This curatorial essay is written by Asikin Hasan for the solo art sculpture exhibition of Basrizal Bara. Translating this essay, I myself had never seen the works, nor the catalogues :D
A variety of stones, tons in weight, scattered in the front lawn of a residence serving also as a workshop in Yogyakarta. Onyx, marble, black granites, solidified wood fossils, all gathered from countless expeditions along the beaches and inlands of Java. The black granites, hunted by the sculptor Al Bara himself, said to being used by the Dutch colonial to break the waves in the port of Tanjung Mas centuries ago.
Questions arise when we observe the boulders of stones. What is it for? How did Al Bara transport it from a certain location to his house lawn? How many people needed to move them one by one, and how long did it take? It then leads to the question of numbers: How much does it cost before these boulders are finally made into a sculpture?
Of course from the contemporer sculpting art’s point of view, Al Bara’s steps are not only inefficient but also not economic. Our modern sculpting art, starting to rise in the 50s, had progressed significantly in the aspect of medium. The use of stone as a main media of sculpting art has been increasingly abandoned. This makes Al Bara a controversy in the contemporary sculpting art.
Indonesia has a relatively new history in the modern sculpting art, started by a number of painters exploring the 3-dimensional field to gain broader experience in visual arts. None of them had the basic knowledges of sculpting art. Affandi tried to build a self-portrait using only clay as a medium. Hendra Gunawan sculpted andesits, one of his works is a figure of the General Sudirman standing with one hand rested on a staff. Nowadays the self portrait sculpture could still be found in the Affandi Museum while the General Sudirman sculpture is still standing in front of the DPRD building in Yogyakarta.
The development of techniques and medium in the sulcpture art is not as advanced as the painting art, considering the complexity of it compared to other field of visual arts. For the first time in history, sculptor Edhi Soenarso bypassing the complexity by using metals in his works. During the 60s Soenarso received commissions from the first president of the Indonesian republic, Soekarno, to build monumental sculptures in a number of strategic spots in capital Jakarta. Among them are the Selamat Datang monument, Pembebasan Irian Barat, and the Dirgantara.
Big scaled monuments were then shrinking rapidly into small scaled metal sculptures. This quick change influenced other sculptors. Through the works of G. Sidharta Soegijo, But Muchtar, Rita Widagdo, Arsono, Nyoman Nuarta, and Dolorosa Sinaga, metal as a medium is getting more popular in the younger generation.
Contemporer sculpting art consciously exploits the revolusionary resources development. New inventions in the chemical industry producing diverse new mediums had made it easier for sculptors to create more various artworks.
The popular industry-made mediums are fibre glass or resin. Not only because of the economical value, it is also easier to work with, enabling mass production, and it’s open to the possibilities of coating using materials such as; brass, silver, bronze, etc., making it seem fully metal.
In the world of fast lanes driven by the industrial world, Al Bara chose the hard way. Spinning like a wheel, hauling bulge by bulge of stones, he perseveres in the most primitive medium in the history of sculpting art, ignoring economic and efficiency reasons. He’s not very much into artifical mediums such as resin although had experimented with it in the past.
Al Bara works are far from his Yogyakartan fellow sculptors tendencies. He reminds us of the age old traditions and works of sculptors in the past. Prompting us to imagine the crude and rigid primitive sculpture of menhirs, dolmens, or the stone henge in the Great Britain. A construction of massive boulders put on top one another. Perhaps Al Bara is one of the contemporary sculptors inheriting the ancient idealism.
After all the efforts of hoarding stones and thousands year old fossils, what is Al Bara’s next plan? People might think he would carve them inch by inch, as he was taught in the Sculpting Art Studio in the Department of Fine Art, Institut Seni Indonesia Yogyakarta. He was taught to respect nature and treat mediums with affection. A politeness in each step of shaping the raw structure into a delicate finished product. When the chisel hits the rock surface we deal with the momentum of change. We learn to control our emotions and bear patience with the process. The practice of sculpting art is not merely about shaping an object into something else. The deeper philosophy is about understanding life itself.
This simplicity is scarce within contemporary sculptors, and also in Al Bara’s practice with his works. This member of Indonesian Sculptor Association doesn’t chisel stone tediously, instead he chooses to severe the stone using electric chainsaw—commonly used in the industrial world, moving with high speed for instant production. In the hands of Al Bara, the solid boulder melts like a pudding.
If we are used to the natural process and enjoy sculpting art with its intensity of shapes like we do with light-shifts between dark and bright in photography, we won’t see it in Al Bara’s works. He was too straightforward. It’s hard to perceive the emotional connections between the sculptor as a subject and his environment as an object. Each is independent, with competitive tendencies to overrule one another. His works emanate machoism; the rugged, tough, often destructive character of men. Portraying the typical behaviour of modern men and his ambition to conquer the world.
Several of his works took opposition over the nature and character of the medium he uses. For example in Gunung, a 90x30x40 cm work, mixing gemstone with white lead, made in 2005. He defined the rhythm of nature by scratching the stone using a chainsaw. The contour dominates the natural lines of the stones itself. He demonstrated his power over his objects by not paying heed to the natural rhythm and pattern of the stone. He built his own universe on top of the medium’s. In other words, he constructs his own version of interpretation overlaying the norms of beauty. He tore apart our concensus of natural beauty.
Similar inclination can be seen in Joged Bersama, made of marbles on 2004 with the dimension of 100 x 200 x 45 cm. In this work he completely erased the medium’s character. His sole and only ambition was the theme and the stone was supressed to achieve it.
Furthermore, he has a disposition to violate the main aspects of the modern sculpting art such as plasticity, harmony, intensity and other normative tendencies. All his works often clash with general aesthetic values. In Jalan Surga, the 400 x 100 x 300 cm black granites and copper sculpture made in 2006, paradise is none like its common depiction in religious believes; gardens, ponds, beautiful angels, comfort and contentment. Al Bara delivered it in simple shapes, arid, with pain hidden within the connected shapes. The sculpture has two symmetrical staircases on each side, a round kerawang in between the stairs, with a medallion shape on the top. A contradiction of shapes perhaps meant to be a pair of positive and negative, in a glimpse it resembles vaginal and phallic shapes. He then bravely added footprints on the steps of the stair as part of the sculpture. Not knowing Al Bara, people would’ve mistaken him as an alien towards the principal of modern sculpting art, blindly breaking rules.
The question arises to whether breaking main stream sculpting art polities and rules were intentional. Perhaps he was worried or bored with the general tendencies. Or maybe it’s an uninhibited exploration to find new ways in the contemporary sculpting art. Al Bara works regularly displays contemporary art problems instead of presenting a completed art object. Is he really sculpting, or is he trying to define the fundamental of sculpting art?
Basrizal Al Bara was born in Bengkalis, Sumatra on 30 April 1966. Since his education in SMSR (Sekolah Menengah Seni Rupa) Padang in 1983, he was determined to choose art as his way of life. He proceeded by learning modern sculpting art in the Department of Fine Art ISI in 1988. As all young sculptors, his early works were figurative and realistic. A common tendency in the phase of technical studies over structure, anatomy, and understanding of shape plasticity.
His progress in the last decade had brought him to a wilder side, too wild even. We can still recognize figures in his worls, but it shifted as symbols, or he would only grab the main ideas as an abstraction of figures. Through stone as the main medium, sometimes mixed with other medias such as glass, metal or other objects, he explores uninhibited in sculpting art.
Sculpting art dramatic sides of volumes or solidity can no longer bee seen in most of his works, when in the practice of sculpting art it is what often exploited to differ it from two-dimensional works. The intuitive tendencies in his works show his efforts of finding his own path outside the common practice. His works brought us the strain between modern sculpting art with primitive or traditional sculptures.
In 2005, his work with 18 granites boulders, with the dimension of 360 x 160 x 200 cm, was titled Mengukur Bayang-Bayang. The title perhaps was inspired to a local saying from his homeland, “Measure the shadows as long as your own height”, speaking of modesty in doing something, of always measuring one’s own abilities with the goal one tries to achieve. In this work Al Bara confronted the aspects of modern art with the monumental primitive art. Figures are only a flat symbol without volumes. We recognize the figure through shapes implying a resemblance to human head and bodice. The flat figures for him are the symbolic shadows. The tons of granites, piled up to 4 meters tall, reminded us to the construction of Borobudur or other ancient temple in Java.
Al Bara’s works present the various forms he’d absorbed from many sources throughout the years, both natural and artificial. His passion and techniques are shown repeatedly, like in this exhibition also. His tendencies in Mengukur Bayang-Bayang, re-appears in Tumbuh Kembali, of wood fossil, granite and white lead, made in 2005 with the size 500 x 80 x 70 cm, the 300 x 60 x 40 cm wood fossil and granite sculpture made in 2006 and titled Berdua, and also the 300 x 40 x 30 cm Totem sculpted in 2005 on a wood fossil. The monumental aspect of these works obviously is influenced by primitive and traditional sculpting art.
Despite his wanderings and explorations, the shadow of figures never leaves his works. For example, the marble sculpture Perjalanan, sized 95 x 40 x 30 cm which he made in 2003, displays the impression of a walking figure. Different from other figures, this very expressive piece reveals limbs and details of hands. Even the figure’s coat was carefully sculpted to give the realistic impression of a breeze on a piece of fabric as the body moves.
Another example is Belahan Jiwa, the 300 x 40 x 60 granite sculpture made in 2006. Here the figure has no volume and nothing but flat. He only explores the negative and positive shapes. This tendency often appears in his works for the last couple of years.
Al Bara's works demonstrate a liberty unrestrained. The various stories in his works; Rumah di Kaki Bukit, Lingga dan Yoni, Penjaga Malam, Orang Kaya, Di Khayangan Ada Pesta, Gerbang Surga, seem to surpass the capacity of sculpting art itself. We always face a paradox when we face the works of Al Bara. Exactly where we can find his modesty and originality.
