SoD UPH and SERUNI Held ?Ketika Aku? Painting Exhibition: A Reflection upon Current Social Conditions

Visitors during the Painting Exhibition 

SERUNI (Seni Rupa Kristen Indonesia) Community collaborated with School of Design (SoD) UPH to held a painting exhibition with the theme: ?Ketika Aku? at the 1st floor of Building B Gallery, UPH Karawaci, starting from February 6-11, 2017. This exhibition is one SoD?s regular agenda since 2014 and this exhibition was the 8th one.

The theme ?Ketika Aku? was chosen specifically to depict the tangled social-political situation, which has been getting worse due to the involvement of religion issues within the contestation of the legitimacy of power; a world where people only wanted to gain materialistic profit and who are full of ignorance towards their victims of greed.  Through its works, SERUNI wanted to speak to many people about the reality where one’s spirituality value is measured by their sensitivity upon responding towards the sufferings happening around their life. Moreover, SERUNI wants to remind people, that the center of everything in our life is Jesus and as we can see from Matthew 25:35, Jesus represent himself as fellow unfortunate people.

Aside from explaining his painting, Setioko also shared his view, that any condition in the world, including the political and social ones that Indonesia is currently facing, can be an inspiration for artists to express their thoughts through artworks.

“Through these artworks, we want to give a message to many people.  Surely, as artists, we might feel satisfied when our artwork could be understood by people. But we hope for something more than just an under, we hope that our artwork can change their way people view things and we also hope that it gives them enlightenment, so they can be a more sensitive about their surroundings,” said Setioko.

Through 17 artworks in this exhibition, SERUNI hopes that they could contribute to help people engage in a dialogue and to enjoy the reflective meaning of many aspects of life, which has been muffled by the commotion happening in our world.

Donny Ibrahim, S.Sn., as an Art Lecturer in SoD UPH, hopes that collaboration between academic community and artists can keep growing so that they can learn from each other. For the students, he also hopes that they could come to a realization that art is not limited to what they could think about it. Instead, art is able to reflect many things, including their faith. (mt)