Playing with the Ancestors

(4/10/2010)

Sculptor, inventor, architect and eccentric are all labels that apply to Kamto Widjaya Lindu Prasekti. One label, however, that would never apply in connection with this Javanese artist is "average." When quizzed about his life's journey, he jokingly suggests he was probably better prepared to become a criminal. That was perhaps the fear shared by Lindu's father, a marine officer, who no doubt saw a never ending series of childhood naughty escapades committed by his son as cause for concern.

By 1988, when 20 years old, he entered the Yogyakarta university to study chemistry. A bohemian rebel by nature, yet Lindu was clearly not headed for the chain gang. He switched schools and disciplines and, in the end, like many university graduates in Indonesia, was forced to turn to an alternative livelihood, in this case, a job with a local cottage bamboo and metalworking industry.

Unexpected fortune opened new doors in an otherwise restless heart. The young chemist discovered that holding tools in his hands and creating material objects brought a special sense of satisfaction.

In 1996, he was able to travel to Osaka, Japan where he worked as a draughtsman. Back in Yogyakarta in 1999, in the wake of the Asian financial crisis, he had saved enough capital to buy land on the outskirts of Yogyakarta and open the Jagad Gallery, at a time when the business in antique furniture, buildings and Javanese folk art was booming.

Over time, the antique trade thinned, leaving Lindu to turn his attentions to the large amount of leftover bits and pieces - odds and ends from old doors, furniture, chairs, ploughs, tools and architectural elements as well as many old forged iron tools scythes, shovels, hoes and hammers – that had accumulated in his warehouse. These items provoked his very active imagination and in his odd free hours he begins making totem-like creatures and totems for his personal amusement. They also puzzled and amused others as well.

Ultimately there are only two types of sculptors in the world – either those like Michelangelo who hew their creations from a solid piece of stone or wood or those from the constructionist school, to which Lindu belongs. Dealing with the confusion of the post-industrial era, Lindu is most concerned with transforming the junk he already has into magical objects than shaping mountains. In a playful homage to his ancestors, he presents his tinkering with no pretensions or expectations.

Welcome to the show.

Playing with the Ancestors

Sculptures by Kamto Widjaya Lindu Prasekti

Ganesha Gallery at the Four Seasons Resort at Jimbaran Bay

Open Daily 9:00 am – 6:00 pm May 7 – 31, 2010