“We are only in it for the money.”
Frank Zappa
“People live in the moment. They don’t factor age into the equation. People want to live for ever, and their heroes to live for ever. If you stand there and say, “I am this person”, it’s not really about who you are, but who you want to be. The Rolling Stones are all still leaping about, but black musicians get older and sit on a stool, sing their blues, and their voices get croaky. And it doesn’t matter.”
Damien Hirst, in conversation with the photographer Rankin
Some afternoon a few months ago,- in the middle of the preparations for the “Soundtrack” exhibition -, Yayat Surya took a trip to a place somewhere outside of Yogyakarta, to a Chinese cemetery not far away from the small town Muntilan in Central Java. This site was proposed by the artist himself as a location for a photo shooting. He wished to experience the special atmosphere of this place. He had already planned to visit that site for a long time, as he later told. Chinese graveyards are known for being built in places with a certain amount of energy (Chi), preferably in an environment or landscape where the two energies Yin and Yang blend together. According to Chinese traditions the living must honor the deceased. Ancestor worship is still a common practice. The graves and tombs should be built in a place conforming to the rules of the Feng Shui which means that they have to be built on sites with special land formations only. If the Qi is very strong within the earth, the land reacts and rises up shaping mountains and hills. Mountains are just an indication or a sign that Qi dwells in and around these places. Qi runs along the mountain ridges all the way to the end where the mountains turn into hills and finally fall off into the plain. Water is often to be found at mountain ends where the Qui gathers and pools where it becomes strongest, when the energies of heaven and earth ideally fuse with each other.
The visit to this cemetery did not happen just by chance or curiosity but because Yayat Surya feels a deep connection with Chinese philosophy since the times when he started to study the principles of the I-Ching (Book of Change) which he integrated as basic symbol into the center of his geometrical paintings. The I-Ching lines appeared in Yayat Surya's paintings along with the symbols of the Mandala that originates from other Asian traditions, - Hinduism and Tibetan Buddhism. The ritual and symbolism is practiced by Buddhism, too.
The artistic journey
Starting from an early period of painting that was essentially influenced by cubism Yayat Surya developed his interest for geometrical arts. First representations of the hexagram already appear in these Cubist paintings. Horizontal lines, with a more ornamental character in the beginning, were combined with cubist figures. Coincidentally this was stylistically his first step toward geometrical arts. At this point the philosophy of the I-Ching was not put explicitly into his visual practice. Finally the six lines of the hexagram or alternately the combination of the three lines of the trigram were transformed into the basic structure of his compositions.
The I-Ching with its philosophy of change became the visually and philosophically dominant concept of his works. His Mandala series together with the I-Ching inspired paintings can be interpreted as an anticipation of the painter's later course of life. The Mandala represents metaphysically or symbolically the cosmos, and the cycle of life, the eternal journey.
Asian Travels
Seen from this perspective it appears as if something he felt drawn to and what he had explored so many times in his thoughts and on the canvas had called him to the land where it originated from. Sometime after finishing these spiritually charged and meaningful works he was invited to Bangladesh, India, China and Nepal where he came into deeper and direct contact with the world of Buddhism. This journey turned into a pilgrimage to the sacred sites and landscapes of Asia which inspired him for the next step in his artistic journey. He was fascinated by the old and new artworks he had seen in these countries. During this journey he began to feel closer with Buddha and Buddhist concepts. Yayat committed himself to start a new project with paintings of Buddha, Kuan Yin, and the Laughing Buddha. Looking back to this period he remarked several times that he had to do this. Quite an artistic change for him again, after working so many years of painting in a nonfigurative style. Yayat Surya wanted to show Buddha as a person, not exclusively as a religious figure. Although we can only wonder how Buddha might actually have looked like. The artist liked being challenged one more time again. Life is change, and art is changing life, too.
The scenery on the Chinese cemetery was somehow reminiscent of this Buddha-period; on several grave sites the well known characters from Chinese legends and mythology were applied as reliefs and painted in vivid colors as ornaments on several tombs and their adjacent walls. Without being disrespectful towards the place the sceneries of Chinese mythology remind of some Pop Art inspired Taoist wonderland. No wonder that an artist who is so attracted by color (and strong in his mastering of color) can find inspiration in this place that has been given to the deceased as their final resting place. On the way from Yogyakarta to Muntilan Yayat Surya had looked very tired because of lack of sleep but as soon as he had entered the Chinese cemetery he felt energized, an indication or sign of good Qi, or Feng Shui, maybe.
Feng Shui and I-Ching are parts of the same Chinese tradition of philosophy, influenced by or integral components of Taoism. Feng Shui was rediscovered as a kind of “earth science” even in the Western world. Consequentially Yayat Surya integrated these concepts into his following period of paintings in his Landscape series. Basically he displays his views about the concept of change, inspired by the I-Ching and, of course, daily life experience which forms an important element of his artistic experience. Exact observation of nature (or the world/environment in general) belongs to the foundations of the traditional Chinese world view and its related philosophical concepts. Seen from this perspective Yayat Surya is an artist who is deeply rooted in Asian thinking.
His landscape paintings were his contribution to the current discussion of climate change, reflecting the (man – made) changes of the environment in a critical way. With gentle colors and flowing lines the painter designed an image of nature that was still shown to a certain extent full of beauty but at the same time already endangered by the threats of the ongoing climate change. Extending deserts with only some flowers left in their center became one of his symbols for the process of nature destruction. Other paintings show red trees (burned by Global Warming) in the middle of green plains of grass.
Commitment to nature, self-awareness and social consciousness are the three pillars of Yayat Surya's work; when he was asked if there is something that is common or behind all his different artworks he remarked that he was always interested in the social life with all the adhering conflicts and changes it takes. He explains that from the beginning of his career as a painter these struggles have been present in his works. Re-balancing and reconciling conflicts can be learned from the I-Ching. Art is a good and appropriate medium to communicate such ideas.
East-West Crossings
Another change has occurred in the creative soul of Yayat Surya who has prepared his new exhibition intensively. It took almost two years time to conceptualize and to produce the new artworks. The “Soundtrack” show consists of 18 paintings and 4 sculptures / installations. It is an expedition into the world of Post-Pop, a colorful trip through the history of pop music and their icons. After a long journey through different artistic periods Yayat Surya has opened again a new chapter in his artistic career. From the subject matter of landscape paintings and the symbols of the I-Ching and Mandala to pop artists now. As objects for his paintings Yayat Surya has chosen musicians who represent for him a strong sense of revolt or rebellion. Rock music is often associated with the once revolting young generations in Western countries like, for example, the hippie culture. Many young people identified themselves totally with that music and the messages that were transported by it. In other parts of the world this development was different, but nevertheless they were also influenced by this music.
This kind of popular music can be considered as a genuine product of the Western world, which definitely means the Anglo-American world. The lyrics of the songs were written in English language and music contributed to establish the English language as the dominating vernacular of the world. “Globalization” by listening to music which transported foreign words to other places and circulated ideas or ideologies, displacing local traditions, languages and cultures or absorbing them – all this could happen to a certain extent by the global emergence of Western popular music. Certainly there are positive and negative aspects in this process, something that could be called dialectical or, if the terminology of the I-Ching is applied – the eternal change or rebalancing.
Fusion, or the mixing of cultural phenomena is a common part of all cultures, syncretism had appeared during all epochs of history. Religion is another field where symbols from different cultures merge or combine. The Chinese cemetery in Muntilan is a place where different religions meet. Some of the grave sites are built according to the Chinese tradition, influenced by Taoism and Buddhism. Others tombs belong to Christian families, following their own symbolism, with crosses and sculptures of angels. It is a place where different belief systems meet and co-exist. Eternal peace and co-existence..
In the arts similar processes have taken place; especially the contemporary art in China was very fascinated by Western Pop Art, but in the local contexts of China the idiom of Pop Art was interpreted differently, seen through the spectaculars of Chinese history.
So how could it happen that an artist like Yayat Surya, - who is definitely shaped by his local Indonesian (or Asian) context and committed to it -, decides to paint Western Pop stars with a style that is also derived from Western Pop Art? When he was asked if he would categorize his art as “Western” or “Eastern”, he answered that his approach is universal, - that he wishes to be understood as somebody with a universal concern. This answer is in a certain sense even “Asian” again because Buddhism for example acknowledges the world as one only. It should be mentioned that Yayat Surya has not grown up within a family with a traditional Chinese cultural background and that he is no Buddhist in a religious sense but as an artist he is open for all kinds of ideas which are fruitful for the arts and for mankind.
So it is not accidental when his choice of musicians as objects for his paintings reflects the structures of power in world of popular music; only two women (Janis Joplin, Patti Smith) and only two representatives from Indonesia – the rock band Slank, often labeled as the Indonesian Rolling Stones, and Iwan Fals who is also known as the Indonesian Bob Dylan.
Pop and Rebellion
The once young and rebellious pop music of the hippie times is often associated with the famous festival in Woodstock that has already passed its 40th anniversary. Art movements like pop art have lost their aura of youthfulness long ago, too. Andy Warhol as the legendary founder of pop art could have celebrated his 81st birthday now, if he would be still alive.
Pop music played by radio stations or at festivals with thousands of people coming there became a carpet of sound which was heard everywhere. Certain pop songs had the potential and power to turn into hymns for social and cultural movements. Like for example Lennon's Give Peace a Chance' for the peace movement, or the protest movement against the war in Vietnam. Songs about rebellion were repeated like mantras and expressed the spirit of a time (Zeitgeist). Each generation created and generated their own soundtrack according to their situation and ideals.
Rock music finally became an integrated part of the big entertainment industry again and its critical appeal almost disappeared. Former rebel musicians turned into respectable millionaires now; for example Mick Jagger who is known for his song “Street Fighting Man', one of the hymns of the 1968 student rebellion in Europe, is an aristocrat now, holding the title “Sir”. Pop music became a machine to make the big money, mainly for the companies but the musicians had learned as well how to get their part of the profit. This might be another parallel with the world of art.
Pop Art replaced the epic with mass-products and the trivial was given prominence. Roy Lichtenstein painted his famous works after scenes taken from comics. No more distinction between ``high art'' and ``low art'', media and advertising were favorite subjects for Pop Art which elevated everyday items the significant and meaningful objects, the consumer society was ultimately idolized. Critics considered this as diminishing the integrity of art through commercialism.
“Pop Life: Art in a Material World”, an exhibition of works by Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst, Takashi Murakami and other Pop- and Neo-Pop artists has been opened recently in London. The original title chosen by the curators was “Sold Out! ” which was rejected by one of the participating artists. It sounded too obvious that art was left for money making only. Especially the YBA (Young British Artists – Tracey Emin, Hirst etc.) had a reputation for producing art free of meaning, without any message or public concerns. The cynicism reached its peak when the (successful) sale of an artwork was equated with the artistic content or as important part of the artwork. After the economical crisis had affected the art market many questions came up about the artistic value of many artworks that were once bought for a lot of money. Their economical value reduced immediately after the crisis had started. The conclusion of this debate was that real quality art will always keep its artistic and economical value.
Soundtrack – the flow of music and words
Music is sound, something that we cannot see but hear and feel. For visualization music has to be transformed into symbols like musical notations with clefs and lines. Notation makes reproducing possible. Songs usually have words, and words are being written with letters and fonts.
By assorting many different styles of scripts and fonts, Yayat Surya explores the visual possibilities of writing. Through their manifold forms they open a visual horizon beyond the literal meaning of words and language, sounds (words and music) are converted into pictorial elements. Yayat Surya's painting reveals playfully the field of graphic representation and alludes simultaneously to the history of design in the popular arts by using calligraphical elements and references from album covers. Song lines are written with keys and notation; these signs have a particular visual shape that is seldom used for painting. By combining song lines with written words another dimension is opened for the simultaneous representation of music and text. The visual interplay between these two elements is a characteristic feature of Yayat Surya's works.
The art of album cover design has almost disappeared since records have been replaced by CD's, let alone MP3. Many artists had been asked by musicians to create album covers for their records. Album covers are a lost art, being left for collectors of old records now. Since the old records with their bigger size - alas - have been replaced by digital discs, there was not much space left for the visual designing of musical products. Arts can be transient, too.
The background of “Kind of Black (Miles Davis)” refers to an album cover by Miles Davis ('Live/Evil') that was designed by Matti Klarwein, an artist/painter who became famous for his illustrations for Pop stars like Santana and others. Klarwein was a serious painter and a student of Ernst Fuchs, founder of the school of Phantastic Realism in Vienna The cover for “In Utero” by Kurt Cobain's group Nirvana was done by Alex Grey, a representative of Visionary Realism or Psychedelic Art. The backside showed a collage made by Kurt Cobain. Yayat Surya was inspired by this album cover for his painting “Sleeps With Angels Fly (Kurt Cobain)” which combines the object on the album cover in a dramatic and expressive way with the tragedy of Kurt Cobain's death, creating a new dimension by an almost hallucinatory/psychedelic effect with the expressive red color on the face of Kurt Cobain. Yayat Surya's paintings evoke effects similar to psychedelic light machines formerly used in discotheques; the eye is led astray by optical illusion. Seen from a distance the shape of the faces appear in their full extent.
Yayat Surya has applied techniques that are used often now in the world of music: similar to sampling (using the original voice of somebody else for an own song) or remix Yayat Surya has integrated Alex Grey's cover design, combining different parts to create something new. This can be called 'Post-Pop', free in the use of quotation and references, but leaving the meaningless/message-free period of Pop art behind, refilling meaning again and putting it into a new context.
“When I'm 64 (Mick Jagger)” is not only mocking Mick Jagger's age but actually quoting one of the secrets of artistic production: “It's such a mishmash… “ That's how Jagger answered how he got his ideas write the song “Brown Sugar”, a song that mixes up the complete combination of (dirty) sex, drugs and racism. The Rolling Stones have considered themselves as white musicians who have learned so much from the black Blues singers and guitarists. For creating something new it needs the courage to bring unusual things together. Total remix.
Gender Crossing
Androgyny has been an important figure for rock and pop since the 1950's, Mick Jagger for example with his effeminate charm combined masculinity with a girlish attitude. Rock superstar Elvis Presley became one of the first androgynous icons. And others like David Bowie and Mick Jagger cultivated the same. Jagger commented: “Elvis was very androgynous. People in the older generation were afraid of Elvis because of this. That was one of the things they saw in Elvis. They called it effeminate. And they saw it straightaway. I saw Elvis as a rock singer, and obviously you were attracted to him because he was a good-looking guy. But they saw an effeminate guy. I mean, if you look at the pictures, the eyes are done with makeup, and everything's perfect.”
Like Elvis, Jagger used his body to excite the fans either sexually or agressively, Music writer Sheryl Garratt states, "Androgyny is what they want; men they can identify with as well as drool over...a touch of homosexuality seems to enhance a male star's popularity with women." The Stones used androgyny not because it came naturally, but more so to provoke their opponents. It became a weapon for rebellion and they were the first to use it that way.
Kurt Cobain as a vocal opponent of sexism, racism and homophobia was publicly proud that Nirvana had played at a gay rights benefit. Sometimes he liked to wear he dresses of his wife. “I definitely feel closer to the feminine side of the human being than I do the male - or the American idea of what a male is supposed to be. Just watch a beer commercial, and you'll see what I mean."
Marilyn Manson uses a female name as stage name and integrates elements of transvestism into his performance. He applies make-up like black eyeliner in his everyday life.
Death and Fame – The Transience
An underlying subject of this exhibition tells about the risks and dangers of a life as rock or pop star: Janis Joplin, , Elvis Presley, Freddy Mercury, Jim Morrison and Michael Jackson died of causes related to their life styles; Kurt Cobain committed suicide, John Lennon was shot by a madman; in this sample of portrayed musicians who have already died only Miles Davis reached with 65 years a remarkable age before he died, - although still to early -, from a stroke, pneumonia and respiratory failure, remarkable for somebody who had lived such an intense life as a jazz musician as Miles Davis. Charlie Parker, another famous jazz musician of Miles Davis' generation, was only 34 years old when he died. John Coltrane passed at the age of 40. But all of these names have become legends and popular icons and were merchandized. Some people still do not believe that their heroes of popular music really have died. There are still rumors that Jim Morrison lives on an island in the Southern Seas or in Africa.
The other musicians presented here on canvas are still performing and touring, although most of them have reached an age that cannot be directly identified with the spirit of youth anymore. Mick Jagger has passed his 66th birthday and Patti Smith, the “Godmother of Punk” is 62 years old now. Prince (born 1958), Bono (born 1960) and Marilyn Manson (born 1969) as well as the musicians from Indonesia like Iwan Fals (born 1961) and two members of the group Slank have passed the magical borderline of forty (Slank musician Bimbim 42 years old, Abdee is 41, Kaka and the other members of Slank are now in their late thirties). The amazing point is that they still can attract many fans from the younger generations. Do you remember the line from the Stones song Mother's little helpers: “What a drag it is getting old…” but obviously it is not about age, as long energy and spirit keeps them going.
Life is but transient; the death of rock, pop or movie stars transforms the most famous (or tragic) ones into icons and makes them immortal.
Pop Art and Iconization
Yayat Surya views his art as a medium to communicate something that could be controversial. The old Chinese Book of Change (I-Ching) is at the center of his philosophy of life and art and the hexagrams/trigrams in the paintings characterize the person being portrayed. Change implies often struggles and controversies, harmonization and balancing are necessary for keeping life more stable.
From the beginning of his career he was concerned with the social life of his own society, engaging himself as a responsible artist in causes like climate change or cultural activities (see interview in this catalog: “Cultural Activism”). So he tells now about life and death, eternity and transience, tragic and the power of life-giving music… about fame and failure.
His current works can be read for a certain part as a history of pop music (although he would not claim that it is complete now). But it can also be understood as a history of portrait painting, with references to different styles and techniques of depicting the human face. “The Visionary (Jim Morrison) reminds of a Holy Man, or a saint from ancient times, the right side of the painting refers to the old icon style, to the paintings that were used for prayer and meditation in Old Russia; the lines on Morrison's face and the darker color enhance the aura of broken and old canvas. The other part of the painting is bright, light green and structured by lines. According to Yayat Surya it displays again the principles of the I-Ching: light and darkness, order and chaos.
Andy Warhol's works have certainly been the benchmark for pop art portraits, but Yayat Surya goes much deeper in his interpretation of pop art and portrait painting. His paintings are based on photos of pop musicians, collected from press material or magazines, often taken by well known rock photographers, for example the photograph of Patti Smith by Annie Leibovitz. The best photos support the image of a star and could even produce a mythical value. Barbara Kruger wrote: " …(photos) freeze moments, create prominence and make history."
Yayat Surya dissolves the photographic image into pixels and covers the quotations from song texts and original interview comments of the portrayed musicians. Some of his paintings use a different style, more realist, but they are allusions to the culture of cartoons, another popular art - for example in “When Nightmares Come True” (Michael Jackson). He had done a lot of research for this project, looking for biographical information of the musicians so that he could delve into their images. The man and the image is not the same, as Elvis Presley once remarked. But artists might have a better antenna for sensing somebody else's aura. Yayat Surya records his impressions of persons and their characters for us on canvas, supported by the words of the living and the dead, voices from the grave and from the living world.
Social comments on issues like racism (Prince; Miles Davis) or the entertainment industry (Patti Smith; Freddy Mercury; Prince again) are prevalent. Generally they represent the artists in their controversies with society or their life situation. The painting of the shock-rocker Marilyn Manson tells about the high school murder at Columbine, Little Springs. Manson was summoned because he was suspected as “spiritual leader” of the high school killers. His answer was to produce a video with 15 tombs which are symbolized in “The Notorious Bogeyman (Marilyn Manson) as the crosses lined up as I-Ching hexagrams. 13 people were killed in the incident and the two perpetrators finally committed suicide. Manson's comment was that he also wanted to know what the two killers thought. So he included them among the tombs in his video.
The texts on the paintings can be read and understood literally, exposing the concerned persons in their ambivalence and ambiguity. They are messages, or just remarks. The reader or beholder are asked to interpret them in their contrariness.
The Three Dimensions
Yayat Surya's show presents three sections: musician portraits, the document series and sculptures. The portrait series exposes colorful and more expressive paintings, but they are combined with paintings that are composed with more subdued colors in accordance with Yayat Surya's concept derived from the I-Ching. Darkness evokes brightness, chaos has to be balanced with order. Yayat Surya is an accomplished colorist and here at the top of his art.
The document series gives a different idea how images or photographs are used and function in our daily lives. Usually the photographs taken for official uses are not chosen by aesthetical reasons. They are functional and technical, underlying technological changes as well. So they develop their own historicity, but they show us a quite different picture of a pop star than we are used to. It is not only the photograph that gives a more real, or even strange picture of a person, but the actual hand writing or signature as well which comes closest to authenticity and realness, an aspect that is often missing in press photographs or movie pictures. The document series speaks about the more private and individual aspects of the portrayed persons, outside of their life as objects of celebrity cult.
One of the most moving paintings in this exhibition depicts the farewell letter by Kurt Cobain before he shot himself with a gun. The painting quotes from the original text of the letter and some of the last words of Kurt Cobain are painted like his original handwriting. The Michael Jackson photograph on the document of the Santa Barbara Police Department shows a person in confusion – the interrogation was a turning point in Jacko's life. John Lennon's Green Card is a strong narrative about (and the final chapter in) his long struggle with FBI and CIA about his immigration permit in the United States where he had to face many difficulties because of his assumed political activities, including support of the separatist IRA (Irish Republican Army). About Elvis and his driving licence? For a while he had worked as truck driver before his career skyrocketed.
In the sculpture section pop musician's life are presented in a more satiric way. “Seattle Blues” shows a different perception of Kurt Cobain's suicide, killing himself a la Samurai but by using a electric guitar instead of a sword. John Lennon (“Sailor John”) joins the navy in a new, fresh uniform, but does not want to leave his guitar at home. “Hard Rock I-III with the enlarged male genitals symbolizes the machismo in the world of rock music. The objects are painted in soft pop colors. But if an “instrument” is jammed and does not function anymore (“Cry for Freedom”), it is certainly a painful experience. Male sexuality is often exposed by rock musicians, emphasizing their masculinity on stage. Marilyn was known for mocking sexual intercourse during his stage performances, Mick Jagger and Freddy Mercury put also a lot of stress into showing themselves as machos. Jim Morrison was reported for masturbating in front of his audience (this story was never completely confirmed, according to reports he was completely drunk during that gig). Sometimes one could assume that rock concerts have replaced archaic rituals which were connected with sexuality. The old triad of Sex and Drugs and Rock'n Roll was not far from reality in many musicians' life, and some had to pay a very high price for it.
Going Home
When the excursion to the Chinese cemetery was finished Yayat Surya bowed his head in front of a grave site where the pictures of him were taken, paying respect to the deceased. So he had done with the deceased and the living that are presented here in his artworks. Co-existence between the living and the deceased is acknowledged by the Chinese ancestor worship. If the musicians are already dead or still alive, they will leave their legacy to us: their voices and their songs as a soundtrack for our life.
To us as the beholders of Soundtrack is being left to pay respect to this brave endeavor by a matured artist.
![Ar[t] chive yayat surya](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_9waUXQncoD4/S4lIkhqubfI/AAAAAAAAAbE/fKW7hzs404k/S660/logo+yayat+3.jpg)
+200x200cm,+Acrylic+On+Canvas++2009.jpg)
