Bahasa Handiwirman Saputra
Handiwirman Saputra is an artist who delights in working with different materials, often incorporating unusual elements or seemingly unimportant ‘stuff’ within his large installations. After spending many years experimenting with materials such as resin, fabric, steel, plastic, foam and paper, he effectively captures and harnesses the specific features and qualities of each substance. However, Saputra’s creations are not restricted by their materiality. In ‘playing with forms’, the artist relies on his own devious craftmanship to create ambiguous objects that unsettle and amuse the viewer rather than impose narrative or meaning.
Demonstrating Saputra’s peculiar, divergent way of working, Dalam tampak luar – Luar tampak dalam (Inside out – Outside in) 2015 is a large-scale installation from a series in which objects are cast with layers or sheets of coloured silicon rubber that are then released from the object and turned inside out. The result is the uncanny appearance of once-familiar objects seen from a different perspective. Contrasting the surgical, scientific precision of acrylic with bulging, fleshy volumes, the work simultaneously evokes the slaughterhouse and the laboratory, soft toys and food containers.
Tak berakar tak berpucuk no. 8 (No roots no shoots no. 8) 2018–19 is part of an extensive series based on the artist’s observation of a riverbank in Yogyakarta, in which bits and pieces of rubbish such as fabric and plastics were stuck to and entwined with bamboo shoots and roots, eventually morphing into new forms. Saputra believes that objects appear before us and perform in relation to our ‘ways of seeing’ different materials. In this work, a long band of twisted ‘rubber’ (cast resin) hangs weightlessly in space below an entangled boulder, combined with a photographic series that records the specks of detritus from Saputra’s studio floor.
Through close and detailed observation of material and form Saputra seeks to uncover new perspectives through unexpected conjunctions and apertures, challenging our way of seeing and highlighting the often-missed details of ordinary things around us.
Enin Supriyanto
