Meeting under the same sun

OPPOSITE

Budi Agung Kuswara

Chris Angell and I Campaign For Peace 2022 (detail)

Cyanotype 60 × 42 cm

In the national language of Indonesia, the word Ketemu means to ‘meet’ or to ‘encounter’. Ketemu is also the name of a transnational art collective and social enterprise, with hubs in both Indonesia and Singapore. The mission of Ketemu Project is to create a socially conscious and inclusive world through art and creativity. The name Ketemu then also reveals the activities at the heart of this mission: change achieved through dialogue.

“[Ketemu] brings out the spirit of connecting people and initiating conversations.”

Ketemu Project’s work with schools and with communities, including previously with a group of marginalised batik workers and persons living with schizophrenia, led to the development of new creative platforms: residency programmes, a project space and international collaborations.

Art et al. is a unique platform that connects artists from supported studios with their peers, arts professionals, and with audiences.1 Internationalism is key to Art et al.’s mission and through global collaborations and partnerships they have commissioned critical writing, exhibitions, and original multimedia content.

If connection and conversation are how we might forge a more just world, then international collaboration – connecting across borders –amplifies this impact. This is a truth borne out in Art et al. × Ketemu, a collaborative digital project launched in 2022, facilitating meaningful encounters between artists and creative practitioners from Indonesia and the UK. The yearlong programme of activity encompassed Peer/ Peer Collaborations between artists identifying with and without disability; Curatorial Mentorships and the production of digital projects engaging with important collections of contemporary art that are known as Curating Collections.

In any project with collaboration at its heart, the first fundamental is understanding. A particular challenge of intercultural collaboration is to bridge differences in language and culture and Art et al. co-founder Lisa Slominski spoke of an initial trepidation; this would be the first project which would include online meetings that would occasionally rely on live translation. “You never know how well people are going to meld or connect anyway, but this [live translation] was an added level of trepidation.” The results, she can reflect, were wonderful, “it created a really interesting pace that allowed everybody to really focus and [gave room] for their thoughts.”

Sidhi Vhisatya, an artist based in Ubud, Bali, has been active in the Ketemu Project since 2021. Sidhi has had a unique oversight of the many elements of the Art et al. × Ketemu collaboration, serving as translator both for live Zoom sessions and for several lengthy published texts. Sidhi offers an important reminder that

Curating Collections Zoom meeting with Ketemu Project’s Army, Art et al.’s Jennifer Gilbert, Sally Hirst and Mia Tjahjadi (clockwise from top left) in writing of Indonesia and of its artists, there is not a singular perspective – not least because of its size (Indonesia is the 4th most populous nation) and its linguistic diversity (more than 700 living languages are spoken in Indonesia), but also because “artists embody their own culture and own experience”. Participation in the Art et al. x Ketemu collaboration nevertheless sharpened Sidhi’s awareness of the different “cultural ecosystems” in the UK and in Indonesia, especially when it comes to disabilities:

“In Indonesia and in other parts of the world, artists with disabilities have been put in boxes, where disabled artists can only interact with other disabled artists, and can only do exhibitions with disabled artists. This opportunity to engage with contemporary art, and not only artists but also art practitioners –collectors and curators – has been meaningful for them”.

This type of meaningful exchange is exemplified in the two Curating Collections projects commissioned as part of the exchange. Curating Collections is a flagship of the Art et al. platform; it commissions artists identifying as disabled to curate projects with artworks from an established international collection or collector.

Artist Sally Hirst, who attends the Manchester supported studio Venture Arts, has a flair for textiles, ceramics and illustration. Participation in Curating Collections linked Sally to GULA art space, an Indonesian based art collection, and to gallery manager Mia Tjahjadi. It also provided a platform for another important and developing aspect of Sally’s practice; she writes and records a poetic style of audio description to interpret artworks, and to make them more accessible for visually impaired audiences.

Naming her selection of artworks Elements of Bali, Sally described the experience of learning about history and culture through a close study of collection artworks as akin to “going on a magical trip to Bali every week”. She was attentive to imagery of the elements in the artworks she chose; a two-metre-tall bust by Dadang Christanto, The Ever Evolving Face (2012), for example, calls forth fire – and Sally’s poetic flair:

… Behind, Yellow flames with red outline traced The flames wavy giving sense of motion

Female shadow puppets so beautiful

Many Bright red evil eyes all stand out hands control puppets by giving a pull some puppets in flames almost hear them shout …

In a second Curating Collections, realised through a series of virtual conversations – and live translating by Sidhi – Indonesian artist and activist Butong (Sukri Budi Dharma) explored works from

Curating Collections Zoom meeting with RIA’s Yates Norton, Art et al.’s Lisa Slominski, Ketemu Project’s Sidhi Vhisatya and Butong (clockwise from top left) the Roberts Institute of Art (RIA) / David and Indrė Roberts Collection. Over several months, Butong and the RIA’s London-based curator Yates Norton found new routes into the collection. Butong’s personal lens, his interest in ‘ideal’ and ‘real’ selves, informed a selection of works that was a revelation for Yates:

“We found in our conversations that artworks entered into new domains of thought and feeling … Translations across generations, cultures and languages are often generative, opening up conversations that acknowledge difference as a site of connection, not of separation.”

As Butong described it, online meetings with Yates, Sidhi and Lisa Slominski, and the development of his own curatorial viewpoint, focused his passion on artworks that addressed the human condition. Zhang Huan’s 12 Square Metres (1994) by which the artist drew attention to living conditions in a poor Beijing village, had particular resonance for Butong. He saw within this stark and abject image an echo of his own advocacy “for disabled people who at times suffer, living in family custody as the result of their poor condition, as well as a culture of shame.”

A Curatorial Mentorship is another mechanism for meeting and connecting facilitated by Art et al. These bespoke mentorships pair an artist identifying as disabled with a curator; and together they produce and contextualise a digital project curating several artists together under a theme.

For London-based Toyin Olubamiwo, who attends Artbox London, participation in a Curatorial Mentorship was a source of multiple, enriching connections. The project partnered Toyin with Indonesian curator Ignatia Nilu, and enabled Toyin, who has a prolific art practice, to reach out to many other artists. Although Toyin spoke of her chosen curatorial focus on superheroes and cartoons as a respite from the “pressure of being an adult and becoming independent”, by seeking connection to artists who shared her love of superheroes and cartoons, Toyin did not retreat, instead, she grew and developed. Toyin was interested to know if the other artists included in her curatorial selection signed and dated their work. Did they have a preferred superhero? A comic book collection? Drawing and preliminary sketches are an important part of Toyin’s work, did these artists sketch too? Through dialogue and collaboration, Toyin found kinship and affirmation about her own processes.

“As with the best mentoring relationships, it offered the chance to explore new ideas in new ways and to learn, grow and develop.”

– Matt Burrows

Matt Burrows, Curator and Gallery Manager at Exeter Phoenix, was the mentor in the second Curatorial Mentorship facilitated by the Art et al. × Ketemu exchange. His partnership with Indonesian disabled artist Lala Nurlala underlines the possibilities for transformation – for growth and change – afforded by art, collaboration and perhaps especially by connecting across borders.

The digital project FANDOMINIUM is energised by Lala’s own identification as a mega-fan and by her eye for how pop culture is transmitted and translated across the globe, ‘sharing and exchanging cultural influences’. And so, in the work of Mexican-born artist Jorge Gutierrez, America’s favourite yellow-skinned boy, is transformed into Bart Sanchez / El Morro Simpson. Gutierrez inks Bart’s knuckles with LOVE and HATE tatts; a natty moustache twirls over chin stubble, and distinctively sharp spikes of hair poke above the rim of a sombrero. “Gutierrez altered popular cartoon characters into a style that his culture is more accustomed with”, Lala writes in a curatorial text. She noted “more geometrical shapes and vibrant colours. He gave attributes to them and transformed them into more familiar figures.”

In her own work, Lala elevates, or perhaps liberates, a cartoon character, Dr. Zone, from within an American animated comedy series Milo Murphy’s Law. Lala expresses a deep attachment to the character of Dr. Zone; this in spite of the fact that he is no ‘leading man’. Dr. Zone occupies a marginal role within his cartoon universe, but Lala’s artistic intervention lifts Dr. Zone from the fringes, casting him as the central character. Lala’s video art consists of a stylised drawing of Dr. Zone, rendered like a spear-wielding hero, while the soundtrack introduces the Maori Haka, a Sudanese song and the Javanese gamelan. “I have given him a context that is relevant to my experience”, Lala explains “Dr. Zone has been dipped in an intersection of social issues, mainly autism and postcolonialism.”

The final component of the international collaboration was direct artist to artist exchange. Peer/Peer Collaborations commission new artworks, jointly created, or inspired, by two artists working internationally and one identifying as disabled. Artists Karin Josephine and Christian Newby might live on opposite hemispheres, but a love of materials unites them. Karin, who is based in Indonesia, has a long-established practice of creating collages from torn, ripped, peeled, and discarded papers. The process is therapeutic as well as giving material form to ‘chaotic feeling’. Christian’s work has been described as a negotiation between fine art and domestic objects; he employs a dizzying variety of materials and techniques including fabric, carpet, screenprinted photographs, watercolour, marbling, textile pattern, pillar painting and collage.

Pit Stop: Mari Mampir

(page detail) 2023

Limited edition artists’ book

22 × 15 × 2 cm

Together they collaborated on a digital and physical book. Adorned handmade sketchbook pages were initially created intuitively by Karin whose practice often involves bookbinding, and its pages were formed from a variety of local sources, including the labels of canned foods and photocopied documents. Christian, for his part, added his own works on paper to the book, incorporating British news sources and ephemera and applying pattern and text to Karin’s creation –and vice versa. Through six Zoom meetings, and the international postal service, their project, Pit Stop: Mari Mampir, emerged. So did a profound sense of kinship.

“We both seemed to be driven by tactile surfaces in the things we often make”, Christian explains. “Making an artist’s book seemed like a good way to still make an object or something to hold in your hand, but also something that serves as a document of a process.” Karin reflects, “The term ‘mark-making’ seems to be a connecting line between our works. Since the similarity doesn’t have to be in a visual way, but it can be in an essence or spirit.”

In the second Peer/Peer Collaboration linking Indonesia and the UK, the opportunity to collaborate was also the chance for artists Chris Angell and Budi Agung Kuswara (Kabul) to push their own work, and to expand and transform their practice. This was an opportunity to step outside of the materials and of the methods they were used to.

Chris, a self-taught artist from the East of England, who attends Barrington Farm, had been working predominantly in pastels and acrylic on paper and on board. Sometimes he uses subdued colours, other times he layers bright, water-based Posca pens on top of his images. A feature of his work is speed and looseness. Chris is prolific. Bali-based Budi, meanwhile, has developed a particular proficiency with the photographic printing process known as cyanotype – its distinctive shade of cyan blue resulting from exposure of the print to ultraviolet light. Budi works at large-scale and, over many years, has developed a mastery of this technique.

Chris and Budi set each other weekly tasks; working, for instance, on a particular theme and it was often the case that they explored each other’s style and manner of art making; be that working quick and loose; or layering with colour and collaged imagery. At Barrington Farm, a local artist Kate Munro conducted a cyanotype workshop for Chris and several of his artist peers, as Chris was keen to learn how Budi created his works.

Budi, meanwhile, admired Chris’ freer line and tried to bring this energy and ease into his own work. Using a cyanotype portrait of his face as the central focal point, Budi expressed the influence of his collaboration with Chris by also

43 × 59 cm including playful, loose drawings and by layering this imagery. Drawings on acetate made by Chris, of boats, sharks and smiling faces, were emailed to Budi and incorporated into his work. Chris was interested to learn more about life in Indonesia and to hear from Budi about the animal life, the weather and the natural beauty of Budi’s home. Receiving a cyanotype from Budi, he added crocodiles to the base of the artwork, and surreal sunflowers.

The experience was transformative. “My confidence is massive”, Chris relates, “It’s brought me out of my shell.” Budi, who founded the Ketemu Project in 2013, was thoughtful about how their collaboration might connect to the widest possible audience:

“Hopefully the audience can see our collaboration artwork is about equality, we inspired each other regardless of our physical and mental situations. Everyone will experience disability, especially for those who live long. So, our collaboration art is about celebrating life.”

A celebration of life, and of connection. Budi, reflecting further on their collaboration, shared a beautiful observation with Chris – one that speaks to the project as a whole: “The interesting part of the cyanotype process is the relationship with the sun”, Budi spoke into the webcam. “The sun you use to make your print is the same sun that I use to make mine.”

The Art et al. × Ketemu collaboration was a cherished moment to pause and look to the sky. Jet-planes fly through the night; parcelled notebooks and cardboard tubes of drawings are transported from port to port; pixels zoom, and files download; but we all stretch and bend and change and connect and dream under the same sky.

One sun shines on us all.

Katrina Schwarz

Katrina is an Australian curator and writer living in London. Katrina is curator of the Deutsche Borse Photography Foundation Prize and Curator: Special Projects, Whitechapel Gallery.

1. A supported studio is a creative environment for individuals with specific health or social needs that encourages and supports the different art practices of artists. Supported studios facilitate professional development and careerbuilding opportunities for artists — individually, as a group or collective.

Supported studios provide technical artistic support, promote artists in the marketplace and within galleries, and develop networks and audiences outside of health and social care settings. Supported studios share a commitment to producing and presenting work of high artistic quality.