The tension and the war in Iraq last April forced Sunaryo to spend more time in front of the TV, following the news, especially the news on the war in Iraq. The war had disturbed Sunaryo. He saw how the events in Irak were no more than a series of injustice. He witnessed how the civilians and the military of Iraq were powerless in front of the coalition attacks led by the mighty United States of America. The coalition was a lot more powerful, in terms of the artillery, personnel, and fund.

The injustice became even stronger as Sunaryo saw that until the war was over the main rationale for the war was still unjustified. There was still no proof. "Those weapons of mass destruction they were talking about... they never find these weapons, do they?" Sunaryo asked. "All over the world, there is no way we can escape the American tentacles," Sunaryo said. Even the United Nations, the institution most hoped to be the fair juror, or at least to be above all countries in the world, could not do anything when it faced the United States. "The pigeon, the symbol of peace - which is the main goal of the UN - could not fly outside this constellation," Sunaryo said as he pointed at the pigeon in the sketches he had made for the installation prepared for this biennale. Through this work, Terperangkap dalam Kurungan (Trapped in the Cage), Sunaryo naturally does not wish to offer any solution to the problem. He was pessimistic exactly because he did not see any solution to get away from the American grip. "What had happened in Iraq may happen anywhere else. Perhaps Korea will be the next target, or perhaps we..." Sunaryo mused.

As we shall see in this exhibition, Terperangkap dalam Kurungan is an installation work using bamboo as its main medium. "Not only does the bamboo fit the requirements for this work, it also carries a certain philosophy within it, especially if I relate it to the Sundanese culture," explained Sunaryo. According to him, when the Sundanese worked their land, they would first make a bamboo fence around the land. The nature of the bamboo that grows in groups also resembles the communal and egalitarian nature of the Sundanese people.

Sunaryo has often used natural objects for his works. Metal, branches from the trees, stones... all have appeared frequently in his works. In 1999, Sunaryo even had a small exhibition "reporting" on his experiments with river stones he encountered along his journey after his 1998 exhibition of Titik Nadir (The Nadir), one of the most expressive and beautiful exhibitions during the Indonesian reform era. He called the 1999 exhibition, Batu Melangkah Waktu (The Stones over Time), as an experiment instead of an artwork. He said that the works were more of an effort to trigger his creative artistry after the fatigue he experienced from watching the corrupt socio-political situations, as he had expressed in Titik Nadir.

Maman Gantra

Born on May 1943 in Banyuma.
Studied at Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), Bandung (BFA; 1969), Carrara, Italy (1975).

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
1999 "Stones as Stepping Stones", Selasar Sunaryo Art Space, Bandung.
2000 "White Poems", Decorous, Jakarta Design Centre, Jakarta.
2001 "A Stage of Metamorphosis", CP Art Space, Washington DC; "Core of Hesitant", Multimedia Installation, R-66 Art House, Bandung.

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
1999 "The Land and Her People", Singapore Art Museum; "The 14th Asian International Art Exhibition", Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Japan.
2000 The 15th Asian International Exhibition, Tainan County Cultural Affairs Bureu, Museum Division, 23 Chung Cheng RD, Hsin-Ying, Taiwan, R.O.C.
2002 The 17th Asian International Arts Exhibition, Daejeon Municipal Museum of Art, Korea.
2003 "In Between" : Perupa dalam Rotasi Media, Andy’s Gallery, Jakarta; 2nd Anniversary Exhibition, Canna Gallery, Jakarta; "all you need is love", Nadi Gallery, Jakarta; Group Exhibition in conjunction with Borobudur International Festival 2003, H. Widayat Museum, Mungkid, Magelang; "Visions on Borobudur", Langgeng Gallery, Magelang.

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