Irman A. Rahman is a self-taught artist. He had involved a project of 'art activism' called Seni Rupa Koran ('Newspaper Art') in the 1999-2000. Under the umbrella of Seni Rupa Koran, this group carried out a variety of activities, such as performance art and the placing of posters, all done in public places. From these circumstances, the artistic tendencies of Irman A. Rahman have been formed.

To Irman A. Rahman, an empty canvas holds a thousand possibilities. He very rarely embraces a fixed concept, theme or plan at the beginning of his creative process. He discovers the theme and develops it within the working process itself as a result of the internal interaction among the painter, the media utilized and the technique or method employed. Blocks of color, brush strokes, textural marks, or even splatters and runs provide inspiration for the exploration of visual possibilities. The visual ideas and concepts grow up out of the working process itself. This process becomes a kind of negotiation among the artist's subject, the character of the media, and the type of technique used. The tension generated within this creative process eventually results in a process allowing the artist to free himself of his own internal tensions within the execution of the image upon the canvas. The images that emerge, whether they be representational or abstract, are intended as an open text to be read or interpreted by the people viewing the artwork.

Irman A. Rahman intentionally places the label Untitled on his works because of the above conviction. Irman readily admits that the issue of having to come up with a title presents a problem for him. He is of the opinion that titles can limit the freedom of the viewers of a piece of art to explore and discover for themselves the possibilities within the appreciation of an artwork. The blocks of color with their various nuances constitute the objective reality of color as color, with each individual hue having its own specific character, even though each and every color also has an individual associative potential inherent within it that is reminiscent or suggestive of other things. This is also true in relationship to form or shape. A even curved form that is juxtaposed to or mixed with other uneven or distorted forms created from or splatters and runs create an effect of visual tension. One form may variously either dominate or strengthen another while remaining within the unity of expression, as is the case within the comparison between even and standard form and shapes that are uneven or not standard when the forms interact and take on a sense of balance or harmony within the juxtaposition.

One thing that is highly interesting within this context, is the introduction of letters. The letters, that are introduced as a graphic element, are presented not only for the sake of the sensation of their shape, but also because of the potential the sound of that letter holds. The letters are not placed in such a way that they form words or sentences that can be articulated verbally, but they do contain the potential for the introduction of the element of sound that represents a kind of stuttering expression.

Bambang Subarnas

Born on July 16, 1970 in Bandung.
Self-taught artist.

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
1998 5th Philip Morris Indonesian Art Awards, National Gallery, Jakarta; 5th Philip Morris ASEAN Art Awards, Opera House, Hanoi, Vietnam; "To X", Cipta II Gallery, Ismail Marzuki Park (TIM), Jakarta.
1999 Winsor & Newton Indonesian Art Competition, Hidayat Gallery, Bandung; Winsor & Newton International Art Competition, Mall Galleris, London; World Trade Centre, Stockholm; United Nations, New York.
2000 "Untitled Display", R 66 Gallery, Bandung.
2001 8th Philip Morris Indonesian Art Awards, National Gallery, Jakarta; "Unstable Logic", Soemardja Gallery, Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), Bandung & Edwin Gallery, Jakarta.
2002 0th Asian Art Biennale Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh; 17th Asian International Art Exhibition, Daejeon Municipal Museum of Art, Daejeon, Korea.

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