WEARABLE | Exhibition Artworks

Bandung | Yogyakarta | Ubud

The name of the piece I am sending in for the WEARABLE exposition is called REUNION. The drawing is made in charcoal, a material that for me can express many different emotions by using it in many ways. Charcoal can be hard by its deep black colour, or so soft that it almost looks like the lines I draw are not touching the paper and are floating just a little bit a above it. The paper is thick, shows its own structure and the boundaries are not straightly cut, but are carefully torn, which leaves the paper its own value and shows its fragility.

WEARABLE is about how to survive Indonesia's problems. Which actually means how would you defend yourself against violence, hatred and insecurity. During my study period in Indonesia I experienced just little of these problems. Since I came back in Holland, I am following the news about Indonesia daily, and with deep concern. However, being so far away from your country makes it impossible for me to really feel what the Indonesian people feel now; their fear, worries, grief and hope. As an artist I am in the privileged position to beautify the world, or as the Javanese would say; KALANGWAN. By my works of art I try make things more beautiful than they are in reality, thereby making them more WEARABLE by diminishing their reality in my mind. Reducing the reality of the problems, however, is not their solution.

WEARABLE to me means that the problems which the opposite sides cause now; for example between Christians and Muslims, are not being solved but are taken for granted and merely defended against, making them WEARABLE but at the same time accepting them. To me things can only really get WEARABLE for both sides, once they are solvable.

This is what I have tried to show in my work REUNION. The two cages represent Indonesia as it has been for the last 30 years and Indonesia now, which can also be seen as a caged nation. Also they symbolize the two opposite sides as mentioned before. The solution lies in the open mind of the figure, that symbolizes a return to tolerance and cooperation. Much tears have been shed, but eventually people have to realize that the two divided worlds are to be brought together in the hand, their own.

Frances Alleblas

Alexandra J. Wuisan | Astari Rasjid | Choi Jeong-Hwa | Damon Moon
David Sequeira | Frances Alleblas | Mella Jaarsma | Minako Saitoh | Midori Hirota
Mongkol Plienbangchang | Park Hye-Sung | Ruswandi Abdul Ghani | W. Christiawan

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