June 2012
1 post
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Riverscapes IN FLUX exhibition opening in Bangkok,...
After Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, Riverscapes IN FLUX goes to the third city: Bangkok, Thailand. My work By the River of Love on display at g23 Art Gallery in Bangkok. (Photographs courtesy of Goethe-Institut Hanoi)
The exhibition opened on Friday, 22 June 2012, and all artwork will be on display until Sunday, 22 July 2012. If you are in Bangkok, please come to g23 Art Gallery...
May 2012
1 post
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Riverscapes IN FLUX exhibition opening in Ho Chi...
My work By the River of Love on display in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. (Photograph courtesy of Goethe-Institut Hanoi)
The second exhibition of Riverscapes IN FLUX, in which By the River of Love is a part of, opened at Cactus Contemporary Art in Ho Chi Minh City last week. All artwork will be on display until Saturday, 26 May 2012. If you are around, you can come to 17/12 Nguyen Huy Tuong, Ward...
April 2012
1 post
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Riverscapes IN FLUX exhibition opening in Hanoi,...
My work By the River of Love on display in Hanoi, Vietnam. (Photographs courtesy of Goethe-Institut Hanoi)
The Riverscapes IN FLUX exhibition, in which By the River of Love is a part of, finally opened at the Vietnam National Museum of Fine Arts in Hanoi last week. The opening was attended by all curators from the six participating countries and Vietnamese artists. All artwork will be on...
March 2012
3 posts
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Riverscapes IN FLUX online
The centralized blog of Riverscapes IN FLUX that includes all 17 artists and 6 curators from 6 Southeast Asian countries: Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, Indonesia, and the Philippines, is now online. Riverscapes IN FLUX blog follows the artists’ working process and gives an insight on how the artworks evolve.
Check out the blog and follow the updates: http://blog.goethe.de/riverscapes/
...
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Wrapped, packed, shipped
As always, printing the photos was a challenge in terms of getting the colours, tones, contrast, brightness, and all the blah blah blah that you wanted, that you saw while editing them on screen, just right on paper. I had the print master made test prints twice until we decided that we were good to go. As the printing process was done, we soon prepared to wrap, pack, and ship the prints.
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Test print
Making test prints before making the actual prints for the exhibition.
I have been exchanging emails with Indonesia’s curator (Ade Darmawan of Ruang Rupa, Jakarta) to discuss about the work since January through February. This March, the final 25 photos will form into prints and ship to Hanoi, Vietnam, where the Riverscapes IN FLUX exhibition will open in April.
I and other participating...
January 2012
2 posts
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Post-travel work
Flood mark (upper) and mud mark (lower) from the 2007 flood at a wall of a house near Bengawan Solo in Cepu Distrik, Blora Regency, Central Java, 14 Dec 2011.
(Note: I put arrows to emphasize the marks.)
I am now still editing the photographs I took during the journey along Bengawan Solo last month. From all the photographs I took, I selected 85, from which I will still need to narrow down...
7 tags
January 2012 flooding
As I was finishing the project, Bengawan Solo was again flooded, due to heavy raining. The flash flood happened almost simultaneously in different areas. I decided to go back to Solo to have a look. The flood was not as bad as what happened in 2007, but still it flooded numerous parts of the city, especially riverside areas.
There were small children playing in the ankle-deep water with balloon...
December 2011
7 posts
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Solo, Sukoharjo, and Wonogiri, Central Java, 21–22...
After one day rest at home in Yogyakarta, I headed back to Bengawan Solo, this time to Solo city. Like the first time, I rode my motorcycle again. But unlike the first time when I kept riding and only stopped at some spots, now I decided to walk around the neighbourhood near the river. I stayed at a hotel near to Bengawan Solo, so I wouldn’t have to walk too far.
I spotted a mural on a wall in...
6 tags
Gresik, East Java, 17–19 Dec 2011
Gresik District in Gresik Regency is an industrial port city; satellite city of Surabaya, the capital of East Java province. The city is quite pretty, with numerous old buildings decorating each of its corners. Gresik has strong Islam influence. There are many sacred tombs of important figures of the spread of Islam in Java. Hence, there are lots of pilgrims coming to Gresik.
The thing about...
7 tags
Babat, Lamongan, East Java, 16–17 Dec 2011
Babat is a small transit town between Bojonegoro and Surabaya. There is only one hotel there, which is not even one star. People come to the hotel only to have some rest during their trip. Like Ngawi, Babat is not the kind of town where you go for vacation or business. But unlike Ngawi, the traffic in Babat is always busy, because it is near to industrial port cities like Gresik and Surabaya.
...
6 tags
Bojonegoro, East Java, 14–16 Dec 2011
From Cepu, I headed to Bojonegoro, a town also rich in oil. I have always wanted to come here for many years. I once heard from a friend that there is a traditional oil mining still in practice in Bojonegoro. I wanted to see it for myself, but never had the chance to go.
Wandering around Bojonegoro, it felt economically more advanced then the towns I had visited before in my journey along...
7 tags
Cepu, Blora, Central Java, 12–14 Dec 2011
Cepu District in Blora Regency, Central Java, I believe, is the land where the gods had buried their treasure. The land here is rich in black- and green-gold—oil and teak. However, the weather here is also very hot, perhaps one of the hottest spots in Java, as if ten suns were above you. I wonder if this is how the gods protect their treasure, preventing thieves and looters from taking it away.
I...
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Ngawi, East Java, 7–9 Dec 2011
Ngawi is quite a small town and really quiet. It is not a town where you go for business or holiday. Not many things happen in the street. The traffic only gets busy in the morning when everyone rushes to the office or to school. Other than that, the roads are quite empty.
Ngawi is a crossroad that connects buses going from and to Solo to the southwest, Madiun to the southeast, and Bojonegoro...
6 tags
Solo, Sukoharjo, and Wonogiri, Central Java, 5–6...
I decided to go to Solo first, as Solo is the nearest city from my hometown Yogyakarta—only two hours away to the east by motorcycle. Bengawan Solo is on the east side of the city. Sukoharjo and Wonogiri are across the river from Solo. I went there by motorcycle, so I could move around more easily by myself. And it is not really far so the ride wouldn’t be too tiring for me.
On this first...
November 2011
4 posts
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By the River of Love by Rebecca Pan
Bengawan Solo river of love, behold Where the palms are swaying low and lovers get so enthralled
Bengawan Solo river of love we know Where my heart was set aglow when we loved not long ago
Nightingales softly singing, to a guitar is gently playing Moon and stars brightly shining, shining for you and I
In that moment divine you whispered you were mine And you vowed we’d never part down by the...
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Bengawan Solo by Gesang Martohartono
Bengawan Solo riwayatmu ini Sedari dulu jadi perhatian insani
Musim kemarau tak seberapa airmu Di musim hujan air meluap sampai jauh
Mata airmu dari Solo terkurung Gunung Seribu Air mengalir sampai jauh akhirnya ke laut
Itu perahu riwayatnya dulu Kaum pedagang selalu naik itu perahu
(Bengawan Solo this is your story From long ago you have caught people’s attention
In the dry season your...
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Bengawan Solo the song
Bengawan Solo used to be the most important river in Java. But outside of Java, it is more well-known as the title of a famous folk song. It was written and composed by Gesang Martohartono in 1940, depicting the river in a poetic and nostalgic way with an easy listening keroncong (Indonesian folk music with Portuguese influence) melody. Gesang was 23 then, and untrained in song writing or...
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Flood and climate change
The thing that keeps popping in my mind when thinking about Bengawan Solo is the annual flood, but specifically the 2007 flooding. It was the worst flood ever recorded in Bengawan Solo area since 1966.
In 1966, the flood had inundated an area of about 1,420 square kilometres, compared to just 400 square kilometres in 1994. In 2007, about 1,198 square kilometres were inundated, roughly one and a...
October 2011
2 posts
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Research and planning
I started researching with a map, to help me in getting to know the places that I was going to visit. For this, I used online maps. I also researched about the river and climate change issues online.
I figured that I would also need to bring a map as a guide for my travel. But I couldn’t find a map of Bengawan Solo in any book stores, so I tried to stitch a map out of Google Maps screen...
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Riverscapes IN FLUX
I was invited to propose a project to be part of this regional art project called “Riverscapes IN FLUX” organized by Goethe Institut in Hanoi.
Thinking about river in Indonesia, I cannot resist but to think about the floods that often happen in a number of river basin areas in Indonesia, like Ciliwung river in the capital Jakarta and the Solo river (or Bengawan Solo; “bengawan” means river in...
