POP UP

PALGUNA SURFING IN POP UP

A Solo Exihibition by I Made Arya Palguna

A Note on Made Palguna’s Solo Exhibition
Spontaneous line strokes in charcoal and oil pastels, constructing distinctive figurations. Acrylic paint and watercolor that settle translucently, sometimes opaquely. Thus Made Palguna, working on open spaces of canvas, board and paper, presents new work in a solo exhibition entitled Pop-Up at Komaneka Gallery. The works displayed in Pop-Up are especially interesting when viewed in the context of the journey of Palguna’s creative process.

The works that we see on the walls of the Komaneka Gallery exhibition space show different artistic achievements compared to Palguna’s earlier works. The differences appear in the technical aspect as well as in how Palguna processes the narrative aspect in his works. This new power shows that Palguna is an artist who is always exploring and whose creative energy is always seeking new and refreshing things in his creative process.

If we take the metaphor of surfing in cyberspace, then the freshness of visual ideas offered by Palguna here can be read as a pop-up window that suddenly appears, opening up new views of the work. Each work seems to offer an element of surprise. The viewer is invited to move from one work to the next, discovering the pop-up that opens up new experiences and nuances. This makes for a dynamic experience. If we are familiar with Palguna’s previous work, we will find something new in this exhibition of his latest works, like when we click on a pop-up window in cyberspace.

The difference can be seen first from the visual character, in the technical choices and the handling of the mediums, mixed to produce their own artistic qualities. The difference in visual character appears in the most essential aspect, namely the character of Palguna’s line strokes. While in previous works we encountered Palguna’s smooth, controlled lines, in this exhibition we see a different quality in the line strokes, spontaneous and expressive, produced with various mediums ranging from paint and charcoal to oil pastels and implying a strong emotional side.

So, too, with the colors Palguna chooses here. Whereas in his previous work his colors tended to be solid, sometimes voluminous, with a treatment of light to produce strong volumetric aspects, in this new work Palguna’s choice of colors is more expressive, with striking but harmonious contrasts between the combination of soft, translucent watercolor effects with the effects of opaque fields, with visible brush strokes that give an expressive, even abstract, impression with surprising artistic effects.

Apart from the technical side, there is a difference in the way Palguna builds the narrative in his work. As an artist who has sensitivity in visual narration, Palguna’s previous works show narrative aspects that are present through many figures and objects in one picture plane. The narrative aspect in many of Palguna’s previous works is constructed from the interweaving of relationships and interactions of the figures and objects. In his current works, Palguna’s visual expressions now tend to be more poetic and symbolic, inviting questions and reflection. This is in accordance with Palguna’s character, always skilled and sensitive in presenting intriguing visual metaphors. Fragments of figures and objects are composed in such a way as to imply symbolic meanings in the statements that Palguna conveys through his work.

So what drives and sparks Palguna’s works in this solo exhibition? Palguna is of course an ordinary human being who, like us, encounters various realities in daily life and the dynamics of life’s problems. Yet as an artist, Palguna has his own unique perspective on the reality encountered, including how to interpret the various problems and dynamics of feelings faced in everyday life as energy or sparks in creating works. Everything he encounters in daily life, whether in the family or in the routine life of his surroundings, is a spark that inspires.

Life with all its unpredictability produces a variety of emotions that are sometimes contrasting. Happiness sometimes comes with disappointment, and anxiety is the other side of belief. All these things come and go in our lives, and all present a tension of feelings. Palguna as an artist is fully aware of this. He tries not to get carried away and to remain quiet in the face of problems. As an artist, he processes and fuses these various experiences into a spark for his work. His works are now like catharsis, a place where Palguna pours out and sees life’s problems from a different perspective. His works are the result of deep contemplation on reality and everyday life. This is the path of Palguna’s awareness, the basis for how he develops the themes of his current works, which he explores from problems that are not far from his daily life.

Everyday life, if examined philosophically, is a source of ideas in creating works and is in accordance with the development of modern contemporary art as a medium to see, interpret and express reality with the unique languages of art. While religion teaches us to see reality and the order of life from a normative aspect, providing ethical and moral guidance; and science gives us a way to view reality in scientific systems and logical thinking, then art gives us a free and open space to experience and accept all the unexpectedness and uncertainty of life in artistic and aesthetic language.

Palguna seems to be aware of this, so that his unique perspective as an artist gives rise to an idea that creates a metaphor of the unexpectedness that he feels and encounters in daily life, like a pop-up while surfing in cyberspace. This spark leads him to a metaphor of something unexpected, even though it may be very simple and perhaps considered trivial or domestic, and this can be realized in a universal work of art, because all humans must experience their own internal problems; only the forms of these problems and the ways of dealing with them are different. All the unexpectedness that Palguna encounters is recorded in his realm of ideas and then manifested in his handwriting, transformed into something artistic and ticklish as well as inviting questions, creating surprises and provoking curiosity. Those are the feelings that he wants to arouse in his works.

See, for example, the work entitled Big Fans (2024), a painting on a 109 x 142 cm canvas, with charcoal, oil pastel, and acrylic. Palguna presents here a simple narrative, his observation of a family watching a football match on television, a moment that any of us might encounter in a day. But for Palguna it has a deep meaning about closeness, intimacy and a sense of togetherness between individuals. This is illustrated in the way he depicts two figures who appear very close as they watch their favorite team compete. The same narrative is also seen in the work Having Tea Together (2024), which depicts a couple enjoying the warmth of tea on a 188 x 142 cm canvas with charcoal, oil pastel, and acrylics.

Moments of being alone with all human feeling, such as the contemplation of life carried out at night, are recorded very poetically and expressively by Palguna. A single figure with a sharp gaze, a black dog howling in the darkness of the night, becomes a friend in the wandering of thoughts and self-reflection that sometimes brings emotional tension, blending with silent contemplation. This is depicted in Palguna’s work entitled Bisikan Malam (Night Whispering, 2024) measuring 109 x 142 cm, with charcoal, oil pastel and acrylic on canvas. In addition to two dimensional works, Palguna also presents sculptures, which reveal his sensitivity in choosing symbols and metaphors through the forms and objects shown here.

In the end, despite its title, this solo exhibition is about more than visual surprise. We are also invited to reflect on a deeper layer of meaning. Palguna offers Pop-Up as a metaphor for the unexpected in life, reminding us that daily life is always colored by many possibilities, by surprise and uncertainty, and showing us how to respond by remaining aware that life is inevitably dynamic. If our daily life is likened to an activity of surfing in cyberspace, then there will always be pop-ups that come to us unexpectedly. So it is in Palguna’s work, where each work contains a message or narrative that he wants to convey to the viewer, a message that is layered in an artistic package that allows us to interpret what we see and feel. Through this exhibition we are also invited to observe how Palguna with his artistic sensitivity and creativity always explores and moves ideas in his works. Happy surfing in the Pop-Up offered by Palguna.

I Made Susanta Dwitanaya

Translated and edited by
Diana Darling

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