Syagini Ratna Wulan

Born 1979 in Bandung, Java, Indonesia
Lives and works in Bandung, Indonesia

Since the beginning of her artistic career, Syagini Ratna Wulan has been known for her non-linear visual idioms. In her art, which is idiosyncratic, enigmatic and “feminine,” she explores issues of fantasies and human unconsciousness by means of textual inter- pretation. Both her penchant for absurd and fantastical narratives in films and music and her intellectual interest in the Surrealists run like a red thread through her oeuvre. Simultaneously stylish and subversive, her installations clearly connect her to contemporary pop culture, which is not surprising given the fact that, apart from working as a furniture-and interior designer, she is also known as a fashion stylist for a number of indie music groups in Bandung.
Basically, Ratna Wulan’s works are constituted by her reactions toward banal daily realities; they are commentaries on superficial middle-class behavior, and are often characterized by an acidic sense of humor and criticism of contemporary culture. The Ten Commandments (2001), for example, featured a bar of soap on which she printed the Ten Commandments. In another work, Delirium (2002), Ratna Wulan displayed household items inside chemical bottles as a comment on our addiction to consumerism in today’s society.
Ratna Wulan’s installation Love Affair Pt. 1: The Dining Room / White Lies (2010) explored the secrecy of double love-lives, unfaith- fulness, seduction and the expurgation of fantasies. It featured a range of her works and objects, including paintings, drawings, embroidery, furniture, clothing, tableware and domestic objects, arranged in a stylish, inherently ironic way. The centerpiece was a dining room draped completely in white, including the cutlery on the dining table. The artist’s inspiration for Love Affair was the novel A Spy in the House of Love (1954) by French author Anaïs Nin. Ratna Wulan was intrigued by the novel’s elements of sexual intrigue and taboos, as well as the provocative issues of intimacy and sanctity, which can easily be related to the private lives of middle-class Indonesian couples, presented as sacred but often hiding skeletons in the closet.
Ratna Wulan’s project BiblioTea (2011) invited viewers into an fake bookshop-tea house where various (fictitious) art books and flavored teas were on display. The work referred to Asian scholarly traditions where tea (and its appreciation) is intimately associated with philosophical and aesthetic contemplation. BiblioTea suggested that the content of the instructive art books has been infused into the teas; thus one can gain this knowledge by consuming the various teas. Simultaneously, this work reflected Ratna Wulan’s view on contemporary consumerist culture where people expect instant gratification and enlightenment with minimal effort.
In one of her most recent works, 100 Years of Tempest (2012), she further developed her method of playing around with objects, inviting the audience to do the same and interact with the work. The installation, all of which was white, displa yed a dozen lockers with serial numbers containing objects signifying personal /crisis moments in the artist’s life, in the form of videos, photos, drawings and audio recordings. All of these lockers presented clues to the audience, inviting them to reveal and recreate their own stories and endings according to their own wishes.
Through her works, Ratna Wulan expresses thoughts on the way in which nothing in contemporary life is what it seems, playing around with the seemingly sacred, beautiful surface that shrouds psychosis and neurosis in urban Indonesian cosmopolites. She uses projections of her own social image and personal life as the main narrative, told by means of games or tricks, inviting viewers to play along and find mutual understanding in creative, darkly humorous ways.

Syagini Ratna Wulan, I Will Shine For You, 2012, Metal locker box, neon sign lights, wire # WULA0001

Exhibitions

"Sip! Indonesian Art Today" - Exhibition View at ARNDT Berlin, April - June 2013 | Click on image to see more

"Sip! Indonesian Art Today" - Exhibition View at ARNDT Berlin, April - June 2013

SIP! INDONESIAN ART TODAY / SENI RUPA INDONESIA KINI

The past three generations of Indonesian Contemporary Art

Group show by ARNDT Berlin

27 April to 01 June 2013
Tue – Sat, 11am – 6pm

Please click here to watch a video of the "Sip! Indonesian Art Today" show in Berlin.

The exhibition "Sip! Indonesian Art Today" and the accompanying publication results from ARNDT’s recent focus on Southeast Asian art and the new Asian and Pacific art markets. Over the past four years Matthias Arndt has worked in Indonesia and other parts of Southeast Asia. His research, the past shows of Southeast Asian artists and the opening of ARNDT Singapore, the Asian showroom and office of ARNDT, makes Matthias Arndt one of the leading experts for contemporary Indonesian and Southeast Asian Art in Germany and Europe.

The exhibition "Sip! Indonesian Art Today", curated by Enin Supriyanto, is the 10th show dedicated to Southeast Asian art ARNDT is hosting in Singapore, Australia, Great Britain and Berlin. The 150 page publication "Sip! Indonesian Art Today" edited by Matthias Arndt and published at DISTANZ Verlag (ISBN 978-3-95476-007-7) is available in all bookstores.

The public talk "The last three decades of artistic production in Indonesia: 25 years of Cemeti Art House and the status of curating.” with Enin Supriyanto (curator) and Mella Jaarsma (artist), moderated by Katerina Valdivia Bruch (curator / critic) will take place at ARNDT Berlin on 27 April 2013 at 4 pm.

The exhibition presents over 40 works from all artistic mediums, painting, sculpture, installation, photography and film, by 16 contemporary artists from Indonesia. They belong to a larger community of artists who are actively shaping Indonesia’s dynamic developing contemporary art scene. If we consider their age and career development, the artists here represent 3 generations of contemporary art practice dating back from the late 1970s: beginning first with FX Harsono, one of the proponents of the Indonesian New Art Movement (Gerakan Seni Rupa Baru) founded in 1975 followed by a group of artists who emerged at a time when Indonesia was undergoing major socio-political transformations in its strive towards democracy during the late 1990s (Agung Kurniawan, Agus Suwage, Mella Jaarsma), the post-Reformasi (Reformation) generation of artists (Christine Ay Tjoe, Entang Wiharso, Rudi Mantofani, Handiwirman Saputra, Eko Nugroho, Syagini Ratna Wulan and Arin Dwihartanto Sunaryo), and finally a generation of artists who have been active in the past decade, sophisticated operators of their own careers in a more or less stable and democratic Indonesia (Wedhar Riyadi, J. Ariadithya Pramuhendra, Wiyoga Muhardanto, Indieguerillas and Tromarama).

The generational differences do not only represent differing socio-political experiences in connection with the development of Indonesia’s society in the past three decades but also illustrates the differing socio-political contexts of the artists observations and artistic approaches that have changed and altered over the years.

The word “Sip” in Bahasa Indonesia may be a simple and modest one but it is full of meaning. While the origin of this word is unknown, it is a word that is used by nearly everyone every day. “Sip” is the briefest way to state that something – whether an art work, an event, an experience or anything – is good, of good quality, super or outstanding even. Like this word, and like the process of our ongoing global culture, we do not question the origin of an idea, but we consider how this idea can continue to grow and contribute to the interaction and civilization of the world. In a way, we can say that ‘Sip’ has no such thing as exotic cultural background, neither stereotypical cultural baggage. Whatever the case, the meaning is clear: good, great, outstanding.

For more information and images, please contact info@arndtberlin.com or +49 30 206 13870.

Please click here to download the press release as PDF file (English)

Please click here to download the press release as PDF file (German)