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Magnum Opus: Urban Legend
2005
277 x 1774 cm
Oil on canvas





Klinik Seni Ta[X]u

Founded in 2001 in Bali, the Ta[X]u Art Clinic tries to develop contemporary art and present fresh ideas in art. The group mainly works with young Indonesian artists and manages various art activities such as exhibitions, workshops, seminars, discussions, and talks. Since 2002, Ta[X]u Art Clinic has also been publishing a bi-monthly art newsletter, Kitsch, now in its 11th edition. Among the activities held by the group are: exhibition of woodcut works by Edo Wulia (2005); “Cooking History” exhibition at the Cemeti Art House, Yogyakarta (2004); performance art by Bryce Anbin, Australia (2003); and discussion on “Ethno-Nationalism Symptoms in the Art Communities in Bali” (2002). In the CP Biennale 2005, Ta[X]u Art Clinic presents some of its artists:
Wayan Suja, Ketut Moniarta, Made Bayak Muliana, Dewa Ardana, Gede Puja, Made Dodit Artawan, Komang Agus Purnamasanti, Putu Agus Sumiantara, and Gede Mahendrayasa.

This oil painting began as an effort to build a metaphor/symbol of diversity characterizing the urban world. In this artwork the canvas is considered as an analogy to the real urban space, and the idioms of realistic portrayals as "parallel" to the "reality" of diversity. The "visual characteristics" of the nine artists of the Ta[X]u art clinic are the representation of the self, and arranged as one complete whole "imagined" to be in harmony. We try to build harmony amid the diverse choices in terms of subject matters and point of views .

This work is an effort to represent the diverse exponents of the Ta[X]u art clinic, and symbolizes the diversity situation generally emerging in the urban area. To be pluralistic, you see... The work can be considered to represent the general picture of the urban art community, or at least it can be a "portrait" of the diversity occurring in our group, growing as it is in the urban area of Denpasar city.

To us, the collaboration level in this work is very high. We usually only give a thematic outline to an event that we'll tackle as a group; then all members will make their own works independently, The works are then presented together. The work of each member still stands independently, albeit having one common theme. The preliminary process of this work for the CP Biennale 2005 stayed the same: each of us independently made a design plan for our own work in terms of the theme or the subject matter, using invariably the realistic portrayal. When the works were half done, we took a picture of every work and then processed it with the graphic software. Then we arranged the composition. Here lay the difficulty. We let the individual artists to be free and independent, yet we tried to arrange all the works to appear harmonious and whole. After every work was finished, we gathered them all, fashioned and rearranged them as a whole. If the result seemed to not so perfectly matched, the first composition would be changed according to the existing space. (Artist’s Statement)

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