Conquering Pasar Seni Ancol
I am happy with my long day today. Surprisingly, it was not tiring although we spent almost SIX hours outdoor in Pasar Seni Ancol! I started at 8:15 and got home at 17:00.
I organized the visit. I wondered how many ladies would show up (only got five RSVPs, expected some last minute-rs). At 10:00, I got eight ladies. That was superb considering an hour in toll road plus macet here n there plus possible heat ahead. Oh so happy to start the tour ON time (in fact 20 minutes ahead the schedule).
Rita and I had selected artists who had strong character or unique technique. I reviewed to narrow down the list and made appointment to meet the eight artists:
- One is calligrapher: not just Arabic, but ‘writing art’ as well, multi-media.
- Two do cubism and surrealism: creative composition, not my taste, too depressing because of the political message was too strong.
- One is specialized in painting deep sea coral: fresh idea, lighting was nicely done but it looked artificial, we liked the first stage before fish and coral filled the canvas ha ha..
- One who likes to paint in big canvas: city landscape, heavy message, elephants, rasta hair, had funky family, did demo in twenty minutes.
- One does wood-cut print painting: complicated work that needs good imagination because of working in reversed and skillful hands.
- One does three-dimensional ceramic: three-dimensional full bus / train, Noah’s Ark, also did aquarel sketches.
- One does realism: not so good but interesting, again – political message was too strong.
And two extras:
- One is wood sculptor: also with a ‘statement’ which was strong, nice style with rough chop to create texture and the ‘rough mood’, good looking guy from Surabaya
- One who does Makroni-macrame rope art: definitely unique, lots of painful work, totally different.
It was funny. To finish the tour before lunch time, I calculated the meeting per artist = less than fifteen minutes. We did very well. We finished four artists in an hour, as we only had four to go, we took our time. We asked the fourth (the big canvas guy) to give us demo to show his movement. He said he could finish a big painting in four hours. It was perfect. He had bigger studio in shady surrounding and classical music blasting from his tiny radio (unusual for Indonesian artist to listen to such). We all sat on a very low bamboo chairs and bench watching him doing the demo. He painted elephants from a photo. He started with sketching, then putting colors all over canvas; it was hard to see where the elephants were. After fifteen minutes, ladies were chattering. Short span of attention. But BANG! I lost the moment to take picture when he ended his show by throwing his brush. What a show! We were gasping to see the big elephant was just sitting there in front of us. Huge elephant and lil one (which he sells for USD 1000).
Still we had time before lunch, so we went to see the wood-cut print artist. We spent longer time there to watch how he did the printing. Another amazing work cos he worked with mirror image (reversed) to make the negative for the print. He treated the carving tools like a pencil – looked so easy to make lines. He was the only artist who spoke English well. He lived in Belitung. We booked him for a three-hour workshop in May. Should be funnn!
Makan nasi padang was the next. That was the only edible acceptable food around ha ha.. Good that everybody agreed. No one thought about pedas! That was good! And do not ask how many plates seven ladies could finish. Two of rendang. Two of ayam goreng. Three of daun singkong! And combination of telur, ikan, dendeng, and sambal hijau!!
USD 3.5 / pax.
We walked slower after big lunch ha ha. I had to say no for ladies who asked for ice cream. Like escorting school girls, had to discipline them ha ha.. I chose an interesting artist to visit first. The “bus” ceramist. He was a funky aged artist. It reminded me of family from Papa side. He was not young but his work showed his youth. He liked to make bus or any moda of transportation which was full of people sticking out the windows. He said that that was the best way to portray developing countries. Clever. NIE decided to buy the blue – white Noah’s Ark with a light kick from me ha ha.
In five hours, we learned that:
- to be able to have a studio in Pasar Seni, an artist is selected by a team of curators and monitored closely within six months. If he does not do well, he will be kicked out. Some artists are like having a permanent studio; after being there for 15 – 30 years. New young upcoming artists come and go. They only pay for electricity; nothing else because of government subsidy and no commission for the administration. We think it is a good arrangement for housing potential artists.
- to be an established artist, they do not have to go to school. Some are self-taught.
- an artist – who works on either two- or three-dimensional art can do well in making ALL: sketch, paints, sculpture, installation,.. So interesting that the creativity can be expressed in many ways once you work in the art world.
- an artwork can ‘change’ (like ‘husband’ BIR said). I debated for awhile until BIR said “..we change the way we see it” and again she said the same with ‘husband’. We change. Nor the artwork. Nor the husband.
We talked shortly to three other artists including Mr Makroni, the funky rope man, before home. I must say that we all enjoyed the visit although everybody looked so tired and longed for having good ‘branded’ coffee. We just dispersed, not knowing when to meet again. Easter is coming. Everybody would be away on holiday. We just said everything with same ending.. in May!
MH:
#41 be more active
#62 smile more
#73 do more for others
Note: Photos of artists in Pasar Seni Ancol.