Bhayangkara: Sigit Ramadhan Solo Exhibition

A solo exhibition of Sigit Ramadhan (1989), a young Indonesian artist in Galerie OVO, uses a series of component works to express the artist’s views and imaginations on an ideal society and political life. Ramadhan looks at the police as he tries to interpret and interpret the police-civilian relations he observes. By describing street demonstrations or conflicts at the protest scene, he reflects on the current social situation in Indonesia, and expands on thinking about a situation that is now widespread in the world The problem for the state-how the police can become a tool for rulers to consolidate power.

Ramadhan mainly uses woodcut prints as a creative medium. The use of woodcut prints as a means of mocking current events, expressing protests, and demanding reforms is not a rare example in the history of Chinese and Western arts. However, Ramadhan is particularly special in the treatment of picture structure and solo exhibitions as a whole concept , Has a relatively high degree of integrity, and can show the artist’s unique aesthetic temperament, and general resistance prints generally show a temporary, flowing, rough, bloody, highly emotional, almost uniform, similar texture, keep a clear gap.

Ramadhan exhibited both black and white and color prints. Black and white prints are the most commonly used color for resistance prints, because they can be completed quickly and it is easy to highlight the essence of the image. Ramadhan’s color engravings use a single-plate technique (Reductive woodcut), which is generally considered to be a technique invented by Pablo Picasso (1881-1973). Color, which can effectively save plate making and printing time. Unlike many creators who are skilled in printmaking, it is easy to fall into the beautiful illusion of exquisite images. Ramadhan’s single-plate reproductions still retain the simple but not simplified texture, even in some complex and delicate composition processing. On the other hand, it will not reveal excessive decoration temperament.

In general, resistance woodcuts often use expressionist styles to sculpt plates, expressing the author’s deep feelings with straight and sharp knives and bold twisted lines. Such image tension can especially cause viewers to express their emotions and encourage them. Human characteristics. Although Ramadan’s composition and swordsmanship also have a certain expressionist style expression, but retains a relatively restrained temperament, through the artist’s unique color plan, the overall picture reveals an elegant quality, and contrasts with Southeast Asian artists’ preferences. The engraved impression is quite different.

Ramadhan is good at completing the final picture of the work in a combined manner. This method is used for several large series of works and single works on display this time. The former is framed and assembled separately, and the latter is composed of Don’t combine frames before framing. The grid-divided picture has both polar effects of divergence and convergence, creating a visual experience of dragging and deforming the image. The overall not only has a sense of perspective that the monitor screen can read multiple times, but also has a sense of interest in the scheduling of the movie split-screen scene. Ramadhan’s ability to manipulate component screens effectively creates a unique viewing experience, which is different from the multiple visual forces usually caused by printmaking with its reproducible characteristics.

Ramadhan is also good at using the exhibition space to enhance the tension of the image. The artist cleverly uses the narrow and long space of Galerie OVO to allow large-scale works to cover the entire wall in a nearly full version, strengthening the oppression of image content. Force and message launching force create a visual experience like close-up close-ups. The small-sized works in the exhibition hall have the functions of pauses, clauses, and transitions like punctuation marks in writing. On the whole, Ramadan transformed the problem that graphic creators may encounter in the pictorial space, through the arrangement of the solo exhibition space, into the image of the entire exhibition.

Chen Xiao-Peng