First appeared in GARUDA INDONESIA Inflight Magazine, July 2002.
Submitted to Javafred by the author.

Against the Stream

by Carla Bianpoen

Challenging the current mainstream in the arts, Chusin Setiadikara heralds a new direction for realism in the years to come.

Realism in the meaning of the portrayal of things as they are seen without embellishment or interpretation started in Europe and expanded to other parts of the world. It became a powerful tool to halt the flow of time by preserving its images on canvas, and it came to dominate the world of art -- until the emergence of photography.

Diagonal
2001, oil on canvas, 94 x 68.5 cm

As photography took over most of the meaning of the realistic mode, abstract art flourished and prevailed. Artists applying the realistic mode were considered outdated, lagging behind, and became a sort of outcast.

Amidst such sentiments Chusin Setiadikara (born 1949 in Bandung, West Java) decided that Realism was what he wanted to do. Struggling against the stream, he studied, experimented and delved into realism with an insistence and dedication that is simply compelling. Today he sweeps off the dust of time unfolding a new approach with new luster to realism. The result is at once shocking, enlightening, fascinating and thrilling. According to internationally acknowledged art critic and curator Jim Supangkat, Chusin’s approach is new in the entire world of art.

Unlike conventional realism, and different from the photographic relay of images which does not go beyond the sharpness of the lens, Chusin Setiadikara’s Realism includes all elements that constitute the fullness of total life.

Based on a philosophy that focuses on equilibrium in a comprehensive dynamic, Chusin recognizes all modes of expression and brings them together in an aesthetic unity while giving each its full due.  Chusin rejects supposed verities in artistic expression and knows of no subordination of one mode to the other. This vision stands in fierce distinction to the usual concepts that stick by one prevailing mode keeping independent elements in partitions rather than bringing these in unison. 

Chusin’s controversial visions are brought to practice in his works that have a realistic appearance, but differ from the conventional concept in that a variety of realities make out the overall appearance. Highlights are his works from the past few years, presented in a spectacular first-ever solo exhibition at the Jakarta National Gallery, February 20  - March 6, 2002.

While ‘revolutionary’ may be too strong a term for Chusin’s innovations in realism, they were found to be groundbreaking and worthy of bringing to the international forum of contemporary art. To that end, the Washington based Gallery CP Artspace has invited him to exhibit 27 works from June 7- July 30.

Fine examples of  Chusin’s realism are found in his most recent works which include Three X Position (1998), a 3-dimensional oil on canvas, 86.5 x 86.5 cm,  Kebaya Putih (1998), of the same size, Ikan dalam Kurung (2000), 100 x 141 cm (diptych), Selimut merah  (2002), Charcoal, oil on canvas 188 x 45 cm, Gadis Kebaya Merah (2002), oil on canvas, Transaksi  11.900 (2001) 118 x 150 cm, Diagonal (2001), oil on canvas, 94 x 68.5 cm and Space (2001), oil on canvas 27 x  100 cm.

In Disharmony, Three X Position and Kebaya Putih  Chusin places premeditated small square paintings-  each depicting fractured body pieces-  on a large canvas, giving the allusion of various realities, which constitute Reality. What appears like a painting from the front is a 3-dimensional work from the side. In Ikan dalam Kurung, he links an abstract scene with a realistic portrayal, covering small parts of the two planes with a simple realistic fish framed by just four surrounding lines and adding two small fish underneath. One is further struck by his unusual application of charcoal on oil paint like in  Selendang merah, and Transaksi . Not only does he treat charcoal and oilpaint as two entities on a par, but he also achieves to lay on canvas the felt emotion in his stirring images that reminds of the great German artist Kathe Kollwitz.  In Gadis Baju Merah Chusin goes one more time with his brush over the apparent finished painting, an act which outsiders would see as wrecking the already finished painting. Instead, Chusin’s whitewash-transparent layer as the finishing touch gives the painting a dreamlike, lyrical appearance.

One is awed by the surpassingly refined aesthetics with which the artist shapes even the most horrible of realities to a piece of work that evokes a sense of spiritual uplifting. Looking at these paintings is like feeling the ups and downs of life through which Life becomes fascinating and worth living.

Chusin’s preference for realism is grounded in his early youth when he grew up amidst artistic siblings in a home where art books were part life. At that time (the early fifties), affordable art books flooding the market mostly came from Russia, one of the most outspoken countries where realist painting flourished. It was a time when Realism was what art was all about, says Chusin, reminiscing how Russian realist painting had fascinated him. 

The seventh child in a family of eight, Chusin was familiar with Realism even before he entered school and was virtually proficient in the realistic mode at the age of eight. Once when he was only in the first grade of elementary school, he painted an apple, apparently so unusually beautiful, all the teachers came to watch it. Little did they then foresee that the boy would grow to be a painter of stature.

His development as an artist has been consistent and continuous. A searcher of sorts, he never once gave up his efforts to perfect himself in observation, in the rendering of flesh and form, the interplay of light and shadow, and the studies in unflinching realism. Neither did he falter in the face of condescending and defaming comments.

Often he came to feel like an outcast, the way the peculiar smell of ikan asin, salted dry fish, is excluded in the homes of the elite. Because of its peculiar smell, and its low cost, ikan asin became identified with the poor and marginalized segments of society.  Chusin identifies himself with these fish, but is not bogged down in its less favorable aspects. Instead, he takes it out of its traditional context and makes it a personal metaphor for his narratives on the faltering economy, the exchange rate and their impact on the poor (Ikan Asin tahun 2000, Cukup untuk Beli Ikan Asin, Transaksi). In hindsight, it became a metaphor for his struggle. For, the salted dry fish, the smell of which was once considered to be pollution in the elegant homes of the rich and the beautiful, is fast becoming a delicatesse of Indonesian cuisine.   

His achievement is the fruit of a long and often painful journey during which he explored and became proficient in every single technique with a stunning insistence and dedication. This served him well in a later stage of his artistic development.   After his lengthy explorations with various trends and modes, Chusin could not find one single mode that could fascinate him the way realism had. He studied with the artist Barli Sasmitawinata, picked up the thread of his youth a decade ago, and started experimenting, ultimately rejecting the notion of order or subordination in artistic expression.

He often participated in joint exhibitions, notwithstanding general denial of his visions. A point in case was his works in an exhibition in Bandung (around 1990). His peers laughed at his ideas, which they called ‘backwards’, and condescendingly attributed that to his non-academic art education. Chusin, however, persisted, taking his finding even a step further by combining various styles and modes in a single work while giving each style its full due.

Jim Supangkat, who is also the CP Art Space curator, names Chusin’s realism post-photography realistic portrayal, denoting Chusin’s basic difference from photographic realism.

Will Chusin’s Realism make new inroads to the world of contemporary art, where the abstract still prevails and aesthetics are often dismissed? Time will tell. For now, he may rest assured that nobody laughs at him anymore. Supporting the exhibition is  CP Artspace Foundation, whose aim is to bring Asian-Art-that-makes-a-difference to the fore (see box).

Chusin Setiadikara’s post-photography realistic portrayals
solo exhibition will appear at the CP Artspace, 1350 I Street, Washington D.C., June 7 – July 30, 2002