HANDIWIRMAN SAPUTRA | (i) Potongan Benda Kosong Luar Tampak Dalam/Seri Pola(Section of an Empty ObjectThe Outside Looks Like the Inside/Pattern Series)(ii) Potongan Benda Kosong Dalam Tampak Luar/Seri Pola(Section of an Empty ObjectThe Inside Looks Like the Outside/Pattern Series)

Private Collection, Hong Kong

There is evidence of wear and accretions along the edges of work. These works could benefit from a light, professional cleaning as there are some accretions on their surfaces. Each unframed, on a stretcher.
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"In fact, my intention is to tell stories, to convey something through these objects and forms. It is perhaps naïve for me to say that every object has its expression, has its story to tell...Many people feel there is no connection between the works I make and the titles I give them: What on earth is the relationship between this title and the visual form of the work? But actually they are all connected, those forms and their titles. To me everything about them has its own clear story. I can tell you a lot of things about my objects and their forms."
- Handiwirman Saputra 
cited in Archeology of a Hotel Room, exhibition catalogue, Nadi Gallery, Jakarta2007, P. 15-16 Handiwirman Saputra’s compositions are clean and simple, characterized by an austere background with one or two objects positioned at the center. By revealing so little, they entice the viewer to ponder upon them more.

Uncluttered and minimalist, the present painting (i) Potongan Benda Kosong: Luar Tampak Dalam (Section of an Empty Object: The Outside Looks Like the Inside) depicts what appears to be the nose of a pig, while the second work (ii) Potongan Benda Kosong: Dalam Tampak Luar (Section of an Empty Object: The Inside Looks Like the Outside) reveals the inside of that pig’s nose.

By placing a familiar subject – a pig’s nose in (i) - out of its framework and portraying it as a separate entity from the body of the pig itself, Saputra redefines how the public interacts with all the varying facets in its environment. The object (i.e. the pig’s muzzle) is kosong, or ‘empty’, and devoid of the context that determines its function and purpose. Painting (ii) features the inside of that detached snout, but this is only recognizable when the two paintings are juxtaposed, and their titles revealed. Without painting (i) as a reference, the subject in (ii) is bizarre and meaningless. It could simple be an abstract form, a study in geometry or an arrangement of color fields against negative space.

Blurring the boundaries between the representational and non-representational, Saputra invites viewers into a metaphorical world in order to associate the strange objects in his paintings with things that are familiar. The artist gifts the spectator with a fresh perspective, ultimately influencing how the onlooker chooses to interpret any given paradigm in question.