The art works by Agus TBR presented in this exhibition are not artistic expressions depicting reality. Like many other works of contemporary art, the images here were formed by collection of signs found in reality. The paintings are “constructions” of reality developed from signs found in real life; signs that are easily recognized owing to the viewer’s memory of popular photographs or images in posters, advertisements, magazine reports, or image bank on the Internet.

The collection of signs in Agus’s works gives a strong impression that they talk of human space of living or dwelling space. Observing them using the approach of semiotics, one might conclude that the issue of space has to do with environmental and ecological problems. One of Agus’s paintings, Di Mana Batas Sungai (Where Lies the River Edge, 2010), does seem to confirm this. In fact, however, Agus is not advocating such issues. The reading that merely takes into account the signs on his paintings might mislead us.

There are still other symptoms in his paintings that one needs to consider: i.e. the symbols and metaphors, as evident in the paintings of Cokelat buat Anakku (Chocolate for My Child, 2011), Pendatang Baru (Newcomer, 2010), and Titik Asa (The Point of Hope, 2011). These symbols and metaphors reveal that the issue of dwelling in Agus’s works is not limited to the issues of the physical space. Rather, the “space” here can refer to home, public spaces, the city, or homeland.

Agus’s idioms also strongly reveal an expressive language; an artistic language that has long been known, popularized by expressionism. The signs he presents using the expressive language give rise to images of slums revealing chaos and the tensions within systems. The merging between the signs and the expressive language is evident in all Agus’s watercolor painting on paper. It is also shown in his oil paintings of Di Batas Air Menitik I (On the Edge of Falling Water I, 2010), Di Batas Air Menitik II (On the Edge of Falling Water II, 2010), and Tanah Mendengar, Air Mengabarkan (The Land Listens, the Water Conveys, 2010).

The above expositions show that the signs in Agus’s paintings serve only as an introduction to the real issue at hand, while the language of expressions or the idioms lead the viewer deeper into the problem. Together, they betray Agus’s thoughts. Through the signs and the idioms, Agus constructs a drama of space revealing various paradoxes and interplays. These spatial components are like stages in a drama presenting a variety of tensions requiring resolutions at the end of the show. In Agus’s works, however, the endings of the stories are left open.

Jim Supangkat,
Exhibition curator