Friend or Foe

Artist: I Gede Arya Sucitra, I Nyoman Agus Wijaya
Curated by Kadek Krishna Adidharma

Friend or Foe juxtaposes very different artists: a painter and a sculptor. Both Arya Sucitra and Nyoman Agus Wijaya are young up-and-coming artists who have shown promising beginnings. They have unique sensibilities. Arya chooses to paint cows on canvas, while Nyoman sculpts dogs out of metal. Both have chosen animals they love. Yet these creatures remain an enigma to the artists, especially in unveiling mankind’s relationship with these domesticated creatures.

Competition and collaboration are two key modes of interaction among artists. Hundreds of thousands of artists eke out an existence in Yogyakarta and Bali, many of them still struggling for recognition and success. Undoubtedly, there is competition. The communal living environs of most artists and the agrarian communities they flourish within have also led to many collaborative practices. Can artists remain friendly while battling to be at the head of the pack? These two young artists prefer to answer these questions through humour in their work.

A cow’s head is displayed upon a plate of fresh green grass set upon a healing purple background. This painting titled Fresh Food by Arya Sucitra is cheerful in its colour scheme but menacing, especially when we become aware of the cow’s eyes staring accusingly straight back at us. Rendered in a style that is very close to realist, the composition remains playful, especially the cow’s lips and stuck-out tongue, begging the question, ‘What is fresh?’ … ‘What, in this picture, is food?’

A dog doggedly hounds a man’s boot, wrestling it tight in its jaws. Man is conspicuously absent from this sculpture, but omnipresent. He is there in his walking boots of (possibly military) power. He is there in his domesticated ‘best friend’. He is there in the humour of the situation: Man’s ‘best friend’ is playing with and making mockery out of a boot ostensibly made to ‘walk all over you’.

The dog, boot, laces and all are of cut and welded metal. They remain angular and have a shiny polish, the signatures of Nyoman Agus Wijaya. Despite their industrial strength and glitz, the canine remains graceful, just as the questioning cow on canvas retains its bovine grace. Both depictions of animals hint at intelligence. Both contain menace, but remain playful. Are they man’s friends or foes? Perhaps, the artists are asking the reverse question: ‘How has man behaved, as friend or foe?’

In this Komaneka duet, two young artists explore antagonistic and symbiotic relationships through their favourite themes. Cows and dogs: Friend or foe?

Opening: December 28, 2009 at 6pm
Start Time : December, 30 [star-year] at 6:00 pm
End Time : January, 30 2010 at 8:00 pm
Location: Komaneka Fine Art Gallery
Address: Jl. Monkey Forest, Ubud, Gianyar, Bali 80571


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