HANDIWIRMAN SAPUTRA | Tak Berakar, Tak Berpucuk, Painting #09 (No Roots, No Shoots, Painting #09)

Private Asian Collection

Jakarta, Indonesia, Galeri Nasional Indonesia (The National Gallery of Indonesia), “Tak Berakar, Tak Berpucuk (No Roots, No Shoots)” (solo), 29 March – 5 April 2011  

Berlin, Germany, Galerie Christian Hosp, “EVERYTHING YOU CAN IMAGINE IS REAL #1 by Handiwirman Saputra, Yuli Prayitno and Yusra Martunus”, 25 June - 30 July 2011

This work is in good overall condition as viewed. Any inconsistencies are inherent to the medium and artist's working method.
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“Handiwirman finds his “ideal” objects in disposal bins, in various objects and waste attached to the roots by the riverbank, everywhere, around it, the leftover things, used things, and the castoffs; the objects that appear “pure”: had no function, no art. Or, in Handiwirman’s words: Having no roots, no shoots.”¹ An astounding and immense work demanding our undivided attention, Tak Berakar, Tak Berpucuk, Painting #09 (No Roots, No Shoots) is a quadriptych painting by contemporary Indonesian artist, Handiwirman Saputra. When fully pieced together, this impressive painting stretches over 12 meters—a monumental feat for the artist. In its overwhelming physical presence, Saputra’s innovative creative process and impressive technical dexterity comes to the fore. Indicating a fresh direction in the artist’s oeuvre, Tak Berakar, Tak Berpucuk, Painting #09 (No Roots, No Shoots) reveals his time-consuming and multi-layered practice. As an artist who utilizes various genres such as installation, photography and painting to to communicate his visions and ideas, Saputra here delivers a profound reality that triggers his audience’s reflection upon their relationship with viewership - its very nature and meaning of viewing.

Born in Bukittingi, Sumatra, Saputra is a co-founder and prominent member of the artist association Kelompok Seni Rupa Jendela (Jendela Art Collective), one of Indonesia’s most influential contemporary art groups. While some of his peers focus on socio-political issues, Saputra offers a fresh voice and finds inspiration in the mundane and the everyday object. In many ways Saputra’s search for beauty from found objects runs tangent to the concept of the ‘ready-made’ as coined by French-American artist Marcel Duchamp, as it aims to shift our focus from the appearance of art to the conception or function of art. An accomplished sculptor and painter, the artist straddles comfortably between two and three dimensional mediums, questioning viewers’ perspectives of seeing the world around them. 

Saputra’s process involves a careful study and manipulation of the objects that are the center of his works, drawing meaning from each stage. In 2000, he started photographing intriguing combinations of items like bits of paper, wire, plastic lumps and thread. He would then render them in sculpture or on canvases in a minimalistic manner, evoking something that is faintly recognizable yet mysterious. These extensions of the still-life genre emphasized the issue of perception and the way of seeing.

Tak Berakar, Tak Berpucuk is part of a solo series that marks the artist’s departure from the still-life towards more varied directions. The current painting hails from this important series and ushers a new direction in Saputra’s artistic practice. The landscape panorama draws our attention to the artist’s heightened confidence and new found inspiration in the environs that evoke the mundane. In fact the painting appears to reference the values of the New Art Movement lead by S. Sudjojono, which was a “common effort wishing to situate artistic activities in the map of banal day-to-day living, like the rhythms and manifestations of our lives in general.”² Indeed the work is a far cry from the scenic or the romanticized mooi indie depictions of Indonesia, and doesn’t reference any recognizable natural landmark. Rather Saputra chooses instead to monumentalize and find beauty in something ordinary, a scene that one may walk by and barely notice.

 One of the largest works by the artist, the Tak Berakar, Tak Berpucuk, Painting #09 (No Roots, No Shoots) depicts a section of the Kotheng Riverbank in the area of the Sempu Mountain, Yogyakarta. It shows a horizontal panorama of the river during the low tide, its still surface is lit in various areas by the soft rays of the morning sun. The waters retreat to reveal the roots and mossy surfaces of rocks that usually lie underneath, their dense networks and small ecosystems out in the open. It is a detailed rendition of the natural diversity one finds even in the most obscure locations of Indonesia. Before the launch of his solo exhibition in Nadi Gallery in 2011, he revealed a photograph of the Kotheng river to the curators and asked them to interpret it.³ A discussion about the unique horizontal format and the ‘reality’ that the photographic medium offers grew out of this initiative, later informing the artist’s approach when he revisited the scene and transformed it into this magnificent painting.

Although both the photograph and painting employ the same horizontal composition, Saputra elevates the current work from object to subject, document to statement. By choosing a sepia-like palette for the entire painting, the artist eliminates the vibrancy of color and encourages our eyes to study and concentrate on what informs our perception of the work. The trees, rocks and roots are delineated in black “puffy” ink with a rather graphic quality. The artist has distilled the details of these elements into flattened shapes and small indications of shadows. As a result, they start to lose their distinctiveness and begin to resemble abstract forms and eclectic patterns. The canvas’s muted brown tones not only recalls the effects of a discolored back and white photograph, it also imbues a surreal sense of the decay and tranquility of the forestry.

Importantly the work’s panoramic format provides a unique viewing experience, overwhelming the viewer by the sheer audacity of its grand scale. As Saputra’s audience stand before the landscape presented, they immerse themselves into a different physical encounter with the two-dimensional work. The continuous stream of water that runs through the painting suggests a sense of continuity or of the cyclical nature of life. Traces of human activity are subtly included as the artist shows remnants of plastic bags or cloth that dangle from the roots of the trees. While these motifs might point to certain socio-political or environmental commentaries, they can also refer to larger themes that relate to the everyday and notions of waste. For the artist, the work is a powerful statement that opens the dialogue about “the formal aspects that enable us to re-examine some issues in relation to the artistic practices of contemporary art today”.⁴

The ambiguity of Saputra’s oeuvre encourages his viewers to deeply engage in the formal nature of his work. Tak Berakar, Tak Berpucuk, Painting #09 (No Roots, No Shoots) stands as a powerful testament to the sophistication of the artist’s personal vocabulary. He constructs poetry from the mundane, beauty from the everyday, thereby offering an authentic yet clear perspective of reality.

¹ Enin Supriyanto and Agung Hujatnikajennong, “Tak Berakar, Tak Berpucuk/ No Roots, No Shoots” Handiwirman Saputra Solo Show Catalogue, Nadi Gallery, Indonesia, 2011 p. 18

² Ibid, p. 10

³ The New Art Movement, First Project, June 1987, Pasaraya Dunia Fantasi Catalogue, p. 2 

⁴ Enin Supriyanto and Agung Hujatnikajennong, “Tak Berakar, Tak Berpucuk/ No Roots, No Shoots” Handiwirman Saputra Solo Show Catalogue, Nadi Gallery, Indonesia, 2011 p. 24