Valentine Willie Fine Art Kuala Lumpur is proud to present a solo exhibition by Cinanti Astria Johansjah, a.k.a Keni, a Bandung-based artist whose works have been known for her idiosyncratic approach toward narratives and fantasy. Graduating from the Faculty of Art and Design, Bandung Institute of Technology in 2008, Keni has mostly worked with watercolor, a medium the artist considers most appropriate to express her fluid and free imagination. Mamihlapinatapai, however, marks Keni’s recent milestone, which features her first-time exploration of three-dimensional objects using ready-made glass jars and sculpted resin.

To date, Keni’s practice has dealt with the artist’s obsession towards the depiction of animals presented as both allegory and reverie. Keni’s commentary often reflects upon the ‘animality’ in the human character. In our anthropocentric world, animals are regularly seen as ‘the other’, a living creature distinguished from human beings in the history of civilization. In many different formal languages, the notion of the ‘animal’ is identified with ‘the uncivilized’ or ‘the wild’. In response to this, works in the exhibition portray animals and the artist’s mimicry of animals to invert and question the superiority of human world.

However, the animal characters in Keni’s visual vocabulary also refer to the artist’s imaginary friends. Keni mixes and juxtaposes the human and animal world through playful narration; here, she combines and mixes symbols, icons and locations, unhindered by the need for meaning. At its most personal level, the artist believes that her works are simply an expression of particular moments from life, namely where her daydreams and thoughts transforms every single breath into a more meaningful consciousness.

Most of Keni’s works in the exhibition simply departs from her question on the polarity between reality and imagination. The title of this exhibition, Mamihlapinatapai, is taken from a word in the Yaghan language of Tierra del Fuego (South America), which has been listed as the most succinct word in the human history. It originally means “a look shared by two people, each wishing that the other would initiate something that they both desire but which neither wants to [initiate].” The fact that the word has been considered as one of the most difficult words to translate is used as a hint at the problems of understanding fantasies in contemporary art practice, and its corollaries.

Agung Hujatnikajennong

Mamihlapinatapai

Having followed Cinanti Astria Johansjah, a.k.a Keni practice for almost five years, I have been intrigued by her intricate approach towards the depiction of animals which is always present in most of her works. In some of her early paintings, Keni often presents herself mimicking animals, or dressed up like particular animals. While in other works, she also plays with the animal by enlarging, modifying and distorting their anatomies, or incorporating them posing with her own everyday scenes.

At the first glimpse, the visual appearance of animals in the human world—and vice versa—may remind us of the use of fantasy in fables or folklore in which irrational or illogical elements of fiction and speculation are merged with reality. Keni’s works, however, does not typify images used in storybook illustration. Neither do they communicate a particular linear narration. She rather emphasizes how she develops the portrayal of animals as both allegory and reverie.

As an allegory, the appearance of animals in Keni’s work alludes to the fact that human treatment of animals has been founded upon an anthropocentric legacy. Anthropocentrism roots humanity as the center of the universe. Since the hierarchy of the human concept was founded, animal life on earth has never been the same. Animals have been reduced to mere objects through human zoological discovery, classification and socio-politcal exploitation. For centuries, animals have been hunted, ridden, farmed and manipulated for human capitalism, sport and leisure. These days animal life is also a spectacle, to be experienced in zoos, circus shows as well as aquariums or cages in the domestic space. Animals are regularly seen as other’, a living creature distinguished from human beings in the history of civilization. As such in many different formal languages, the notion of the ‘animal’ is firmly identified with ‘the uncivilized’ or ‘the wild’.

As her personal reveries, the animal characters in Keni’s visual vocabulary also refers to the artist’s ‘imaginary friends’. As seen in the works in this exhibition, Keni mixes and juxtaposes the human and animal world through playful scenes. She combines and mixes her own representation and animals with symbols, icons and locations, unhindered by the need for meaning. At its most personal level, the artist believes that her works are simply an expression of particular moments from life, namely where her daydreams and thoughts transform every single breath into a more meaningful consciousness. She once wrote a statement about the ‘life in her works’, which refers to her understanding on the ‘adempauze’ (a Dutch word meaning ‘a moment of interlude’): “ […] My works capture a moment from my short breath, which is transformed into a space for an ephemeral mind traveling, a space of concentration which begins at every vast occurrence. It is a moment where we no longer think. We just feel.”

Keni’s works in Mamihlapinatapai comprise two different series. The first series is composed of three-dimensional objects that resemble dioramas. Inspired by her collection of animal toys and landscape miniature, she creates her own world, putting her own self-representation—a endearing girl in a white shirt and red shorts —playing with different kinds of animals whether a seal, cow, giraffe, bear, bull or swan. Keni’s world in this series is no more than ‘a sliced landscape’ put in a transparent box, which apparently suggests a spectacle. It may also remind us of a vitrine in a museum display. Besides relating to the artist’s playful construction of her own ‘self’, as a kind of ‘collection to be observed’, this series deliberately touches upon the superficiality of the narratives on animals especially in popular stories or movies.

The other series, realized in two-dimensional painting represents a more recent exploration on animals as subject matter. For this series Keni paints the girl (herself), animals and sceneries of various places in Bandung which she visited during her research for the exhibition. Initially, she visited these places with the intention to make sketches, however, she was too visually absorbed in these environments and therefore spent her time musing about the her own imaginary scenes instead. What eventually emerged on her canvases were scenes imbued with her personal encounters and imagination surrounding these places.

Although mostly from imagination, the combination of fantasy and reality results in interesting interpretations of the artist’s work. In Masjid Lautze II (literally: Lao-Tse Mosque II), for instance, Keni combines the character of herself posing like a dancing penguin, while the ‘real penguin’ is also dancing in front of her. While the dancing pose refers to the animal’s actual habit before mating, the fact that the setting takes place in the Chinese moslem mosque in Bandung at the same time suggests a notion of amalgamation.

While in the work Monumen Perjuangan Rakyat Jawa Barat (The Monument for West Javanese People’s Struggle), Keni depicts the monument in strange situation. I personally feel a peculiar tension when looking at the image of the Indonesian national emblem Garuda Pancasila attached to the building, and an antelope peering over the monument. Garuda Pancasila is a national emblem representing the ideology and philosophy of Pancasila (The Five Principles). Historically, the invention of the emblem was inspired by the Hindu mythical creature, Garuda, the vehicle of Vishnu. As an emblem, it symbolizes the strength and the power of Indonesian struggle for independence. Here, Keni’s work could somehow draw an interpretation of a threat to the nationalism.

Most of Keni’s works in the exhibition simply departs from her question on the polarity between reality and imagination. The title of this exhibition, Mamihlapinatapai, is taken from a word in the Yaghan language of Tierra del Fuego (South America), which has been listed as the most succinct word in the human history. It originally means “a look shared by two people, each wishing that the other would initiate something that they both desire but which neither wants to [initiate].” The fact that the word has been considered as one of the most difficult words to translate is used to hint at the problems of understanding fantasies and the arbitrary relationship between language and reality.

Fantasy, in classical aesthetics, is often seen as a music without a theme, a free beauty which speaks for itself and does not presuppose any concept about beauty. It is neither rational nor about specific content. In a more recent approach, however, fantasy is seen as relating to a certain projection, identification and idealization, which operates like a language. Fantasy can never be universally free from language signification. Rather, it is grounded by culturally specific discourse and circumscribed. I think, it is in the tension between the two that Keni’s works should always be understood. With this in mind to conclude this analysis of Keni’s work it is apt to pose a famous question by Ernst Gombrich in his seminal work, Art and Illusion, (1960) : “Does the painter paint what she sees, or does she see what she paints?”

Agung Hujatnikajennong