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Lot Essay
Pose no. 2: AC emerges from Handiwirman Saputra's Pose series of paintings executed in 2004 where he explores the tactile relation between two objects - a recognisable and commonplace object and a unrecognisable amorphous form - that in real life would evoke broadly similar perceptions concerning their materiality. The painterly interest undertaken emerges from a purely aesthetic pursuit, a exercise constituted in itself to befriend and acquaint objects. Not prising into the social lives or buried histories of objects, instead, Handiwirman paints the objects in the picture plane with meticulous scrupulousness, seeking to evoke and enjoy their presences as simply objects - objects with a certain physicality and material presence.
The question that gave impetus to the Pose series arises from the artist's long-standing interest in the material life of objects. How is the physical and material nature of an object carried from reality into the picture plane? How does painting demonstrate, alter and perhaps reinforce the nature of an object as it moves from a three-dimensional real existence into the arrested flatness of the picture, framed by the boundaries of the easel-sized canvas and stretcher?
The Pose series was first exhibited in Nadi Gallery, Jakarta, Indonesia in 2004 alongside the artist's Mental series. The works in the exhibition were completed in a period of approximately eight months. Handiwirman was stimulated to deal with the mimetic purpose in realist painting. He was sceptical of the objectivity of realist paintings. The aesthetic logic of two-dimensional portrayal means that a realist painting is strongly influenced by elements of a painting, its scale and the particularities of it as a medium. A realist painting is never objective in this sense. Instead of painting objects in real life and not achieving being able to realise completely a sense of the objective, Handiwirman turned to the painting of objects made by him. Having being transformed into the flat picture surface, without real volume or depth, the accomplishment lies in the ability to then evoke a certain visual perception of reality
Painting without a particular concept in mind, Handiwirman reacts and explores his subject plainly through mental visualization. The form and shape of his subjects defy regular compositions and he experiments with positioning his subjects in a variety of spatial arrangements stimulate different reactions from audiences - wonder, indifference, critical questioning.
The question that gave impetus to the Pose series arises from the artist's long-standing interest in the material life of objects. How is the physical and material nature of an object carried from reality into the picture plane? How does painting demonstrate, alter and perhaps reinforce the nature of an object as it moves from a three-dimensional real existence into the arrested flatness of the picture, framed by the boundaries of the easel-sized canvas and stretcher?
The Pose series was first exhibited in Nadi Gallery, Jakarta, Indonesia in 2004 alongside the artist's Mental series. The works in the exhibition were completed in a period of approximately eight months. Handiwirman was stimulated to deal with the mimetic purpose in realist painting. He was sceptical of the objectivity of realist paintings. The aesthetic logic of two-dimensional portrayal means that a realist painting is strongly influenced by elements of a painting, its scale and the particularities of it as a medium. A realist painting is never objective in this sense. Instead of painting objects in real life and not achieving being able to realise completely a sense of the objective, Handiwirman turned to the painting of objects made by him. Having being transformed into the flat picture surface, without real volume or depth, the accomplishment lies in the ability to then evoke a certain visual perception of reality
Painting without a particular concept in mind, Handiwirman reacts and explores his subject plainly through mental visualization. The form and shape of his subjects defy regular compositions and he experiments with positioning his subjects in a variety of spatial arrangements stimulate different reactions from audiences - wonder, indifference, critical questioning.