작품 상세

There is an element of theatricality, and play-acting, in Bayu Utomo Radjikin’s Puisi Jiwa Series (and also Infinity Series), a body of works after his return from a London sojourn in 2005-2006. His European exposures there have seen him translate mock Classicism into a vision of neo-Nusantara mythology and heroism into his new works. He likes to insert his persona into his canvas narrative, showing himself naked to the waist against a sinister dark-blue backdrop with vertical gravitational streaks, right hand outstretched and the left in defensive shield. He seems distracted by the wild flower commonly creeping up among the cracks of sidewalks. Through exaggerated hand gestures, body postures and facial expressions, Bayu seeks to impose a nebulous sense of past grandeur in overcoming teething modern-day struggles, both outer and the inner self. The work, among five in the series, was shown in the exhibition, ‘Mind The Gap: From KL to London and Back’ at Wei-Ling Gallery in Kuala Lumpur, in July 2007. Bayu Utomo Radjikin catapulted into Malaysian mainstream art when his Bujang Berani sculpture clinched the Major Award in the Young Contemporary Artists competition in 1991, the year he graduated from the Mara Institute of Technology. A Special Award in the One World – No War competition capped that year. In 1992, he clinched the Minor Award in the Salon Malaysia senior national competition. Bayu is also activist-gallerist, founding HOM Art Trans, and is a co-convener of the Malaysian Emerging Artist Award (MEAA), with rewards of art residencies at home and abroad.