javafred.net indonesian art

YOGYAKARTA (JP): Thirty-two year old Nurkholis an emerging artist with a most promising future, great authenticity and courage.

His paintings, currently exhibited at Dirix Gallery until July 31, are endlessly fascinating. The artist's creative process is uniquely honest and controversial. He uses no brush, except for an occasional embellishment.

Nurkholis and wife Hedy

He creates these canvases using his whole body in a "printing" process. After laying down initial layers of carefully planned color on the canvas, which is placed on the floor, Nurkholis removes his sarong (tubular cloth) and a beautiful, sometimes unpredictable process of creation begins.

This is a kind of naked yoga-ballet which has the appearance of a "birth process". Nurkholis' internal artistic concept is borne for all to see and understand. He writhes and contorts, stretches and rolls across his large canvas in a very deliberate and controlled way.

The end result is surprisingly touching. Pure and clear printed images of the human form appear both textural and transparent, appearing almost like x-rays with their contrasting light and dark tonal patterns. The sharp edges of the body contours, the dark areas, and the highlighted areas created by protruding body forms, come together to bring us images of great artistic purity.

His comments about his artistic development up to this current style of total self-expression, are revealing. The nature of recent Indonesian history has meant that artists have often had to self-censor their work. This blocking of creative expression combined with his observation that sometimes the human being seems to have less importance than wealth, power and material accumulation, have built up to a cry of outrage from his deepest emotional core.

One day, in a frustrated painting session, he kicked a canvas that was still wet, and later saw the visual impression of his foot in the paint. The "print" of frustrated energy spoke to him loud and clear and he saw its potential.

"If with the foot, then why not with the whole body?" he asked himself. And later, "Why not the highest human ecstasy - of two bodies entwined in love?" His largest canvas, created with his wife Hety, also an artist, is a beautiful thing to behold, in warm reds and browns, resonating with energy and richness.

This process is, of course, a very controversial thing in a modest society such as Indonesia. However, in his characteristically intelligent and truthful way, Nurkholis showed a video in a private area of the Gallery, for those who wished to seriously observe the creative process of these paintings.

On video-tape was captured both a solo painting session, and also the artistic collaboration/union with his wife, creating the beautiful work entitled Rhythm of Love.

Nurcholis' artistic life has become one of total commitment - "all or nothing". Seeing the creation method on video is a profoundly moving experience. The spirit of the art is unrestricted and the artist and his work are one. This is pure "body-language". The contoured impressions of the human body seem to materialize from within the more tonal areas and there is a feeling of spiritual oneness.

These images have great subtlety and, if explored with an open heart, give much to the viewer in the way of contemplation and emotional participation.

Cynthia Webb is a cultural networker for the Australia-Indonesia Arts Alliance.