TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Tens of happy, smiley faces are packing up Salihara Gallery in Pasar Minggu, Jakarta. Some are smiling to their ears and some just showing off their front teeth. Some others look cracking up so hard that their eyes almost shut. These frozen smiley faces are the last art pieces made by the late Indonesian ceramic artist Liem Keng Sien who died on March 21, 2014 in his 59th.
The exhibition, which is held until Sunday, March 29, is held to commemorate one year after the artist death. Around sixty pieces of Laughter art series by Keng Sien were made in 2000s.
“Most of the art pieces have never been exhibited,” said one of the curators for the exhibition, Hanafi when contacted via phone by Tempo on Tuesday, March 24.
According to Hanafi, Keng Sien was rigorous in holding exhibitions.
“He put more concerns on the studio than galleries, and art creation than exhibition or display windows,” Hanafi added.
Therefore, the exhibition at Salihara is designed to bring back the atmosphere of Keng Sien’s workshop.For example, there are scribbles of humors on the walls saying, among others, ‘I go fitness when I remember you’ or ‘ceramic is craft not pure art, he he..’.
Keng Sien was born on December 20, 1954 in Jakarta. He studied architecture in Brussel, Belgium for four years before switching to ceramic science at the Visual Art Academy in Leuven, Belgium in 1980.
When he returned to his hometown, he opened a ceramic workshop in Cawang, Jakarta, in 1983 and started a collective exhibition one year later. Starting from 1992, he taught ceramic science in Jalan Lombok, Central Jakarta until his death.
RATNANING ASIH