Dede Eri Supria (Typed)

Bio: 

• 29th January 1956- now
• Indonesian
• Super-Realistic Surrealist Painter
• Social Realist

Materials: 

• Oil paint on canvas

Style:

• Fascinated by photographic realism.
• Developed his paintings through collection of photographs- but he never paints from them directly.
• Found his *idioms through observing these photos.
• Goes beyond photography- The scenery he creates in his canvases are impossible for photography to emulate. In playing with this imagination of the unreal-reality or engineered visual reality, he employs painstakingly realistic techniques in the details of his works. (AKA: Realism becomes a means and idiom for creating a visual reality and no longer a tool for describing, observing or copying reality.)
• Makes use of illusions and receding perspective to give sense of space, manipulating shapes and lines in different directions and thickness.
• Space and ambiguous background gives feelings of fear and uncertainty of unknown.
• Complex network of lines is employed to divide people from each other and increases the sense of confusion and disorientation of people living in Indonesia

*Idioms: A characteristic mode of expression in music or art.

Influenced by:

• His childhood- born to a simple family that lived in the capital city, thus fueling his strong motive to express matters related to the survival of common people in big cities.

Subject Matter: (Go down to ‘Themes’ if you want a shorter summary)

• Urban Dilemmas- Struggle of working social groups and their fight to survive as a consequence of urbanization.
• Increasing trend of consumerism in Indonesia
• Isolated and trapped condition of the marginalised common folk (Who are eventually sacrificed) within the labyrinth of urban society, caged in by rapid industrialisation and urbanisation.
• Developed idioms in the form of perspective, creating the illusion of vast space including labyrinths, urban landscapes, skyscrapers, etc. His works usually entail the visual entrapment of his subjects through the means of objects related to industrialisation and urbanisation (E.g. Advertisements, Construction)
• Ideas, dramatization and personal experience play a part in enhancing his work and bringing out his subject matter.
• The people on his canvas are a reflection of his own life experience.
• He does not link himself to solving the problems of societal imbalance, not pinpoint an acute analysis of the given problems.
• More concerned with directing his sympathy and empathy towards these people who are backed into a corner- towards the bitterness that he himself is unable to solve.

Themes: (Condensing the above into a few words)

• Rich-poor divide
• Increasing trend of consumerism in Indonesia
• U.S HEGEMONY
• Lives of urban dwellers in big cities
• The poor and neglected in the face of urbanisation
• Changes in Indonesian society in general.

Labyrinth (1987-88) Oil on Canvas

I’m going into a whole lot of detail here so please bear with me! I combined Describe with Analyse so it’s going to be a whole clump of information.

I would separate them but due to lack of time, that will have to wait for a bit.

(Also, usually for Describe questions, I categorise my answer into composition, colour and technique as a rule of thumb)

There is SO MUCH to talk about for Dede’s works cos they are so rich in images and symbols that I’m struggling to type them all down- the more I look the more I have to say (urgh). I shall endeavour to type as much as I can!

• Iron scaffolding that descends into a dizzying labyrinth of cardboard box walls
• Greatly enlarges something that is usually small (Cardboard boxes)- to the point that they become towering walls that threaten and stifle, trapping the human occupants- almost like they are the items being packaged.
• In the far distance where the vanishing perspective ends, an odd mirror-like wall shines, almost akin to the corporate buildings made of reflective glass (Sign of the elite). They reflect a bottle of tomato ketchup and fries- a symbol of US fast food conglomerates. The repetitive image creates a sense of disorientation, entrapment and inevitability, for no matter where you look or which direction you head in, the end is always the same.
• Note the encroachment of the fries into the labyrinth as well- and the straight lines that point out into the maze and at the viewers- almost threatening, ominous.
• Coupled with the use of bright colours, it enhances the dizzying sense of confusion that is overpowering.
• The intense realism, where all the cardboard walls and details are brought into heightened focus. This creates a sense of confusion as well, where the sharp focus causes viewers and perhaps even the human subjects of the painting to be lost and disoriented, where everything is overwhelmingly clear. (Your vision usually blurs out peripheral objects when you are focusing on something so as not to overwhelm your sight- but in this case everything is clear and in focus)
• The human subjects are curled up and isolated from each other, each trapped in a position where they are unable to escape from (The closest subject is high up on the scaffolding on a precarious piece of wood that he could fall off at any time, while the other is in the maze itself and boxed in)
• The advertisements on the cardboard walls are a sign of consumerism, and coupled with the towering walls, they give the sense of the common Indonesian people (represented by the curled up human subjects) being suppressed and choked by it, helpless to prevent the onslaught of development. (Everywhere they turn, they will be faced by it)

Amongst Red Beams (1992) Oil on Canvas

• A clear focus is on the red beams, due to the use of colour contrast. The surroundings are in shades of dull blue and grey, while the beams are painted in bright red. Note that even the students are in duller shades of colour (The boys have red shorts, but they are clearly duller in comparison to the red beams), which causes them to almost blend in with the background. They are clearly not a focus of the painting.
• Red is also associated with signs of danger and warning, so perhaps this is a symbol of the danger that industrialisation poses to the Indonesian people.
• To elaborate on the idea that the people are being sidelined and marginalised, note their position in the work. The composition of the work is such that the red beams divide the work into three to four clear sections, also effectively dividing the students from each other and isolating them. Furthermore, the students are placed either at the periphery of the painting or in the far distance and seem to be in the shadowed areas of the work, which emphasises that they are not the focus of the painting despite their realistic rendering. Coupled with their pensive expressions and their positions (none of them are facing the viewer, instead turning away or looking into the far distance), this creates a rather sombre mood to the painting.
• The train tracks also serve to cut the painting into thirds, further dividing the students from each other. Dede effectively uses lines to create a feeling of entrapment and isolation.
• The jumble of construction beams seem to flow in no particular order, instead looking chaotic and messy. This further connotes feelings of confusion and disorientation, with the human subjects trapped in between.