The Answer of Solitude: Yi Ju Hsieh and Endira Julianda
So the new century is already 14 years old. As we ponder and explore the most turbulent century of the entire human industrial civilisation, and whether our world is going forwards or back, all sorts of weighty issues are being transmitted via social media, gaining public awareness and becoming indispensable to any social interaction, both formally and informally. In turn, the “communication by exposure” forged by social media fosters human relationships that seems close, yet are distant, creating yet another underlying problem for the age we live in.
We are less likely to find a demonstrative voice like that of artists from the last century, who tried to convey ideology through art, in the works of artists, writers and musicians born in the mid and late 80s. Some viewers question the protective environment this generation grew up in, and whether it nurtured a sentimentality towards trivial issues. Yet, in a time where the internet, social media and mobile communication dictate our daily behaviour, perhaps such nonchalant, autobiographical narratives of who I am and what my relationship to the world is, are the perfect way to tackle the issues of our time.
Nunu Fine Art will be presenting an exhibition under the title “The Answer to Solitude: Love is what lonely people do to resolve isolation” at the end of August. The show borrows from the German philosopher Erich Fromm and his 1956 publication “The Art of Love”. In this book, Fromm argues that love happens naturally, yet requires practice to gain biological capacity, which helps to resolve the sense of isolation triggered by human nature.
The two artists in this exhibition, Hsieh and Endira Julianda, were almost born in the same year (1984, Hsieh being born on the last day of 1983). While their palettes are entirely different—one a follower of Chagall's vibrant colours, the other working closely with the Indonesian artist Pramuhendra, exploring the mind in a black and white virtual reality—they display a similar logic on their canvases, even though their methods seem opposite. They chose not to be artists who shout, but artists who slowly ruminate the less visible, yet constantly reappearing, incidents of alienation. Through the relationships between the animals depicted and the spaces they find themselves in, through the self and the imagined dream, be it in cold or warm tones, the artists believe their works reflect phenomena of contemporary society, and found their own answers to solitude through the emotive process of artistic creation.
Please join us for the opening of “The Answer to Solitude: Love is what lonely people do to resolve isolation” at 2pm, Saturday 23 August. Both artists will be present to share their thoughts and discuss their creative processes.