TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Lights were dancing dynamically on the stage at Bentara Budaya Bali. Various visual imaging projected along the curves of carvings on the temple-like building. The background music brought imagination to wander along with the music tones.
The light performance was presented by Raden Cahyoko Aka – also known as Koko - during the opening of a light exhibition entitled "Beyond a Light, Erawan Vs Perupa Sejati". Koko presented a form of multimedia art called video mapping. The artist recorded the objects and processed the details to make it into dynamic videography work that incorporated real and surreal forms.
"In photography or paintings, objects are freeze and people are required to be actively enjoy [the object], in video mapping, objects and imaginations brought to life together," said art observer Wayan Seriyoga Parta regarding the exhibition that was held until May 17.
Koko's work implied a message that lights could be used in many ways to produce much kind of visual arts. While in the past, photography has been utilizing lights to freeze reality, it was the time to use other light-processing devices to create new reality which could be in contrast to the facts.
Photography have, in the past, recorded a traumatic reality to Bali through photoworks that were capturing the island’s exotics such as photos of women doing many kind activities with bare chests, only in their kamen cloth that cover lower part of their bodies. Such photos from 1940s were famous in Europe when the continent struggled with the war and bali had been pictured as a lost paradise.
Besides Koko, other Balinese artists such as Ida Bagus Darmasuta, photographer Agus Wiryadi Siadi, and multitalented artists Nyoman Erawan have contributed in the exhibition. Some of them were combining photography art with videography to produce abstract and even mystical arts.
Although the artist presented different styles, the object processed for the exhibition was actually only one same object, which was the recording of theatrical performance by Nyoman Erawan entitled Slavation of Soul. The theatrical performance was done on March 15.
ROFIQI HASAN
