SIMULASI KALI OYO
In 2014 I had the opportunity to participate in a residency program initiated by Bumi Pemuda Rahayu located in Muntuk Village, Dlingo Gunungkidul, DIY. The experience of living and working for two months in that place led me to look back at the relationship between humans and nature around where we live. One of them is my interest in gemstones as a child, reappeared when I visited the Oyo River which is located not far from where I resided, the pleasure of looking for stones in this river is what I then want to tell and convey through this work.
I then tried to simulate this experience in an installation containing a photo of the Oyo River landscape from above, and placed polished found stones on the surface of the photo. On the side I also included a magnifying glass that is usually used to see the details of the gemstones, on the bottom of the table I put stones that have not been processed or polished. This installation is expected to invite the audience to imagine the landscape not only from a wide perspective, but can also see microscopically such as the fibers found in natural stones.
In 2024 I was invited to participate in the Indonesia Bertutur event. It so happened that the theme carried was connected to this work, after discussing it with the exhibition curator, and then I remade this work again on a larger scale. Like when it was first presented, visitors to the exhibition can touch, and see in detail the stones presented in this work. So the audience can feel a complete bodily experience, like when I was looking for the stone in the river.
Photograph Instalation, 2014,2024
POTRAIT BATU BATU
Gemstones and crystals have a long history and strong ties to human existence. Humans associate these stones with their birth month, health, strength, and even spirituality. Their existence is inseparable from the efforts of artisanal miners, who risk their lives in tunnels tens of meters below the surface. The stones are then shipped to China to be processed into health and beauty products, and then marketed to other countries at prices many times higher. I believe this is part of the story of the gemstone market. If I remember correctly, when I was eleven or twelve, my interest in gemstones began with friendships with people much older than me, some of whom were even my father’s age. My acquaintances often gathered and hung out across from my house, making a living by parking their vehicles near the shop. From them, I often learned about and viewed the stones they had. Conversations about stone types, grain shapes, luster and color, prices, and even mystical properties or beliefs became commonplace. Over the years, memories and pleasures have come and gone, but this time my curiosity about the world of stones wasn’t sparked directly by the stones themselves.
Das kleine Buch der Edelsteine is a small book about precious stones, printed in 1934 in Leipzig, Germany. It contains stunning realistic illustrations by the German artist and illustrator Hans Lang. I accidentally found this book in a junkyard. I then cut out Hans Lang’s drawings and illustrations and combined them with anonymous photographs I had previously collected. The anonymous photographs I chose for the collage are portraits. These portraits overlap with images of stones, sometimes acting as footholds, backgrounds, masks, shadows, and complementing each other. This work attempts to emphasize and re-examine the relationship between humans and the objects around them, and more specifically, the relationship between humans and precious stones.
manual collage and scanography, 2022
Landscape Batu batu
In my work, I sometimes revisit my past work, the topics they discussed, and the extent to which I discussed them. I then became interested in developing and re-exploring my works related to agate. In 2014, my work on agate was presented through a photo installation, and then in 2022, it was further developed through responses to books and old photographs using collage and scanography methods. I saw the possibility of further developing it through other mediums, in this case, painting and stone.
Among stone hobbyists, there’s a term called decorative stones with a landscape theme. They treat the stones like paintings, framing them (usually made of metal), and placing them on tables or display cases for decorative purposes. Craftsmen cut and compose stone motifs much like we photograph landscapes; there’s usually a dominant line used like a horizon line. In their imaginations, we sometimes see land, sky, lakes, and trees with a more surreal visual appeal.
I then borrowed this way of seeing from craftsmen and landscape stone hobbyists and used it as a method for my work. I searched for and curated landscape-themed stones, which I then used as references for my paintings. To see this complete work, I presented the finished painting and the agate stones I used as references together. Once again, this is my attempt to encourage others to enjoy the beauty of stones and to better appreciate the beauty of nature in greater detail.
Water color on canvas anda agate stone, 2025
Credit photo reproduction of painting by: M Alfariz