IRL/In Real Life presents a new body of work by Arin Dwihartanto Sunaryo (b. 1978, Bandung, Indonesia), and Syagini Ratna Wulan (b. 1979, Bandung, Indonesia) developed specifically for Art Basel OVR:2020. Throughout the years, the artists have been developing their own distinctive practices that draw reference from their own individual disciplines, experiences and outlook. Arin focuses on the idea to expand paintings through experimental approaches in his mediums and processes, he utilizes resin as an agent that binds and preserves various, often unconventional, elements into complex permutations of works. Syagini works around many different mediums and methodologies of presenting her ideas, playing with the limits of perception through the use of iridescent pigments, prismatic and spectral formulations of color, and the various modulations and shapes present in her oeuvre.
IRL, an abbreviation of “In Real Life”, is a commonly used terminology utilized in online chat rooms to describe activities that happen in the physical world (as opposed to being on the internet). In this presentation the artists specifically intended for the artworks to subvert the notion of having their works experienced on an online platform, by then contextualizing the presentation within the confines of their immediate surroundings.
Looking inwards, this presentation takes as insight the otherwise private lives of the Syagini and Arin, emphasizing elements of domesticity through their elaborations of daily recurrences. Eggs for breakfast are taken into a whole different magnification and scale in a resin painting, classical china enlarged and painted to form a hybrid wall sculpture, past works reimagined artisanally into a hand-weaved carpet. A new work incorporating beads by Syagini mirrors a previous Arin painting, and a resin work presents pigments more closely associated with Syagini’s own practice. The lines between the respective artists’ practices begin to fold in, within, and through each other.
Artists
Born 1978, Bandung, Indonesia
Lives and works in Bandung, Indonesia
Arin Dwihartanto Sunaryo received a Bachelor’s Degree in Painting from the Bandung Institute of Technology (2001) and a Master’s of Fine Art at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London (2005). Sunaryo is interested in the utilization of resin as a medium that captures minerals, pigments, and other particles in various states of flux within a sense of stasis. Working initially with more industrial pigments, he has more recently worked with volcanic ash, perishable food ingredients, as well as crude palm oil and converted them into his own distinctive pigments.
Sunaryo’s work has been featured in numerous exhibitions in Southeast Asia, Europe, the UK, and USA, including No Country: Contemporary Art for South and Southeast Asia at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA (2014). Selected solo exhibitions include Arin Dwihartanto Sunaryo: New Paintings at Art Basel OVR: Portals presentation by ROH Projects (2021); ARGO at Simon Lee Gallery, London, UK (2019); after taste at Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney, Australia (2017); Silent Salvo at ARNDT Gallery, Berlin, Germany (2015); and group shows include External Entrails at Silverlens New York, New York, USA (2022); IRL at Art Basel OVR: 2020 (2020); Ripples: Continuity in Indonesian Contemporary Art at Taipei Dangdai, Taiwan (2019); These Painter’s Painters at ROH Projects, Jakarta, Indonesia (2018); iris at Silverlens Galleries, Manila, Philippines (2018); ω at Edouard Malingue Gallery, Hong Kong (2017); Biennale Jogja XIV: Age of Hope in Yogyakarta, Indonesia (2017); Constituent Concreteness at Mizuma Gallery, Singapore (2017); Lines of Flight at Gallery Exit, Hong Kong (2017); Lompat Pagar/Crossing Borders at National Gallery of Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia (2015); Marcel Duchamp in Southeast Asia, Equator Art Project, Gillman Barracks, Singapore (2012); and Manifesto, National Gallery of Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia (2008). Sunaryo was nominated as a Finalist for Best Emerging Artist using Painting by the Prudential Eye Awards in 2015; and a Finalist in the Sovereign Asia Art Prize in 2010.
Copyright belongs to The Artists
Photography by Andika Auditya R.
Videography
Producer: Kausa.xyz
DOP: Isdam Atrahadena
Scoring: Munir HS
Courtesy of The Artists and ROH