Rootless

A Dream of Water and Distance


 Antonella Pedetti – Galeri Salihara

Rootless, having no roots.
Somebody who has left her country, culture, traditions, family, and all what represents the essence of a person.
Breaking your cultural roots implies losing the north on aspects that most of humans consider fixed. I went through a process losing these ties, to then find new grounds on where to build up my new cultural connections to my art.
Like a tree, every person needs to have roots, to fuel its passion and creativity, and for an artist this is vital in the creation process.
A person cannot grow roots in any place, he or she needs a fertile soil. I needed to create my own soil on and decided that it was to be set on a fluid, mobile place.
­- Rootless Introduction Catalogue Exhibition -

Rootless – Exhibition that supported by Embassy of the Argentine Republic, Republic of Indonesia. Saturday, October 06, 2018 the opening exhibition started on 7 PM. It was my first experience to attended the opening exhibition. Komunitas Salihara as exhibition organizer provided online booking reservation system, it was very easy accessible. The exhibition started from October 06 – 16, 2018 in Gallery of Komunitas Salihara.

Actually, that was my first time came to Komunitas Salihara. Komunitas literally means community and Salihara came from the name of the street where Komunitas Salihara located. This art center established since August, 08 2008. Komunitas Salihara consisted of four main buildings that are Salihara Theater, Salihara Gallery, Anjungan Salihara, and office space.

After the exhibition introduction the visitor will found 12 Capitulos as the first artwork. Capitulos means chapter from Spain language. You will see many figures in the artwork, mainly represented the women, as that character of the artist. The paintings became part of her pains, of her nostalgia, of her losses and victories, and therefore they become part of her person and she become part of her artwork. For more explanation, it was about the artist marriage, when she decided to move to other cities symbolize by woman was bringing her suitcase, then either when she felt too strong with the surrounded looked too small or felt too weak with the surrounded looked so big. This artwork was really captivating, beside the mini figures of the artwork looked really unique while that concept of mini figures inside the artwork will be appeared nicely several times in this exhibition.

“12 Capitulos
50 x 50 cm
Mini figures, glass, sand, stamps, paper, wire, photos, clock, mini canvas, nails, acrylic cubes, acrylic on wooden box
2014
(Object)”

FYI, acrylic means the plastic that the form looked like a glass, then the mean of resin is latex that produced by many kinds of plants especially by conifers tree.

“My dreams became my real roots, and probably they were so, even before I became rootless.” -Antonella Pedetti-

According to the exhibition curator Asikin Hasan, artworks of Pedetti talks about bigger space and small scale as human being in the universe. This concept could be found in Dreams of Roots and Sawah artworks. Especially related to 12 Capitulos, the artist wants to spreading the main message of this exhibition that is to find your own way (dreams).

“Part of Dreams of Roots –
Twelve chapters of a woman’s life, different scenes of her own life and artistic journey.
60 x 120 cm
Acrylic, mini figures, and resin on canvas
2018”

“Part of Sawah (Rice Field)
60 x 120 cm
Acrylic, mini figures, and batik fabric on canvas
2015”

“Part of Life at the Rice Fields
170 x 150 cm
Acrylic, mini figures, and batik fabric on canvas
2017”

Six masks each representing a different place.
Montevideo (Uruguay), the place of birth, a simple pure mask; Buenos Aires (Argentina), where the artist universe is created; Wiesbaden (Germany), an expansion of the artist world and its mental discovery; Quito (Ecuador), a side move forward; Jakarta (Indonesia), the discovery of a new culture; Future, unknown and to be developed. This masks concept made me remember the similar concept of Cirebon mask culture, which is each step of life has a specific different mask to representing.

“Six Faces of a City
280 x 200 cm
Batik fabric, acrylic, and resin
2018”

Postcard #1 – Wax Dreams, 2018

Postcard #2 – Ancient Dreams, 2018

Postcard #3 – Windy Roots, 2018

Postcard #4 – Wanita Regen –
(Woman in Bayern District, Germany
300 x 250 cm
Figure, resin, and ropes
2018
(Installation)

“Antonella Pedetti records natural phenomenon from one continent to another. From there, she builds various images : imaginary lines, geometric fields, and coil shapes. Some remind us of the energy of the sea, rivers, mountains, forests, rice fields, waterfalls, rain, clouds, and so on. Others manifest in free and unique form, unexpected gifts obtained from the reality of nature itself.” – Asikin Hasan – In House Komunitas Salihara Fine Arts Curator (Rootless, in Scale and Spaces, Curatorial Notes).

My score for Rootless exhibition is 8.5, I spent around 55 minutes in this exhibition. This exhibition divided into two types of general artwork that are two dimensions (painting) and three dimensions (installation). The mini figures inside of the artwork concept was the first time I saw in the art exhibition, it means Rootless developed great innovation of the artwork. Then beside there was an exhibition catalogue, this exhibition also distributed four types of postcards consisted of the exhibition artwork picture for free to the exhibition visitors. The form of gallery for this exhibition was letter O with enough space for all opening exhibition visitors. The last, after enjoyed the exhibition and had a short interviewed with the artist, the visitor invited the visitors to going to the rooftop of Komunitas Salihara to chit – chat each other under the clear sky at that night.

“Antonella Pedetti
Opening Rootless Exhibition – Galeri Salihara”

“Rootless Exhibition Catalogue”

8.5

Thank you for the reader of my blog and please waiting for the next post. 😊

- Antonella Pedetti-
Antonella Pedetti is a visual artist and architect born in Montevideo that grew up in Argentina, from Italian origin, with works that can be found in more than twenty cities in all five continents. Antonella grew up artistically between Buenos Aires, Frankfurt, Quito, and Jakarta, and her work has been exposed and reviewed in Latin America and Europe, and now for the first time in Indonesia. She studied in Buenos Aires, at the National School of Fine Arts “Prilidiano Pueyrredon” and Architecture at the Buenos Aires University. Her style is in continuous evolution, as it is her context, that produces an incessant metamorphosis; a constant in her life. A lifelong relentless search to establish her own cultural background and heritage as painter and human being, her work is a manifest of the washing up of cultures into a new form of personal identity.

For further information :

Antonella Pedetti
Email : antonellapedetti@yahoo.com
Instagram : antonellapedetti_art
Website : www.antonellapedetti.com

Komunitas Salihara
Jl. Salihara No. 16 RT.006/001
Jati Padang, Pasar Minggu
South Jakarta 12520
+6221-7891-202

Bibliography :
·         Rootless exhibition catalogue
·         Personal photos and documentation
·         Personal impression and experience
·         Salihara, Komunitas. “Tentang Kami l Salihara”. November, 05 2018. https://salihara.org/aboutus
·         Alfari, Shabrina. “Mengenal Lebih Dalam Tentang Acrylic”. November, 05 2018. https://www.arsitag.com/article/mengenal-akrilik

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Art Exhibition of National Collections - Menyigi Masa

Image
The Art Exhibition of National Collections Menyigi Masa National collections art exhibition is one of the main exhibition programme that initiated and held by Galeri Nasional Indonesia, Direktorat Jenderal Kebudayaan, and Kementerian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan. This exhibition showed state artwork collections of artistic produced by Indonesian artists which is managed and collected by institution all around Indonesia. This exhibition was held with purpose to publish the artwork of state collections and showed the wealth and treasure of the Indonesia especially through the artworks. Furthermore, also gave a chance to the public to be able to appreciate, well informed about state collections, and also get closer to the important figures in the development of Indonesia art history. "Menyigi Masa Exhibition is a very early effort of examine - investigate, note, weed, and explained - the artworks which is collected in various state institution, which can be noted as st
Read more

Batik Peranakan

Image
Temporary Exhibition   “Chinese crossbreed community has an important role in the development of culture and batik industry in Indonesia, especially Java island. Historically the progress of the Chinese crossbreed community took place in stages so as to achieve a certain level of expertise and design choices. No wonder some of the batik products made by Chinese crossbreed batik entrepreneurs, known as Chinese Crossbreed Batik, are very well known for their smoothness, design, motifs and colors. For instance, batik products produced by batik companies Oey Soe Tjoen, The Tie Siet, Lie Boen Len, Tjoa Giok Tjiam and so on have become part of the important collections of various famous museums and collectors in Indonesia and abroad.” (William Kwan Hwie Liong)   Apart from the existence of batik as a cultural and industrial work that is spread in various countries, Indonesian batik is the only one that until now has gained international recognition. On October 2, 2009 Indonesian ba
Read more

National Gallery of Indonesia

Image
Permanent Exhibition     If we are talking about gallery, of course always there is National Gallery of Indonesia as my top of mind. There are permanent and temporary exhibition, which temporary exhibitions held packed with one full year schedule in here. Due to highly standard selection, it is always said really difficult to conduct the exhibition even to display the artwork. Based on data from the National Gallery of Indonesia website, the building which has a Dutch colonial architecture which was officially opened in 1999 has been used for a Special Dormitory for women. At present the National Gallery of Indonesia has around 1785 collections of artworks by Indonesian and foreign artists, including ; Raden Saleh, Hendra Gunawan, Affandi, S. Sudjojono, Basoeki Abdullah, Barli Sasmitawi Nata, Trubus, Popo Iskandar, Ahmad Sadali, Nashar, Soedarsono, Sunaryo, Amrus Natalsya, Hardi, Heri Dono, Dede Eri Supria, Ivan Sagita, FX. Harsono, Lucia Hartini, Irlantine Karnaya, Hendrawan K
Read more

Ulos, Hangoluan, & Tondi

Image
A Life Journey Through the Threads The role of textile in Batak society from the private collection of Mrs. Luhut Pandjaitan What are you thinking about when someone asked you about Ulos? Yes, generally of us will directly relating this traditional textile with Batak society. ‘Ulos, Hangoluan & Tondi’ is the Batak traditional textile exhibition, where Ulos textile will be always exist in every stage of life of Batak society. Hangoluan and Tondi itself means life and soul, related to this exhibition that Ulos traditional textile can’t be separated from life and soul of Batak society. This exhibition held for 14 days September 20 th to October 7 th , 2018 at Textile Museum in Jakarta. Sunday, September 30 th , 2018 around 3.30 PM I arrived for the first at Textile Museum. This exhibition displayed around 50 collections with each collection is not less than 50 years. Ulos has a symbolic function that always be present in every aspect of Batak society, starts from the birt
Read more

Kartun Ber(b)isik

Image
Face Jokes in the Body of Truth "Face Jokes in the Body of Truth." Poland Novelist, Joseph Conrad. Cartoonists in this Kartun Ber(b)isik exhibition tried to put that jokes face. The face of the jokes probably can be called as critic. While the body of truth itself is the actual problem of this country. Through this exhibition, they want to remind the critic tradition in cartoon. They tried to display appropriately as "nowadays" spirit with the whole very fast changing. They also want to persuade millennial generation to criticize politely as a member of civilized society. They also want to persuade us to remember that nation's progress has positive and negative impacts. For that we need a wise way to through it. Conveying in the cartoon language may not be easy. As daily Kompas cartoonist GM Sudarta (deceased) said, sometimes the cartoon or caricature criticism less sharp. The sharp caricatures according to GM Sudarta is the caricatures that ma
Read more

Pantjoran Tea House

Image
Dedicated for tea lovers   PANTJORAN TEA HOUSE A Leaf of History “We built our tea house in the heart of old town Batavia (now Jakarta), the busiest trading port in Asia during the 17th – 18th century and the symbol of enterprise that nurtures the fighting spirit of Indonesia until today. In the capital of Indonesia that bustles with activity, we sought to provide a place of refuge for a man of any background to rejuvenate the soul.” – Pantjoran Tea House.   Today we will have a great tea journey with the peaceful ambience around one of main tourism destination in old town area. What will be pop up first in your top of mind when we talk about tea? Twinings or TWG? Neither the British nor Singaporean tea. There is no chamomile tea for today’s menu. Let’s try this Chinese traditional tea.   This building divided into two floors, the first floor there are tea ceremony table, tea shop gallery, and cashier spot with traditional drug store’s ornament. Move forward to the seco
Read more

Into The Future - The Future Has Arrived!

Image
Into The Future The Future Has Arrived! Yeayyy~~~! Today after I spent family time on my mother’s birthday lunch that postponed around one month, finally I have a spare time to do my me time. Even though almost a whole day was raining in Jakarta, I can’t back off my plan to go to Galeri Nasional Indonesia. I arrived around 4.15 PM at Galeri Nasional Indonesia and ready to pamper myself with beautiful artwork of Into The Future : The Future Has Arrived! collections. Due to this exhibition held on the main building of the gallery, so I thought I can had a huge expections of this exhibition. When the first time came to this exhibition, I saw the general introduction of the exhibition such as the whole exhibition schedule, the artists name and the title of their artworks then the introduction of the exhibition’s curators especially as following : The time called Future yesterday, has now arrived in the Present Day, and will be another Future hereafter. Amidst as era of tu
Read more

Prince Diponegoro’s Heirloom – Pamor Sang Pangeran

Image
Temporary Exhibition Prince Diponegoro (1785–1855), Sang Ratu Adil or ‘Just King’, was the eldest son of the King of Java, Sultan Hamengku Buwono III (reigned 1812-1814). Since he was young, Diponegoro was close to the lives of commoners and the disciples of pesantren (Islamic boarding schools). Starting from the prince’s anxiety regarding the condition of his environment, such as the disappearance of Javanese values and palace tradition due to the entry of European culture, Dutch interference in the internal affairs of the palace, tax collection that chokes people’s necks, until it reached its highest point when the Dutch planted stakes on the graves of Diponegoro’s ancestors in disdain for a road-building project, then the Java War broke out.   The Java War (1825-1830) witnessed how Diponegoro became a figure of war leader to be reckoned with. The Dutch made him their number one enemy because Diponegoro’s war tactics were able to make them upset and overwhelmed. The Java
Read more

Jakarta Biennale 2021

Image
Esok: Membangun Sejarah Bersama 21 Nov 2021 - 21 Jan 2022 In the midst of the current pandemic, offline exhibitions are becoming very rare and make art connoisseurs yearn to appreciate the exhibition in person. The atmosphere and wind at the exhibition site are still not present in virtual exhibitions. Being able to directly visit the 2021 Jakarta Biennale was a valuable experience for me.  So what is the Jakarta Biennale? From the archives : History of Jakarta Biennale The forerunner to the Jakarta Biennale was the Great Indonesian Painting Exhibition organised by the Jakarta Arts Council for the first time in 1968 at Taman Ismail Marzuki, Jakarta. After 1974, the Great Indonesian Painting Exhibition took the biennial format, held every two years. Venues : 1. National Awakening Museum (Stovia) 2. National Museum of Indonesia 3. Taman Menteng 4. Cikini Raya Human Rights and all its problems are the foundation of the 2021 Jakarta Biennale exhibition for a more humane TOMORROW! Talking a
Read more

Alam Ruang Manusia - Affandi Immersive

Image
Temporary Exhibition     After being stopped since the Covid-19 pandemic, the temporary exhibition of the National Gallery of Indonesia was finally back offline. This time, the National Gallery of Indonesia was presenting an immersive exhibition that highlights the artworks of Indonesian painting maestro, Affandi. Affandi is one of the world figures of modern painters in Indonesia that adheres to the pure expressionism, but at first Affandi’s career shows his artworks in photographic realist painting which means that his painting is like a picture taken from a camera. He is often referred to as the representation of modern Indonesian art in the international art scene. He works and exhibits around Bandung, Jakarta, Yogyakarta and Bali, as well as across continents by traveling around India, countries in Europe and America. He is actively involved in international prestigious art events such as the Sao Paolo Biennale, Venice Biennale, and World Expo '70 Osaka. His unique
Read more