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THE CHANGE INTERPRETED | HISTORY | LOCALNESSENTANG WIHARSO > BIO | FEATURED WORK
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The issue of identity, within the context of the present time, as has also been experienced by Entang, is becoming increasingly distanced from geographic, linguistic, religious and other traditional references. The current consensus is that identity is not a static concept. Cultural identity is no longer a status conferred upon a human being at birth and of necessity unchangeable after that. Identity is no longer understood solely within the prison-like framework of the definiteness, the authority, or the authenticity of something. Just the opposite is true, in fact: identity is assumed to be a dynamic process that apparently changes within interaction with the processes of culture, politics, and social conditions. It cannot be denied that cultural identity - as theorized by Stuart Hall - is, indeed, a continuous production process that will never have an end. The identity is formed within this process. It seems that Entang or any other individual in this global village, is a figure visualized within his current canvas. A figure viewed by and observed with any number of human eyes and paradoxical norms that overlap one with another among the many meanings of identity contained within traditional tools and methods of measurement and valuation, and identity as comprehended within other frameworks of thinking. Within this silver era, this third millennium era, the problem of identity is being questioned again in order to put an end to such questioning. Kuss Indarto Born in 1967, Tegal, Central Java, Indonesia. SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS |
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CP Foundation | About CP Biennale | 2003 | 2005 | Contact Us
Jl. Suryopranoto 67A, Jakarta 10160, Indonesia. ph. +62.21.3448126, 3853206 | fax. +62.21.3853203, 3853208 info@cp-foundation.org |
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No discussion of this work titled Shifting Eyes, can be done without taking a look at the previous creative process of the artist, Entang. At the very least, the artist's current works - continuing to hold to the ideals of "independence" and authenticity" - are still strongly linked to previous works. This connection is seen most strongly in the visuals and substance of the works. In an exhibition with the theme Strange Journey held in 1997 in Rhode Island USA, for example, the beginnings of the "strangeness" of Entang's works can be traced as a result of direct contact with another culture. This continued in the next exhibition by this artist, Visit to a Sacred Place: Cultural Interrogation and Melting Souls in 2000, and the latest show, Hurting Landscape of 2003. All of these exhibitions seem to place or define the artist as an anxious creature facing an identity crisis in the midst of the exchange of ideas on the subject of multiculturalism.This anxiety is clearly not without reason. The artist is a Muslim and a native Indonesian. (An identity that is formally and structurally the basis for the state to treat its citizens in a discriminate manner.) His wife is a non-Muslim from the West. Even the physical journeys that require him to span the distance between Indonesia and the United States repeatedly, constitute a significant enough psychological and spiritual experience. With two cultures rubbing up against each other like this, it is not surprising that a kind of shock (not necessarily purely culture shock) occurs that has implications within this questioning of the meaning of identity.