Me and friends (opening ceremony)

Landscape #2, My Solo Exhibition

This is my first solo exhibition. The exhibition was held in S 14 Gallery, Bandung, Indonesia, from 17 October until 7 November, 2012. For the art work, I made an ceramic installation, the space is filled by modules of cubes, almost the whole exhibition. There were two configurations for right and left sides, positive and negative polar. If each side is adjoined they become united or clop (mirror effect).

Actually my art work tell about a landscape of houses in urban environment. If you see from the top (bird view), the houses just like a simple form, the cube and the prism (pyramid) at the top. So I took the essence of the house form. 

I made 3 modules / form, i.e. positive, negative,and neutral. Then each module was repeated by certain numbers. The positive one is in left side, the negative one is in right side. Total modules are 665. I used white stoneware for the art work. Dimension of module are long 10 cm. wide 10 cm. and high 4-8 cm. I used zircon for opaque white glaze and fired to 1230 degree (celsius).

The gallery is quite small, 10 meters square. In Bandung, S14 is a well known alternative gallery. The owners are Herra Pahlasari and Aminuddin Siregar (a well respected curator and art writer in Indonesia).

Pose with My Art Works

Pameran Kriya Indonesia 2012

This Exhibition was held at National Gallery of Indonesia

PAMERAN KRIYA INDONESIA

“REPOSISI”

14-24 September 2012

Pameran ini hendak memperlihatkan posisi (dan reposisi) ke-kriya-an dalam perkembangan seni rupa kontemporer, praktek desain, serta lingkup persoalan warisan tradisi budaya dan kemajuan industri. Pameran ini hendak memetakaan soal keragaman pada potensi kriya Indonesia dalam rangka pengembangan industri dan ekonomi kreatif Indonesia (Pengantar kuratorial: Asmudjo J. Irianto dan Rizky A. Zaelani).

Pameran ini diikuti oleh 60  kriyawan yang berasal dari Jakarta, Bandung, Jogja dan Bali. Medium ekspresi yang digunakan diantaranya keramik, kayu dan tekstil. Dilihat dari karya / produknya didominasi oleh kriayawan berbasis kriya individual bukan kriya tradisi. 
(Foto: Landscape #1, Natas Setiabudhi) 

Dipping with Pussycat

When I work, my pussycat always accompany me. His name is Sotoy. The picture shows preparation for glazing the pot. The application technique is dipping. In my workshop, dipping is the main technique, besides spraying and pouring. Dipping and pouring I think the safest technique for applying the glaze (healthy factor), moreover the workshop doesn't have safety facility, such as spray booth, no good ventilation, masker etc.

As long as the pot can be dipped or poured, don't spray it. Besides the description of above, spraying is more complicated and needs extra energy, especially in the preparing process. Sometimes if we lack expertise in spraying, the layer is too thin and mottled. We must have principle for practicality, any shape can be dipped or poured with any support either by hand skills or tools. Spray may be effective if the pot has large size.               

Glazing for the most people is the most troublesome activity. Impatient people may not be appropriate for this activity. In glazing we must doing carefully and neatly. Doing the glazing improperly will yield an unsatisfactory final result. May be there are people who disagree of this statement, on the contrary is the most pleasure activity. How about you?                    

Making "handle" by Pulling

1. Shape the clay like a carrot

2. Grasp, squeeze and pull gently
downward the clay with water 

3. Keep pulling to extend

4. Leave for a few minutes

5. Cut into pieces

6. Bend into circular shape

7. Handle in complete

8. Ready to attach to the mug

Usually when we make a handle for a mug or teapot, we just coil the clay. Sometimes it looks little bit weird as a whole of form. There is an alternative for that, i.e. by pulling the clay as description of above. The result are more elegant and natural. To get this ability only one word, practice.

When you bend the long clay sometimes the clay cracks (fig 6-7). You can add a little bit dampness the clay by water. Another problem is attachment handle to the body of the mug or teapot.  Often the bond between body and handle not quite good. The bond will have cracks or separate when they dried in the leather hard state. The causes could be that you don't damp both handle and body or damp one side handle or body only. The standard procedure are scratch the body and apply a  fluid slip into both. Actually just smear with water is enough making in good bonding. For this you can use toothbrush. The point is you must damp both sides, use water or slip.        

Mug Series #2