Diasporic Art Practices

Aries Tjhin Contemplating 30" x 22" Conte Crayon, Compressed Charcoal		Installed view
My current body of works comes from my fascination with looking at figurative art, and seeing how the human gaze affects the way that the image conveys a sense of emotion. My inspiration comes from looking at fashion and culture magazine, artist from early twentieth century from the art nouveau era, who emphasizes the use of figuration in their work, and up to contemporary artist that incorporate narrative in their work. I was always fascinated with figurative work, including photography, and how the artist plays around with the figure and their relation with the space around them. This is apparent when I am looking at fashion magazine or a book that is illustrated with figurative images. The inspiration of using the Cyclops comes from me looking at a lithograph by Odillon Redon. I like the way his analytical approach through the investigation of science and nature spawned images of fantastic creatures. I appropriate and re-contextualized the image of the Cyclops and make it my own. Instead of ugly, brute and savage beast, I made them more human and civilized with the exception of having an eye on their forehead. In many of the images, I’ve showed the Cyclops as having calm or even neutral facial features, but infusing emotion in their eyes thus creating a juxtaposition between idea of restraint and dynamic movement within my work.
Many of this work have an autobiographical element to it. Being an Asian who emigrated with my family from Indonesia had shape the way I make this imagery, and how it ties in with using the gaze as idea. I recollect the time that I was small and was taught not to look at an adult while talking, because it was disrespectful and it shows a sign of defiance against them. When I came to the US, it took me a while to be able to look an adult, including my teachers when I was talking to them. This idea of looking and seeing is one aspect that is explored within my work. It is my experienced of having been brought up and influenced by these two different culture- Indonesian and American- that has shape my ways of thinking and my ability to mine their rich history, and using them in my art.