ENTANG WIHARSO
Hurting Landscape : Between Two Lines
Friday, January 24th – Saturday, February 8th, 2003
Monohasset Mill, 532 Kinsley Avenue, Providence, RI
Providence, RI – Gallery Agniel announces the opening of Entang Wiharso’s new exhibition Hurting Landscape : Between Two Lines. The show opens Friday, January 24th with a free public reception from 5 – 9 PM. The exhibition will run through February 8th, 2003. The show will be open Wednesday through Sunday, 12 – 6 PM. (Snow date for the opening is Sunday, January 26th, 5 – 9 PM.)
Entang Wiharso is an internationally renowned painter who lives and works between Rhode Island and Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Gallery Agniel has represented Entang in the United States since 1999, and has worked with the artist since early 1997. Hurting Landscape : Between Two Lines is part of a year long, international traveling exhibition of Entang’s most recent body of work. Gallery Agniel worked closely with Antena Projects of Indonesia which produced the exhibition and gallery director, Sara Agniel contributed the introduction to the accompanying catalogue. The work in Between Two Lines is part of the larger Hurting Landscape show, which after leaving Rhode Island will travel to the Chouinard Gallery, Hong Kong in April - May, to the Circle Point Art Space, Washington, DC in May - June to Bentara Budaya, Jakarta, Indonesia in November and finally to Museum H. Widayat, Magelang, Indonesia in December.
A resident of Rhode Island for the last seven years, Entang’s experiences working and living in America have been a major influence on his art. This show Between Two Lines is about that very subject and was created specifically for an invitational solo show at the Rhode Island Foundation Gallery. After installing his work at the Rhode Island Foundation Gallery, Entang was asked to take down the painting, “Portrait in the Gold Rain”. Although the foundation had invited Entang to exhibit and had previewed the work in question before it was hung in the gallery they ultimately decided that they were not comfortable showing it publicly. “Portrait in the Gold Rain” is a symbolic, political commentary that addresses in Entang’s own words:
…the individual in struggle with larger social forces and…my anxiety about the current era, especially ongoing religious conflict. In Indonesia, the stomach is the focal point of emotions and I use this reference to create an image of physical and psychic pain. The main figure is sitting in an informal position that is common in Indonesia, a pose for conversation and relaxation, but he is experiencing stress and pain in his stomach, a reflection of the disturbing social, political and religious landscape he is living in… The female figure, wearing religious dress and carrying a flower, is my way of commenting that religion is about peace. When people use religion as a tool for violent or harmful purposes they have gone outside the boundaries of religion. The golden rain refers to wealth, greed and commerce.
Entang intended Between Two Lines as a site specific installation for the Rhode Island Foundation Gallery and was unwilling to exhibit less than the complete body of work that he created for a Rhode Island audience. Gallery Agniel believes strongly in Entang’s work and the right of the public to make decisions for themselves about art that addresses politically challenging subject matter. To that end, we have remounted Entang’s show at the gallery space at the Monohasset Mill with the assistance and support of the Monohasset Mill Project.
The Rhode Island Council on the Humanities is supporting a panel discussion on the broader issues of censorship that this event has raised in our community as part of their “What is Freedom?” initiative. RICH is an independent state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. The panel will address the question, “What happens when freedom of expression, public standards and issues of censorship collide?”. The panel will be take place at the Monohasset Mill in the exhibition space on Thursday, January 30th at 6 PM. (Snow date Friday, January 31st, 6 PM.) Confirmed speakers on the panel to date are: Judith Tannenbaum, Curator of Contemporary Art at the RISD Museum, Umberto Crenca, Director of AS220 RI’s uncensored art and performance space and Randall Rosenbaum, Director of the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts. Representatives from the ACLU and the Rhode Island Foundation have been asked to join the panel but have not yet been able to confirm participation.
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