Page 19 - 57 X 76 - Hanafi • Goenawan Mohamad
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COUNTERPOINT it as a specific choice that poses risks to the works
FOR TWO SIGNATURES of both artists in this project. In 57 x 76, Hanafi and
GM adopted a method full of play and openness,
For their project 57 x 76, Hanafi and Goenawan which turned out to be effective in establishing
Mohamad (GM) agreed to work with a special intersubjective communication.
procedure: Hanafi would start with painting on
canvas or paper, then give it to GM to continue. Collaboration and collectivism
And vice versa: GM would submit paper or canvas Collaboration (kolaborasi)—from the Latin collaborare,
that he had painted for Hanafi to respond to. The meaning to ‘work together—is not a foreign term in
two artists worked for several months beginning in Indonesia. These days, we find it scattered throughout
November 2016, and the process resulted in more modern life from work slogans for factory employees,
than two hundred paintings and drawings, in addition office workers and cyberspace, in the tagline of
to several installation designs that will be realized at musical projects, to mass media headlines about
the National Gallery. Only once or twice were Hanafi the role of those accused of corruption. The use of
and GM involved in ‘painting together’ in one place. the term has become so common that it tends to
Most of the works in this project were finished in their be excessive, and we often unconsciously exchange
respective studios, without coming face-to-face with it for other terms such as ‘cooperation’, or ‘mutual
each other. Completion of a sheet of paper or canvas self-help’(gotong royong). As a social practice,
most often took place in one round. There are only collaboration has a broad spectrum of understanding
a few works in this project that went back and forth reflected in various collective human activities
between Hanafi and GM, until both of them agreed throughout civilization, from hunting together in
that the work was truly ‘finished.’ prehistoric times, to the most advanced space
exploration. In the world of the internet, collaboration
Both Hanafi and GM fixed ‘collaboration’ as the main is increasingly strengthened along with the formation
basis of the 57 x 76 project. This essay will first of a network society, where togetherness in groups
touch on a number of things about collaboration in and organizations is no longer bound by physical
the great heritage of art practice, before reviewing presence, but by patterns of digital communication.
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