The Storm of Perception : Iabadiou Piko Solo Exhibition
There is an anecdote about Pablo Picasso: Due to his early success, Picasso’s house was always filled with art dealers waiting while he was painting inside. There was once that when Picasso was working on an uncompleted painting, he suddenly asked one of the art dealers came in and informed him the painting would be represented by him. The dealer was overjoyed, “Once it is completed, definitely a guarantee of commercial success!”
Unexpectedly, Picasso only replied with a trace of sarcasm, “This painting has completed.”
The story above not only reveals Picasso’s naughty personality, but in some ways, he was also trying to tell us: The process of making art is a continuously dialogue and battle between the artist and his/her own work. Throughout such dialogue, the artists can really bring themselves to a balance of coexistence with the work. However, this "Process" is endless, when is the moment to stop, put down the brush, and devote him/herself unreservedly on the canvas?It definitely is the most important lesson in artistic creation.
Piko's Visual Diary
If we look back the art history, the earliest to demonstrate “the process" on the canvas was Futurism in 1909. The Futurists admired the speed of mechanism and industrialization, and believed that the kinetic theory should be applied to the canvas, showing the dynamic movements of universe. They liked to use overlapping and repetitive techniques, reflecting the things in the world are constantly moving. Even today, we still can find many contemporary artists and genres, trying to reveal the reality that has always been pursued by these believers through the process of the development of artworks.
Being an artist who treats his work as a visual diary, “the process" is, of course, an important part in Iabadiou Piko's painting. In fact, with a background in photography, Piko has seen his art as a means of documenting his life. With such diary-style technique, he situates his work in an shifting position. If we describe the process of artistic creation as a process from 0 to 1, most of the artists focus on the final result. However, for Piko, he tries to present the process from 0 to 1 instead, and as for the finished piece, is nothing more than a summary of this journey.
In addition, “the process” has another meaning for Piko: The internal intimate tangles of the individual artist emitting through the art pieces. Through his paintings, we can clearly perceive his creative journey: the heap of paints, the trend of lines, the blending of colors, and all these elements, along with artist’s struggles and emotions, are entirely exposed to the viewers. Although the scenarios on the canvas are the artist's objective observation of the surroundings and the nature, they are subjectively mixed with Piko’s energy and personality. The lines are sometimes definite, sometimes distorted; the structure is sometimes compact and sometimes loose, accompanied by those discernible objects and beasts, drag us into Piko’s unique imaginary world.
Interestingly, when we face a series of Piko’s paintings, we sense a deeper impact than watching the single piece. If you read the images carefully, you will realize that there is a connection between each of his individual work. Similar to keep a diary, the feeling expression is not fragmental but Interrelated. The totem or symbolic languages randomly appear in Piko's paintings direct reflect his inner thoughts and impulses. Through the paintings, we seem to open up Piko’s personal diary and have a glimpse of the deepest part of the Indonesian artist's mind.
Symbols and Compound
In Piko’s painting, aside from the ordinary media such as charcoal, oil paints and acrylics, he also employs many rare materials like volcanic ashes and bitumen. The usage of these elements, undoubtedly relates to his motherland. Indonesia, which lies at the intersection of several tectonic plates, has intensive volcanic activity. Except for the connection with Piko’s country, it also reminds us the Spanish artist Antoni Tàpies. Piko is profoundly influenced by Tàpies. Aside from the similarity of self-taught in art from both ends, Tàpies’ way of using a variety of materials in the work also inspires Piko. For an artist, the importance of the materials that the artist put into their works from the spiritual perspective would not be evaluated inferior to the thesis within the artworks. And just like Tàpies, Piko tries to create a brand new aspect by mixing the texture of the physical materials that he'd been used. In fact, the texture surface he came up with and the direct usage of comprehensive makings would reveal not only the streak and the hue of themselves but the role of independent expressions. It also shows that the interaction between the artist and the media is also an important factor to allow the work unfold its vitality.
In addition, adding a large amount of symbols in the work is another similarity between Tàpies and Piko. For Tàpies, these moral elements reflect the artist’s mental views. He combined the abstract art with symbolism, gave meaning to the works by using the symbols, and conveyed the artist’s idea. Piko's painting shares the feature. He does not intend to objectively describe or record the objects, instead, he uses many symbolic patterns to convey his own subjective thoughts and emotional imagination. Piko once mentioned that due to his introverted personality, It was only in the moment when he draws that he could let his hair down. Also, the images of animals or claws in his works are the metaphor of his inner world in some ways. These symbolic elements naturally lead us to get into the world created by this reserved, Indonesian boy, allowing us to roam through his dreamy fantasies.