Figuring Text, Texting Figure is an interesting offer in rediscovering the “zest” missing from our world of painting art. In other word, the theme provide opportunities for us to find the aisthesis, a sensible one within the artwork, which apparently has been lost as it was swallowed by representation. It is aisthesis that Lyotard referred to as Figure, Figural. It is lost because it is being overwhelmed by the logic of meaning ruled by discourses, like a closed system of language that’s able to make people fear of “slipping”. “The Figural” is not the figure in figurative paintings, not merely a series of letters or sentences in a text, but the rhythm, intonation, a type of ‘truncation’ that is yet to be named. It is seemingly, in Klee’s terminology, the “invisible force,” and in Sudjojono’s term, “Visible Soul.” Thus, finding “The Figural” is rediscovering a distinctive art logic, the language of work that is willing to be wrong.

Participating artists: Agus “Baqul” Purnomo, Anis Ekowindu, Dedy Sufriadi, Farhansiki, Januri, Popok Tri Wahyudi and Seno Andrianto, to compose figural and textual visuals from what they perceived using their artistic senses from their niche.

Image: © Agus 'Baqul' Purnomo, Jogja Contemporary (Sangkring Art Space)