Ivan Sagito has been painting things that do not take place in front of our physical eyes. It is as if he is packing up the objective facts and storing them in our mind in order to find the subjective ones. The subjective facts then grow into many phenomena. Generally, Ivan Sagito's works try to repress the aspects of forms, pushing them into a free and deep space. Ivan's paintings offer facts that are different with those we actually see. Umar Kayam, a late critic and literary figure, once wrote that Ivan actually viewed the outer- and the inner-world as an unstable system that can only be understood through continuous dialogues using the idioms of the inner-world. Ivan's inner-world, meanwhile, is free from established idioms and needs to be eternally explored.

Take, for example, the concept of "clothing" (in this case it can mean "the body" itself, "the apparel," or "the sash"), or think about our pre-conception when we see someone "drying out the clothes." For Ivan, this is the best symbol to portray the "dispossessed" feeling and soul--the clothes being something we first see and use before we go further into ourselves and form our "being." The idioms and symbols of clothes form the main theme of his works. The clothes are the "container," something that surrounds us, something inseparable from us. They form the theme of all Ivan's works that depict the anger, fury, and other matters that are always with us. The clothes are our subjectivity and at the same time they are also our objectivity.

"I usually use the sash to depict the differences and significations inherent with it. The inner-world can have several different layers," Ivan says. "Over the sash is the world I interpret. I paint this world using the head that owns the body, looking backward." Here he wants to say that there are different time and realities below the sash.

The gloomy and dim colors, the silent world, the spiritual life with the figures sailing smoothly along the circle of life... all these seem to be eternally manifested on his canvases. Ivan effortlessly breaks the symbolical meanings that have been taking place before.

Therefore, interpellation in this case is symbolized with the sash and the certain signs bearing the fleeting existence of matters. In his previous work, Ivan once expressed that life also carries death within it. Ivan uses the sash to signify something inherent in him, which is stronger as it goes deeper inward. The sash also signifies the strong connection between the "outside and inside," the "outward and inward." It might seem that Ivan's thoughts tend to be ambiguous to some extent: outwardly he views the reality, but at the same time he reads that reality with his subjective feelings. This is but one form of the "interpellation" in Ivan's thoughts.

Anzieb

Born on December 13, 1957 in Malang.
Studied at Indonesia Institute of The Arts (ISI), Yogyakarta (BFA; 1985).

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2000 "Freezing The Time", Drawing Exhibition, Gallery of Northern Territory University, Darwin, Australia.
2003 Red Mill Gallery, Vermont Studio Centre, US.

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
1998 Osaka Triennale 1998 Sculpture, Osaka, Japan.
1999-2000 "Under Cover", The Pretoria Art Museum and Ipopeng Project, Pretoria, South Africa & Sandton Civic Gallery, Johannesburg. 1999 "Soul Ties", Art from Indonesia, Singapore Art Museum.
2000 "Gambar Ajal dan Kegirangan Baru", with Eddie Hara, Santi Gallery, Jakarta.
2001 "Reading Frida Kahlo", Nadi Gallery, Jakarta Osaka Triennale 2001, Japan; "Not Just The Political", H. Widayat Museum, Mungkid, Magelang; "Melik Nggendhong Lali", 50th BASIS Anniversary, Bentara Budaya Art Centre, Yogyakarta; "Reading through Symbols", Embun Gallery, Yogyakarta.
2002 Group Exhibition, Canna Gallery, Jakarta .

back to top