objective was played by the artists themselves, who were
agents and promoters of exchange through their individual works or through other
projects, involved in the development of the city and the individual. Thus, their
contribution to the improvement of the visual environment and the possibility
of influencing their habitat paved the way for practices that would erase traditional
borders between art and life.
Havana's
Walls: A Fragment of History in Cuba's Capital
The
Cuban capital, formerly known as the village of San Cristóbal de La Habana,
owes its situation to the strategic location that Cuba's condition as the key
to the gulf represented for Spain, in addition to its port, characterized by its
narrow entrance and deep waters, a safe haven for ships with a deep draft.
This
strategic location turned the village into a necessary stopover for ships carrying
the riches of the new world to the old continent.
The
greed of corsairs and pirates led the Spanish Crown to organize the so-called
fleets to create a better defense from their attacks. This also forced the filibusters
to change their strategies and bet on capturing the city.
As
a response to threats against the village, the Spanish government decreed the
fortification of the city with true works of military engineering, including the
fortresses of La Punta, El Morro and La Cabaña, as well as the towers of
La Chorrera and San Lázaro.
However,
due to the city's vulnerability from land, the Spanish Crown decided in the late
16th century to build walls around San Cristóbal de La Habana.
According
to historians, the initial variant included the construction of stone walls with
economic support from Madrid, but that idea was soon forgotten due to bureaucratic
procedures and Spain claiming lack of funds to carry out such works.
A
second proposal consisted of building wooden walls, but the construction was soon
abandoned, because they were too weak to protect the city.
A
third proposal, consisting of building a moat around the city, was aimed at giving
the village a setting that resembled that of medieval castles. However, this project
was never executed.
Finally,
under the mandate of Governor Francisco Rodríguez de Ledesma, a fourth
project and the necessary budget were approved to build the walls around the city,
using stones as the main material.
Thus,
the construction of the much-expected walls began in 1674. The works were initially
planned for a three-year period; however, they lasted over six decades, since
they were completed in 1740.
At
that time, the walls became a characteristic element of the village's setting.
Nine gates gave access to the city, being those of La Punta, Reina Street and
the so-called La Muralla the most famous entrances.
However,
the walls played their role for only 123 years, since demolition began in 1863,
as the city began to expand beyond their limits. The urbanization of the area
outside the walls developed so fast that it grew larger than the area inside the
fortification.
The
new areas not only held the city's suburbs, but also major avenues, commercial
districts and such works as the Aldama Palace, the Prado Promenade and the Tacón
Theater, among others.
For
present-day dwellers, only disperse remnants of the walls can be seen in the old
part of the Cuban capital. They, along with the "9 o'clock cannonshot"
- a signal to close the gates of the walls in colonial times -, remind us of the
monumental fortification built around the city to repel the attacks of corsairs
and pirates.
The
heart of the ancient city is in the so-called Plaza de Armas, or Arms Square,
whose location is linked to the tradition of the first mass, held on November
16 under a big ceiba tree very close to the coast, a ceremony that has survived
the passage of time.The former San Cristóbal de La Habana was also known
as the Fortress City of the West Indies and the Key to the New World. Its historic
heart was designated Humankind's Heritage by the United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
El
Templete, a small neoclassic building finished inn 1828, is the place where the
inhabitants of Havana celebrate, every November 16, the anniversary of the first
mass and the first town council of San Cristobal de la Habana, and is also the
start point of all tourism tours -in general- around the original center the Cuban
Capital.
Cuba's
smallest province, covering an area of 727 square kilometers, is also the country's
most populated territory, with more than two million people, in addition to being
one of the major destinations visited by thousands of vacationers who travel to
the Island every year.
The
capital's leisure industry is backed up by a broad hotel and service infrastructure,
with over 10,000 rooms and potentialities for almost all tourist modalities, including
business travels, cultural tourism, incentive tours and meetings.
Havana,
a blend of different architectural styles, including the Renaissance, art deco,
Mudejar( Spanish-Islamic style), baroque, neoclassicism, eclecticism, art nouveau
and Cuban baroque, is also the center of the country's cultural life.
Some
30 museums, 10 art galleries, 25 theaters, and unique institutions such as the
National Ballet of Cuba and Casa de las Americas, support that position. Havana
is also the venue of numerous international festivals of cinema, dance, plastic
arts and literature, among other artistic manifestations.
For
those who are just interested in Cuban traditional rhythms, including son, danzon,
bolero and cha cha cha, the city is home to such sites as Macumba, Habana Café
and Pico Blanco, as well as renowned nightclubs such as Copa Room, Parisién
and the world-famous Tropicana, with its Salon under the Stars.
Congresses
and events on the most varied topics are held in facilities in this centuries-old
city, where more establishments have opened their doors to the so-called business
tourism, an evidence of the growing interest in commercial transactions with Cuba
that foreign entrepreneurs have expressed.
Havana
is one of the most beautiful and architecturally diverse cities in the world.
Its architecture mirrors its rich social and political history from the graceful
colonial and baroque period to modern brutal tower blocks.
Most
examples of early architecture can be seen in military fortifications such as
La Fortaleza de San Carlos de la Cabana (1558 - 1577) designed by Juan Antonelli
and the Castillo del Morro (1589 - 1630). This sits at the entrance of Havana
Bay and provides an insight into the supremacy and wealth at that time.Old Havana
was also protected by a defensive wall begun in 1674 but had already overgrown
its boundaries when it was completed in 1767, becoming the new neighbourhood of
Centro Habana.
The
influence from different styles and cultures can be seen in Havana's colonial
architecture, with a diverse range of Moorish, Spanish, Italian, Greek and Roman.
The Convento de Santa Clara (1638 - 18th Century) is a good example of early Spanish
influenced architecture. Its great hall looks resembles an inverted ship and shows
the skill of early craftsmen.
The
Cathedral (1748 -1777) dominating the Plaza de la Caterdral (1749) is the best
example of Cuban Baroque. Surrounding it are the Condes de Casa-Bayona (1720 -1746)
Marqueses de Arcos (1746) and the Marquesas de Aguas Claras (1751 -1775).
There
is much more that could be said of Havana, an enviable destination, and a demonstration
of the main pivot of a country that has chosen to place some of its future in
the tourism industry.
CERUTU
TIARMA DAN LUDAH UNTUK IWAN
Written
by Hendro Wiyanto:
Cerutu Tiarma dan Ludah untuk Iwan
Karya
dua perupa kontemporer Indonesia tampil mengikuti Havana Biennial ke-8 di Cuba
yang berlangsung hingga Desember 2003 silam. Kedua perupa itu, Tiarma Dame Ruth
Sirait (35) dan Iwan Wijono (32) selama ini dikenal sebagai perupa-perupa muda
yang giat berpameran dengan medium-medium baru seperti seni instalasi dan pertunjukan.
Tiarma,
perupa lulusan Institut Teknologi Bandung (1994) dan Royal Melbourne Institute
of Technology, Australia (1997) belakangan juga dikenal sebagai perancang mode
yang orisinal. Perupa ini mengembangkan karya-karya instalasinya yang provokatif
dengan memetik gagasan visualnya dari ranah fantasi maupun gemerlap dunia couture
(adibusana) yang dipahaminya. Dalam karya-karya seni rupa kontemporernya, Tiarma
mengaitkan tema dan citra gubahan busana kontemporernya dengan pendekatan yang
sangat personal serta kritikal. Barangkali karyanya layak disebut sebagai sebuah
fashion statement.. Opininya sebagai perupa selalu muncul melalui elemen-elemen
visual yang digarapnya dengan cermat, sejak dari pemilihan bahan hingga pencampuran
warna-warni sintetiknya. Persilangan antara gagasan seni rupa dan wacana couture
yang selalu ditafsirkannya kembali melahirkan fantasi dan permainan baru perihal
khasanah dunia model.
Pada
Havana Biennial yang tahun ini memberi perhatian istimewa bagi karya-karya pertunjukan,
Tiarma mengajukan tema "Global vs Local" (2003). Gagasan karya ini berkembang
ke dalam bentuk karya seni rupa instalasi dan (video) pertunjukan. Pada karya
instalasinya, Tiarma menciptakan rangkaian 56 boks ramping dengan pintu-pintu
kaca untuk mewadahi 28 model boneka dengan dandanan lokal. Dua puluh delapan model
yang lain mengenakan busana moderen dan aksesoris yang dapat ditafsirkan sebagai
aikon-aikon yang menyerbu dari ranah budaya global.
Dandanan
tradisional tampak rumit dengan berbagai pernik hiasan mulai dari kerudung kepala
sampai ujung busana, suatu pemandangan yang tampak mengasumsikan kekayaan muatan
lokal yang menggairahkan: "passion for difference". Boneka-boneka globalnya
didandani dengan rambut panjang berwarna pirang, menggunakan rok mini yang ketat
atau busana panjang terusan tanpa kerut atau lelipit seraya dilengkapi dengan
berbagai simbol budaya moderen-kapitalistik. Ketimbang sosok lokal, boneka-boneka
"global"nya cenderung memamerkan sosok twiggy mereka. Kecenderungan
menggunakan one sex model berupa boneka-boneka perempuan dalam karya Tiarma tentunya
melahirkan tafsir gender, namun Tiarma membungkusnya dengan rapi.
Pada
karya video pertunjukannya yang diberi tajuk "Local Meets Local" (2003),
Tiarma merias dirinya dalam pakaian adat pengantin tradisional Sumatera Barat,
duduk di atas singgasana seraya mengisap "Dos Hermanos", merek cerutu
terkenal di Cuba yang ternyata sudah diproduksi secara lokal di Indonesia. Sepanjang
lebih kurang selama 3,5 menit pertunjukan ini, Tiarma dengan lahap menyantap berbagai
jenis makanan tradisional Cuba diselingi oleh adegan mengisap cerutu sebesar jempol
itu.
Karya
pertunjukan Iwan Wijono sepanjang lebih kurang 10 menit bertajuk "The Rootles
Man" (2002). Karya yang pernah dipentaskan dalam Toronto International Performance
Festival (November 2002) ini ditampilkan dalam bentuk video di Havana Biennial.
Iwan
menggambarkan manusia yang berjalan hilir mudik tanpa arah di antara dua alat
permainan: sebuah kendaraan militer yang menghelanya dari arah depan dan truk
kosong di belakang yang mengikutinya ke mana pergi. Bagian ini disudahi oleh pesan
reflektif tentang modernitas yang menurut Iwan mengasingkan manusia dari tanah
yang telah menyediakan kehidupan bagi mereka. Iwan mengajak sebagian penonton
duduk khidmat bersila di sekitarnya seraya memejamkan mata untuk mendengar khotbahnya
perihal paradoks modernitas.
Bagian
akhir pertunjukannya diisi oleh adegan sang aktor bertelanjang dada, menyilahkan
para penonton untuk meludahi tubuhnya serta melabur wajahnya dengan tanah yang
sudah siap dalam genggaman tangan mereka. Tanah dan ludah bercampur di wajah manusia
gelandangan yang ironisnya, tampak berbahagia.
Iwan
Wijono, belajar seni rupa di Institut Seni Indonesia, Yogyakarta (1992-'97) adalah
penampil yang aktif mengikuti berbagai festival seni rupa pertunjukan seperti
NIPAF (Jepang, 1999), Asiatopia (Bangkok, 1999), dan Novena Muestra International
de performance (Mexico City, 2000).
Tema
Havana Biennial 2003 adalah "Art with Life', diikuti oleh sekitar 150 seniman
dari berbagai negara Amerika Latin, Karibia, Afrika, Timur Tengah, Asia, Eropa,
Australia, Kanada dan Amerika Serikat. Para perupa Indonesia yang pernah diundang
untuk acara ini adalah Agus Suwage, Andar Manik, Marintan Sirait dan Krisna Murti
pada1999 silam.
Mengutip
Hilda MarÌa RodrÌguez, Direktur Havana Biennial, tema bienal mencerminkan
upaya untuk memuluskan refleksi perihal kehidupan sehari-hari yang sarat oleh
konflik sekaligus kebajikannya sendiri. Dalam kaitannya dengan tema itu, pluralisme
di dalam seni rupa merupakan sebuah conditio sine qua non..
Demikianlah
kita menyaksikan para perupa kontemporer kita kian menampakkan gagasan pluralisme
itu: persilangan seni rupa dengan wacana-wacana di luarnya seperti arsitektur,
musik, fashion sampai perkembangan dunia digital. Tentunya, pergulatan para perupa
kita dengan media-media baru seni rupa tentunya tak cuma untuk memenuhi kuota
forum-forum internasional. +++ (Hendro Wiyanto)
