the living stone

Arts & Entertainment

  • Author Agung Suryanto
  • Published April 17, 2022
  • Word count 1,102
  1. Introduction

In 2018, I created the artwork The Heart of Stone. My idea rekindles a stone that percept as an inanimate object which solid, cold, hard, and heavy. How did I rekindle the stone? I rekindled it in perception. The stone contained air and it could swell and subside repeatedly by referring to the working system of the heart organ.

The creation of installation art applied the idea of living and rekindling something. This idea was influenced by the theory of quantum.

Since the time of the Paleolithic, human has given a sign of their presence and their group. The giving of the sign may be meant as a way of the previous human for the culture space, myths, macro-cosmos - micro-cosmos. This sign continues with the new meaning of being symbols; for instance, lingga - yoni, totem, monument, temple, Meru, Pagoda. They gave names with piles of stones high formed in monuments, carving stones in menhir shape which then continued to lingga - yoni. The developed signs have new meanings mystically and religiously. Becoming a spiritual center space. Which was originally a human as a pusering Jagad which then developed into space as a center of the universe. The spaces are made as places of worship. Informs of churches, temples, or mosques. Which originally started from stone as the main marker of pusering jagad.

According to Rupert Sheldrake (2012) various views on the universe from the traditional Christian era to the materialism era.

Before the 17th century, people believed that the universe was like an organism considering that nature was alive. In the 17th century, classical physics developed, revealing that the universe was like a set of a huge machines.

From 1780 to 1830 in the Romantic movement, people viewed nature as a living creature rather than a mechanical one. Friedrich von Schelling (1707), applied these ideas to science, and they debated through the material of rekindled. Organism or holistic philosophy treats the whole nature as an alive thing, in this case, it is the updated pra mechanical animism. Even atoms, molecules, and crystals are organisms. The philosophy of organism showed that wherever we see nature on whatever level or scale, we will find wholeness which consists of intact parts themselves on a lower level.

From the conclusion of the world views on the universe above, there are two kinds of views, namely the universe as a living organism and the universe which works like a machine. The conclusion may be applied as the basic assumption in my artwork.

The living stone is how an artwork could disturb the audience's perception. The dead physical stone would be rekindled. How is the way?. I want the stone could move. The movements could be various, it could be shifted, rolling, or it may move only on its surface.

With the change in the concept of rekindling inanimate objects, and the base of quantum theory. The theory triggers the idea to rekindle inanimate objects in the artwork change. Quantum theory claimed that every material consists of small parts which are not inanimate objects, but something that always moving alive. Viewed in a macro way, our surrounding nature may look passive, static, or dead. However, when it is analyzed in detail to the smallest parts, the objects which once looked passive, static, and dead will look different, and open to be interpreted and used as anything (Dwi Marianto, 2011,p. 90).

How is the technic of rekindling the inanimate object?. The easiest thing is by moving only its surface, as the surface of the stomach or breast skin of a human when he is breathing, pulsated. By moving the part of the stone, it looks as if it is pulsated, then the audience's perception is as if the stone is alive. It is one of the techniques to make the audience's perception disturbed. From the idea of the living stone, I would like to apply it to my installation artwork by exploring the room architecturally with the reference to the subject above and how is the technique to present the subject matter.

  1. Methodology

2.1. Quantum Theory

A long time ago, people claimed everything was made of the atom, but today the statement is not fully true. However, many things are not made of atoms. For instance, electric currents, magnetic fields, and the gravitational field of the earth. Protons, neutrons, and electrons are not made of atoms. Atom is made of them. The universe is made of quanta.

Quantum is often described as the science of mysterial and energy on the smallest level. Most of the physic quantum is carried out in molecular, atomic, and subatomic, the definition based on these sizes was extremely simplified because quantum is not always small; quanta usually could be as big as the earth. Two or more quanta could be considered as a single quantum, whose parts are fused and influence each other, even when they stay in a different galaxy

2.2. The Peak Shift Principle

In the practice of creating, artworks can be carried out in various ways. The purpose is to open new interpretations to several phenomena. For the subject matter and to develop artistic and technical practice tools, I used the method of approach to the subject matter, using the method of warming from Ramachandran, The Peak Shift Principle.

Fine art often uses the words of feeling in the process of creation. The feeling is a sensation or the essence of something. In Britannica Encyclopedia, feelings can only be suggested to be experienced deeply, but cannot be expressed (Marianto,2011, p.149).

For Ramachandran, to make the feeling be expressed strongly to be able to arouse the audience's aesthetic feeling is by making it to be extreme or exaggerating the feeling by caricaturing. It can activate the neutral mechanism of the brain. The previously weak feeling becomes huge appear its presence.

  1. Conclusions

There are two studies in the process of my creation. The first is about stones. Unconsciously the subject matter was triggered by the theory of Quantum.

From the studies on the material and technique, there is one point related studied. It was using a device related to technology. so that the stone was viewed alive with the pulsated surface, which needed a mechanical device. While creating the critical impression, especially for the lighting. It needed a technology device.

The process of creating the artwork is indirectly related to technology; thus, I collaborated with the person who knows about it, and how was the technique of presenting an artwork. The process I experienced, opened a new phenomenon in creating artworks. That is the relationship between art and other fields. I needed a together execution, with a collaboration.

Agung Suryanto, Born : Surabaya, 24 Mei 1970.

I am an artist. Awards: indofood art award 2002. Jakarta Art Awards 2008.UOB Painting of the year 2013. Mandiri Art Award 2015. Solo exhibitions:

2002- 'metamorfosa' installation, 66 gallery, Surabaya. 2006-'the watchers' installation project, Graha Pena Surabaya. 2008- 'Blue at the sculpture' Wilwatikta arts college, Surabaya. 2021-'Selo', Miracle prints, Yogyakarta.

agungtatosuryanto@gmail.com

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