Paul Hodges Profile pic 2

Paul Hodges


Paul Hodges is a mid-career artist known for his masterful figurative paintings. A refined draughtsman and exceptional colourist, Hodges preferred medium is painting. He has worked across a variety of mediums throughout his career, including ceramics, wearable art, printmaking, digital drawing and animation. Drawing on references from magazines and books his subject matter is diverse and is inspired by dancers, fashion, pop icons and the romantic Old Masters.

Paul Hodges has been a regular studio artist at Arts Project Australia since 1998 and held his first solo exhibition at Arts Project Australia in 2015. He has been included in numerous group exhibitions including, Outsider Art Fair, DUTTON Gallery, New York; Spring 1883, Sydney; Melbourne Art Fair, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne; National Gallery of Victoria 150th Anniversary, NGV, Melbourne; and Pearls of Arts Project Australia: The Stuart Purves Collection, National touring exhibition. He has also curated two exhibitions We could be Heroes, and Movement & Emotion and has worked on a number of collaborative projects presented at Arts Project Australia, including a series of ceramics with Georgina Cue and a series of photographs with The Sisters Hayes. 

Mutia Bunga


Mutia Bunga is a female artist from Denpasar, Bali. Currently working and living in Yogyakarta since 2013. She graduated from Fine Arts Education, majoring in Fine Art (painting) at the Indonesian Institute of the Arts in Yogyakarta in 2020. Since 2013 she has carried out several projects and art activities in Yogyakarta, and several cities in Indonesia.

Mutia Bunga is one of the initiators of TacTic. TacTic is a multidisciplinary art group formed in 2016, that was formed in response to the presence of waste, especially plastic waste and wanting to take action to care about plastic waste in the realm of art. In 2021, Mutia Bunga became one of the facilitators and Community Development Manager for #MarineDebrisRangers program in Tulamben, Bali with Divers Clean Action for one year.

Artwork before the collaboration.

During the first Zoom meeting, Paul and Mutia shared examples of their artwork. They shared an interest in brushstrokes and thought that Mutia’s natured-inspired drawings could be combined with Paul’s figurative work to make something altogether new. From this initial sharing of artworks the ideas of landscape, portrait, brushstrokes, hybrid, science fiction, human/plant and spontaneity were recorded.

 

Click on each image below for a larger view and caption details.

Process + Connection

From February through May, and across the international time zones of Australia, Indonesia and the United Kingdom, Paul Hodges and Mutia Bunga connected over Zoom. Joined by Art et al.’s co-founder Lisa Slominski, Ketemu Project’s Sidhi Vhisatya, Art Project Australia’s James McDonald, and at times, Jessica Justin Tabah (who designed the Hybridity e-zine), Paul and Mutia shared their artwork and process, deciding on the theme of ‘hybridity’ after several conversations. From here the framework of the collaboration came together with both artists working in their studios to create a series of small drawings to be made into a stop-motion animation embracing hybridity.

Hybridity

Hybridity, in its most essential form, means mixture. For this Peer/Peer Collaboration, creativity drove the formation of otherworldly hybrids. Exuberant forms brimming with figurative and botanical elements formed this body of work, e-zine and final animation. Led by Mutia, she combined her vibrant and ethereal semi-abstracted watercolours with Paul’s figurative drawings, including details of body parts and animals.

This animation contains flashing images and sound.

The images below show the journey of the artworks coming together. The first four are independent drawings by Paul and Mutia including a cat’s head, a body and more abstract botanical shapes. The following four images are digital collages by Mutia where she is testing out the merging of their artworks together. The final four images are stills of the final animation, Hybridity.

Click on each image below for a larger view and caption details.

E-zine

To showcase their collaborative works in multiple formats, Mutia worked with Jessica Justine Tabah to create an e-zine of their creations.

Interview highlights.

What was your experience collaborating on this project?

Paul: Oh, very enjoyable actually. Yeah, it’s very inspiring. It’s been a good process. Yeah, very, it’s a good experience.

Mutia: Oh yeah, first of all, I want to say thank you so much for inviting me for this project and I also want to express my gratitude to the entire team, especially for Art Project Australia, Lisa, Sidhi, James – thank you so much for helping us to arrange and organize the whole process. And to Paul, thank you so much. You were such a cool and great collaborator. I really adore your artworks and I hope you enjoy the result. I hope we can collaborate in another project.

 

Has this collaboration changed the way you make your artwork?

Paul: Yeah, I like Mutia’s way of working and its inspired me to try different things. Yeah, different techniques and ways to work.

Mutia: Yes, about the whole process… I got mainly inspired by Paul’s artworks and I think this is my new process – to make a collaboration artwork with artists from another country. Yeah, it was really fun and I think I want to collaborate and explore many techniques in my next artworks.

 

Coming soon! A full video recording of Paul and Mutia sharing their experiences of this collaboration.

This collaboration forms part of the year-long Art et al. X Ketemu project, funded by the Australia Council for the Arts.

Images Copyright: Mutia Hodges, Paul Hodges, Arts Project Australia and Art et al.

Curating Collections commissions disabled artists to curate projects with artworks from an established international collection.

 

“Over several weeks in late 2022 and early 2023, Sally Hirst connected with Mia Tjahjadi over Zoom, to find out more about her family’s art collection (built up over many years) and consisting of works made by artists in Indonesia. Mia has set up GULA Art Space to properly document and showcase some of her family’s art collection.

After hearing about Sally’s interests in local culture and history, women artists, and animals, Mia spent time using this knowledge to source artwork from the collection, to share with Sally based on these interests. Finally, after several weeks of sharing a variety of artworks from Mia, Sally narrowed down her selection to ten artworks. During this process, Sally also began audio describing the artworks in her own unique way, with poetry.

Sally’s reasons for selecting these particular artists and artworks have really intrigued us all, as she has related many of them back to the four elements: fire, air, earth and water. This idea encouraged me to look at the works in a different light, from a concept that would not have initially sprung to mind. This is what Art et al. love about our Curating Collections programme – it constantly surprises both us and the collectors, the way that the studio-based artists select and group together artworks. Long may we be able to foster more collaborations like this.” – Jennifer Gilbert, co-Founder Art et al.

This project is part of Art et al. X Ketemu, which is funded by the British Council as part of their International Collaboration Grants.

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Elements of Bali

excerpt of ‘Elements of Bali’ by Sally, from e-catalogue

I chose all my favourite artworks I learnt about. I chose the title Elements of Bali because the artworks I chose remind me of the elements of the earth. ‘The Elephant’ painted using coffee by Rudi Sri Handoko reminds me of the element ‘earth’ because both coffee and the elephant come from the earth. The ‘ENVY’ bag by Astari Rasjid, with the gun inside reminds me of the element ‘fire’ because of firing the gun and the anger caused by envy. The woman dancing with the blue background (‘Diah Kili Suci Dancing’) by Ida Bagus Indra reminds me of the element ‘air’ because her arms and dress are flowing… she looks like she’s dancing in the air. The 2-metre-tall head shaped statue by Dadang Christanto (‘The Ever-Evolving Face’) reminds me of the element ‘fire’ because there is fire featured in the work and the people are screaming and look distressed.

I liked learning about the history and culture of Bali and Indonesia whilst looking at the stunning artworks. I like that artwork makes learning about history and culture more engaging, interesting, accessible, and less overwhelming.”

Above is the e-catalogue designed by Studio Mono, featuring all of Sally’s selected artworks, her written text about why she chose the ten artworks and Mia’s text about how they worked together. If you click on the button on the bottom right it will make it full screen. You can also click on the PDF here instead, if that is easier for you. This will open as a downloaded document.

Elements of Bali

Below are two artworks that Sally chose from the GULA Art Collection as part of her curated selection. Sally is very passionate about making things more accessible for others. For every selected artwork that features in the digital booklet, she has written a creative audio poem. She reads these out as part of her recorded audio of all the text in the booklet. Below, you will also find Sally’s full recording of the booklet, should you wish to listen.

Underneath the two artworks here, are the written versions of the creative audio poems, as examples that we wanted to share. Sally would like you to listen to the short Indonesian/Balinese music that features as audio links under each artwork, whilst you read the descriptive poem out loud.

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Listen to a full audio recording of the booklet by Sally



Ida Bagus Indra
Diah Kili Suci Dancing, 2009
Acrylic on canvas
400 x 200cm
Huang Da Lai
Unknown, 1995
Oil on canvas
120 x 138cm

Please play whilst reading the below audio peom



Please play whilst reading the below audio peom



Audio poem by Sally

1. Magical blue painting with hints of white

2. Beautiful woman dancing in middle

3. Dragon behind such a wonderful sight

4. Painting Makes you want to dance and jiggle

5. Opaque white swirls coming out her hands

6. I Like the power you see in the air

7. A feel of movement all across the land

8. Wearing bright red lipstick and gold in hair

9. Wears Opaque greyish blue flowing dress

10. Dragon blends in background subtle and soft

11. Every move she did was sure to impress

12. The colours used creates a cold blue frost

13. Could be a character from childhood tale

14. How dance makes him feel painted in detail

Audio credit: Kapi Radja (Ape King) by Peliatan Gamelan
Gong, angklung and gender wayang of Peliatan under the direction of Anak Agung Gedé Mandera from Dancers of Bali, Gamelan of Peliatan 1952 album, released by
 World Arbiter (2006) in collaboration with Edward Herbst and Bali 1928.

Audio poem by Sally Hirst

1. Young Girl with black hair that blends in background 

2. Wearing a traditional dance costume 

3. White filled designs yellow hints on red gown 

4. Cream coloured Flower designs on dress bloom

5. There are Silver gems stuck onto her wrist 

6. Hand holding her foot cross legged sat on floor

7. Looking at us Her body has slight twist 

8. This picture of the girl I do Adore 

9. I love the yellow tassels on her dress 

10. On her wrist She wear bangles red and gold

11. Not sure starting or finished I confess 

12. On dress I like layers textures and folds 

13. It’s such a realistic portrait of girl 

14. Patterns on dress have a lot of nice swirls

Audio credit: Gamelan Music for Sahadewa Barong Dance
Recorded by Oliver Gamblin and Lavinya Scholl

“I found it challenging selecting which art I would like to include, because it was all so beautiful. I liked that it [the process] made learning about Bali’s amazing culture and history more engaging and accessible. It’s more exciting and easier than reading a long textbook. I really enjoyed working with Mia as she spoke passionately about the art collection and gave us lots of exciting information.”

– Sally Hirst, 2023

Sally Hirst (b. 2001) is a talented illustrator, textile artist, and ceramicist. She is a socially engaged artist with much of her work being inspired by the people around her. Her parents are foster carers and her foster family inspires much of her work. Accessibility is at the heart of everything that Sally creates. Sally is based at Venture Arts Studios in Manchester, which is a supported studio working with learning disabled artists.

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“Through this collaboration with Ketemu and Art et al., may we inspire people that even though we live across the globe from each other, we are still able to create something truly unique and meaningful. By sharing our love for multiculturalism and love for Indonesian art, we hope to inspire others to explore and celebrate the beauty of different cultures around the world.”

– Mia Tjahjadi, GULA

About GULA: “We are a family of art enthusiasts. We have a diverse collection that we have all contributed to in the span of thirty years. The project started with a desire to share this collection with the world, releasing one series at a time. It then evolved into the idea of designing a space for an art collective that brings creatives together with the goal of introducing unique experiences to the public. With GULA, we push to expand and share the horizons that art continues to bring
to life.”

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M

Winda Karunadhita

 

Winda is paralysed due to a genetic disorder, muscular dystrophy and scoliosis. Winda has been drawing since she was a teenager and is self-taught in painting. She has featured in many exhibitions, both group and solo shows. Some proceeds from her painting sales are always set aside to help other underprivileged persons with disabilities.

Mawarini

 

Mawarini is an Adelaide-based Indonesian-born visual artist, designer and animator. She has exhibited work locally and internationally, including in Indonesia, Malaysia, Istanbul Triennial and the UK. Her practice often combines paper-cutting techniques, illustration and contemporary digital medium to produce narrative installation and animations. Mawarini works collaboratively with artists across different disciplines and has designed and curated work for performance works, art festivals and theatre production. 

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Artwork beforehand

 

The first meeting online involved each artist sharing about their art practice, sharing some artworks, and sharing about where they live and their different cultures. Following the meeting, they were going to have a think about themes and how they might like to collaborate over a three-month period. They both wanted to enrich their experiences through sharing cultural differences as artists. Here we share some works from each artist.

The first three images are from Winda. Winda is interested in decorative arts and you can see that reflected in her paintings, with the level of detail that she includes. The theme for most of my works is about the life and culture of the Balinese. For example, its traditional markets, rice harvesting, dances. She also loves to paint birds and flowers.

The long image is by Mawarini, titled Sewing, in graphite and pastel on paper 100x16cm. Her work is about capturing the beauty and poetry of everyday life through drawing, and through the light and shadows of papercuts. She also loves to add a quirkiness to her art pieces, with many of them coming to life through animation.

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Sharing artwork and collaborating on each others

 

Winda and Mawarini decided to exchange visual drawings, with the other responding in a way they chose to, all around the theme of ‘friendship’. Each week, alongside chatting daily on What’s App, they sent artworks to each other in the post, and some via email to add to digitally. They wanted to explore what friendship meant to each of them. Along the way, they bonded well, and found that they had a love of similar things, especially Japanese culture, floral designs and cats! The resulting works are beautiful and varied, including paintings, drawings, papercuts, digital works, and even a printed zip bag utilising a collaborative design made digitally.

They began with dialogues between two friends sharing stories, and sharing what they like and do not like, and what friendship means to one another. They posed questions to one another to learn more, including things like: do you prefer sunrise or sunset? where is your special place? what are your favourite food and drinks? do you prefer the mountain or beach? what colours do you like?
Below are a few examples with the answers – (W representing Winda and M representing Mawarini).

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Some of the questions they asked each other - written in English and Indonesian
They also sent packages in the post to one another, for the other artist to respond to however they wished. Here is a photo showing one such package.
Still from a Zoom meeting. Clockwise from top left: Mawarini, Jennifer, Sidhi and Winda

The above two works are some of the first works that were created collaboratively. In both cases Winda sent ink pen drawings to Mawarini, who then scanned them in and digitally added other elements to the drawings based on things that they discussed they both liked or enjoyed doing. The left drawing is titled ‘Friendship’ with the right titled ‘Window.’

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The above images show how one of the artists drew an image, and then what happened when the artwork was posted to the second artist, to make their marks upon. In the case of the last set of images seen above… the left artwork was drawn on together in person when they discussed what friends did when they visited coffee shops together. The right image was composed digitally by Mawarini, taking the elements of the original drawing and making a complete scene.

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The first in-person meet up and drawing together in Winda’s home. There is no speaking on this video, one minute in length.

Above: The work on the above left with a blue background is titled ‘Best Friend’. Winda made this painting of her and Mawarini together. “I depicted Mawarini carrying a large backpack because she is going back to Australia soon. I want to emphasise that in friendship, even though we are far apart, we will never forget each other.” Mawarini added the pattern to the backpack. On the right, both artists are again featured. Mawarini added the modern pattern (batik motif) in the background because they both like batik. The yellow rose is also a symbol of friendship, so it was added again.

The below images show how a digitally printed pouch came to fruition. Winda sent some drawings of things she likes to Mawarini, who scanned them in and digitially added some of her own. Mawarini shared several different versions of how the patterns could be combined, before they settled on the middle one below. The design was then sent off and made into pouches, which the artists now each have.

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Below, you can see three (cat) versions (inspired from) a Japanese Maneki Neko cat because they both like (the lucky charm) cat. Mawarini drew the cat, Winda added the floral design by rubbing parts of the image out, Mawarini then individually drew the background tile pattern and the hand, and she edited it altogether digitally for the final design. In the second row of images, Mawarini is pushing Winda in her wheelchair that was drawn by Winda. Whilst the second and third images show a drawing of a bird and countryside by Mawarini, and papercut floral detail by Mawarini. The original drawing was then cut out and placed onto this final artwork.

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Together they also made works on paper to include animals from both countries, such as koalas and kangaroos of Australian and then the Bali starlings. Papercut accents from Mawarini were added. In the first image the closest kangaroo is by Mawarini, with the larger kangaroo with two people in the pouch by Winda. In the second, Winda drew all the animals and both artists drew the leaves/trees. Below, Mawarini made a papercut of a girl that was sent to Winda, who drew inside the papercut with pencil, to show their interactions together. You can also see how the drawing of two people with a scarf began in pencil, was made into a papercut and finally into a digital illustration. As with all the works, collaboration has been key to make them happen.

Meetings in-person in Indonesia

 

Winda and Mawarini were both in the same country at the same time, due to Mawarini’s travels, so the first time one of our Peer to Peer collaborations were able to meet in-person twice at Winda’s home. For the second visit, Sidhi from Ketemu was able to also attend and took these photos and made the short video below, where the artists share more about the collaboration and what they are working on. Both artists shared that it made the collaboration stronger by meeting in-person, encouraging us to do more in-person meet ups for collaborations in the future – something we definitely need to look into!

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From the photos above you when they met in person, you can see the start of the below artwork and how it came to fruition. Winda draw the dog, and Mawarini painted it in acrylic. The dog was then cut out, and all the other elements were jointly added to this piece to create the final artwork of the dog within the background.

This short video was created following the second in-person meeting by Sidhi from Ketemu, who has captured this footage. There is speaking (with subtitles) and it is 3 minutes long.

The below set of images is the last artwork to be created together. You can see the different elements that were created by both artists, that were cut out with a knife, and digitally connected together to make two different playing cards. This final work is titled ‘Friendship Card’.

End of project – Artists Interview

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Our partner from Art et al. , Jennifer Gilbert chats to Winda and Mawarini at the end of the project to gain some insights into how they think it all went, and what they learnt. Throughout the process, the artists chatted to each other daily over What’s App as it was kept more private. That makes this interview feel more insightful.

Jennifer: Overall, how did you find the collaboration?

Winda: This project is good for me, it’s fun and allows me to freely explore my creative ideas. I’m lucky to be able to work and meet in person with my collaboration partner.

“We found our friendship through this collaboration.” – Mawarini

Jennifer: Has anything been a real surprise for you during the collaboration?

Winda: Yes! Mawarini gave me some tips on making sketches. It took me back to when I started my journey 8 years ago as I’ve been mostly working on canvas medium these past few years. She showed me some papercut pieces that I really like too, unfortunately it’s hard for me to make one myself.

Mawarini: Some of Winda’s artwork that responded to my drawing was excitingly unexpected, and we had a great time.

Jennifer: What are you hoping audiences get from seeing your work?

Mawarini: Hopefully, the audience can see our friendship through our artwork, regardless of our cultural background. We laugh, share, get inspired, create, and enjoy the art journey together. 

“I wanted to show about our friendship and show that everything becomes easier and more beautiful when we have good friends. As a child, I didn’t have many friends and I was afraid to socialise, so it was an unpleasant time in my life. As an adult, I have tried to be more open and social. It turns out that having many distant friends makes me happier.” – Winda

 

Jennifer: For others potentially doing the Peer to Peer collaborations in the future, what would be your advice to them?

Winda: Communicate a lot with your collaboration friends, and don’t hesitate to put forward ideas and discuss them together. Don’t be shy to ask if there is something you still don’t understand, because maybe your knowledge is different, so there are new things that you might be able to learn.

Mawarini: Enjoy the process, and work with the flow. The collaboration is enjoyable and inspiring. 

Jennifer: Anything final you’d like to add?

Winda: “Thank you for giving me the opportunity to be part of this project. I am very happy to be able to participate in this project and also to get a new friend in my life.”

We love that Mawarini took the zoom still from the top of the page and drew everyone!

This collaboration forms part of the year long Art et al. X Ketemu project. This particular collaboration was funded by Australia Council for the Arts.

Images Copyright: Winda Karunadhita, Mawarini, Ketemu and Art et al.

KARIN JOSEPHINE

For years, Karin has cut, torn, rip and peeled off discarded papers for her collages. The underexposed surfaces composed with colours or other objects are often resulting in open-ended artworks. They have their own distinctive look and unpredictable beauty for it. 

By delving through the layers and rips of discarded papers, she found out that it heals and is therapeutical at the same time. Karin views her works as a way to entangle minds as well as depict the chaotic world inside one’s mind beyond words. 

Being a person that is Hard of Hearing (HoH) and with Tinnitus (constant ringing inside one’s head), doing collage now helps Karin more than ever; to train the mind, manage expectations and accept things as it is—as well as advocate for herself.

Projects and exhibitions include: group exhibition with STEM Project under Srisasanti Syndicate, Yogyakarta, Indonesia (ongoing until 11th December 2022); Re-archive, a mini residency by IVAA (Indonesia Visual Art Archive), Yogyakarta, Indonesia;  DICE (Developing Inclusive & Creative Economics) x Ketemu Project; Unknown Asia 2018 Art Fair in Osaka, Japan; group exhibition in Stein Egerta, Liechtenstein.

CHRISTIAN NEWBY

Christian Newby is an artist and researcher whose work includes ways in which the conventional implementation of applied arts and design techniques can and are being resisted and recast; subverted away from hierarchically adverse roles of artist, designer, publisher and fabricator. What new idioms can we devise from conventional tools and techniques by misusing, re-wiring—by the experimentalism of the amateur’s hand, and by the terminus of the finished artwork? What can we learn from textiles as a form of activity rather than as decorative artefacts? How can DIY publishing further elucidate this formation through a diverse register of voices, stories and didactic instruction? He draws a first-person line around the jetsam of art and craft production. His work summons the role of the mark-maker, the textile fabricator, the diarist, zine-maker and hobbyist. It is a practice that integrates personal conflicts with material experimentation and plots a course of reflective experimentation, encountering tools and techniques rather than simply applying them.

He received his B.A. in Sculpture and Extended Media at Virginia Commonwealth University in 2002, an M.F.A. at the Glasgow School of Art in 2009, and in 2022, completed his PhD at Kingston University’s Contemporary Art Research Centre.

 

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Pit Stop | Mari Mampir

Process, mark-making, rambling, and nonsequitur are the key themes that emerged during the collaboration between artists Karin Josephine and Christian Newby. What became particularly exciting about this collaboration was the shared openness and enthusiasm by the artists for their own artworks to be manipulated by the other. From selecting printed ephemera from their respective transnational cities to their idiosyncratic mark-making, Karin and Christian profoundly embraced intuitive creativity.

Over 6 Zoom meetings a framework for their project, Pit Stop: Mari Mampir, emerged. Karin and Christian both developed a body of new work during the initial phase of the collaboration. Karin, whose practice often involves book-binding, produced a handmade book. This bound sketchbook was made of pages from a variety of sources, all indicative of Karin’s life and local environment. One page appears to be a ‘Surat Perjajan’ (Letter of Agreement) adorned with doodles, while another page features a collage of tomato can labels and layers of her signature cut circles. Christian made a series of works on paper from an array of found materials and news sources like the UK’s Guardian Newspaper. He also applied patterns, text and figures to select works. One of his drawings (see Ramblings below) becomes emblematic of Pit Stop: Mari Mampir with the names ‘Karin’ and ‘Christian’ boldly scribed in hues of magenta, with an intimate Venn diagram composed in the centre.

These series of works made in response to the collaboration were sent internationally for each artist to respond, edit, and add to the other’s initial creations: Christian’s works on paper, often incorporating British periodicals arrived in Indonesia to be further developed by Karin, and her book of Indonesian documents and collaged photocopies made their way to London for Christian. The outcome is the essence of collaboration, a book composed of the pages contributed to by both artists. A collection of layers embodying their artistic processes, Pit Stop: Mari Mampir, made from computerised scans, also emulated the layering of the physical and the digital of this collaboration, communication, and creativity.

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Collaboration

Approach + Response

(left) Drawing made by Christian Newby that was sent to Karin Josephine. (right) A collage by Karin, on top of Christian’s origin

Is this your first international collaboration with an artist?

Karin: Technically, this is not the first one. I have done a collaboration project with a collage artist in the US so long ago, but it was not as interactive as this project. 

Christian: I think so, but I’ve done a few things in the past couple of years with a publishing collective where we work within similar geographical restrictions, albeit not as far away as Indonesia. 

How did you decide what to make and select to send the other artist?

Karin: From his works and after several Zoom meetings, I can see we are connected by the sense of mark-makings. The feelings of tangible things and delving into the process is somehow connecting us. Through meetings and chats, it seems like the best way to expose both parties’ works is through physical books that can be explored by the audience. 

I’m used to working intuitively, so when working for a certain project/a more organized format I make some ‘corridors’ for me so it would be less messy. I sort some materials and working base (in this project, the junk journal) to narrow down the options then I start focusing on it. During this project I was also in a big mood for binding books, so the junk journal was one of the binding projects. In one of our e-meetings, Christian mentioned about local newspaper as a significant point of location and date. That inspires me on what to collage inside the journal; to stick on certain used packaging/ labels, combined with the journals that used old papers from my old projects. I also send Christian one of my national newspaper so he can work on it. 

Christian: We both seemed to be driven by tactile surfaces in the things we often make. Making an artist’s book seemed like a good way to still make an object or something to hold in your hand, but also something that serves as a document of a process–something that could account for the similarities, diversions and the general awkwardness of making something with someone so far away, someone you just met (virtually).

I chose to send Karin newspaper cuttings that I painted on top of. The broadsheets gave me a structure and grounded the images to a specific place and time. 

Process

Karin: the most essential part of doing

Christian: accumulation and cultivation

Mark-making

Karin: very personal way of portraying/recording the feelings (through visuals or writings)

Christian: traces, shadows of the body thinking and doing

Rambling

Karin: rants, undefined ideas  

Christian: improvising, not in search of a defined terminus

Nonsequitur

Karin: abrupt fragments — eventually connecting each other somehow  

Christian: breaks, shortcuts through a broader network of logic-making

(left) An open page of the book made by Karin Josephine that was sent to Christian Newby. (right) A drawing by Christian, on top of Karin’s original pages.

Ramblings

A selection of free-form writing composed by Karin during this collaboration, paired with works on paper by Christian.

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If the brain is a home with many rooms, mine might be that one with messy rooms and crowded storages. Only certain drawers are placed properly, while others are complete chaos and disorganised. When I try to tidy things up, I have no idea what goes where, or how to keep it organised for longer than a month.  

…ok, bad starter for any writing submission. Haha. 

That was me ruminating. 

I didn’t stop doing this thing called “ruminating” until 2 years ago. While the actual word has a positive meaning, in my case it’s not a good thing to do. It’s the worse version of overthinking. I used to overcomplain myself for some minor mistakes I do, which brings no good at all. After I learned the concept of attachment and back to journaling habits (which were a bit absent before), I started to view myself and those around me in a brighter light. 

“Healing” and “mindfulness” have never been quite a word in my journey. Its overrated use in the current social media scene only makes it sound more superficial than it should, maybe because of that I feel reluctant to relate to those words even though I connect my art practice to those terms.

Karin

Christian Newby (2023)

My hearing started to worsen about ten years ago. Prior to admitting my declining hearing, I thought holistic approaches can be an alternative instead of medical ones, so I try to exercise my focus through meditation. Right attempt to take, for the wrong reason: to expect that it’s a way out.  

Expectation. It’s one of the issues I’ve learned through meditating. Who ever lives without expectation? It is human nature to expect, hope, and wish. It’s what keeps us alive. It might make us dead as well when not done on the right dose, though. 

About six years ago, I learned to meditate. Just like most people, I thought it’s about sitting quietly and your mind will be at peace.. This course called Vipassana felt like a slap in my face that told me I was wrong, big time. The teachers taught me to be aware of the breath, to observe the ebb and flow of the mind; to walk through the process of facing myself. It literally makes me absorb the sentence “sit with it”. 

When I first learn to meditate, I expect something will happen to my focus or whatsoever—then BAM!—I can recover the way I was, as if nothing happened. Back of my mind said: of course it doesn’t work that way, you fool. If it happens as easy as it is, there will be no suffering and there will be no hospital needed to cure any illness. If I go back to my former hearings that easily, I might keep taking for granted what my physical sense does to me. That’s why the teacher simply said “do not expect anything.”  

Every human body has its own system and is working hard to function. Isn’t it a miracle itself? I never really thought of it before. To notice that my body works properly: I am able to take a long deep breath, to stretch my muscle, to do any pose I want, to walk anywhere I want, to process anything happening to and around me, to observe and regulate anything happening inside me, to express what I feel. I never really thought of it before, of how precious those things are. Despite what I lack, I still have more.

Karin

Christian Newby (2023)

When we are used to miracles, we never see it as something special anymore. Just like we were told that we’re special, then every child who is told the same is also special. Then what’s so special about being special? Maybe that’s the point. We stop appreciating the miracles in ourselves. We chase other things, thinking that would satisfy us and make us happy—while our inner self tells us otherwise. 

Tinnitus are different for everyone. Therefore, different people cope differently.

Most days, I spend my waking hours doing things while noticing my ringing head. I notice it stubbornly rings over any sound that comes into my head. I speak to others, their voices are overlaid by rings. I play music, and my hearing only catches particular sounds so it doesn’t sound whole to my head—and my brain makes up those rings to fill the void. I read somewhere that tinnitus is not a hearing issue, but more about brain nerve issue. Our brain has a default task of surviving, so it’s only natural for it to signal us if anything is wrong. Ironically, its attempt to save us from any trouble has made itself a threat for our very self. 

These ringings can be lethal to mental health. Tinnitus is also called “phantom sounds” where nobody but the afflicted can hear. It feels isolating, anxiety-laden and no significant medical help. When one cannot escape, some people can ignore it, some surrender. Some others like me, gotta regulate because giving up is not an option. 

My hearing might deteriorate but I learn from Deaf fellows that they are undeterred, so I will do too. 

For a long time, I have been drawing mainly as my internal outlet. Drawing has been my ultimate activity since I was a kid. As a Jakartan growing up in the nineties, J-pop culture has a big influence over here—for me, it’s mainly manga that shapes and influences me a lot, especially on the way I draw and think. 

Manga is the first long format that taught me about the infinite possibility of human imagination. Manga captured the emotions, visual possibilities, and exposed many topics in a way only them can do. From the simple storytellings, full with wisdom or reflections, historical or political, complex storyline, plain absurd, abstract; its charms are endless. 

To think about it, the lasting impression for me comes from some manga that tells stories about daily life. The way they draw and spotlight the stories; jokes, food, books or mistakes done by the character; they all seem so human and feel relatable. Different from reading other manga genres, It makes us the readers feel..belong. 

After I don’t draw much and shift to collage, the visuals and storytelling techniques of manga linger longer even until my current artworks; including the concept of fragments, diptych, and non-sequitur. It feels like any subtle feelings or moments can be immortalised in one frame—basically the same idea of mark-making, isn’t it? 

Karin

Christian Newby (2023)

It’s about to feel like we belong. To see over the banal things, to read between the lines; that we’re meant to be here. To be acknowledged and to be kind to each other and our own self. 

As a newbie artist, I still have to research a lot about the contemporary art. Coming from collage and abstract background, I found it refreshing to learn various possibilities in concept, visual and materials that could be used. After reading and researching about Christian’s works, I wish I could sit in front of his works and admiring the details for long time. The term “mark-making” seems to be a connecting line between our works. Since the similarity doesn’t have to be in visual way, but it can be in an essence or spirit. It’s amazing that discipline, resilience, references, opinion and personal thoughts can be combined in one artwork; and I can find it in Christian’s works. 

Karin

This collaboration forms part of the year long Art et al. X Ketemu project, funded by the British Council’s International Collaboration Grants.

Images Copyright: Karin Josephine, Christian Newby and Ketemu Project.

Curatorial
Mentorships.

 

Toyin Olubamiwo X
Ignatia Nilu

 

 

“There’s a lot of pressure with being an adult and becoming independent, learning to do everything yourself so watching, drawing and speaking about cartoons helps me to relax. I wanted to focus on this for the curatorial mentorship because it takes me back to those childhood memories and I can connect with other artists about our love of cartoons.”

 

– Toyin Olubamiwo, 2023

For our fourth Curatorial Mentoring Indonesian curator Ignatia Nilu was paired with UK based studio artist Toyin Olubamiwo. This partnership forms part of Art et al. X Ketemu – a year long collaboration between the UK and Indonesia. This collaboration was completed in early 2023.

 

Le Visible et l’invisible (The Visible and The Invisible) brings together 10 artists from the UK and Indonesia, whose practice features superheroes and cartoon characters directly or indirectly, as well as showcasing their sketchbook works. The title alludes to the fact that we don’t often get to see the sketchbooks and inner mind workings of artists, so this is a real treat! Read on to find out more how Toyin and Nilu worked together to realise this digital presentation.

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Le Visible et l’invisible (The Visible and The Invisible)

 

“This project is about expanding experiences and accommodating Toyin to learn new skills around curating an online art project. Toyin and my role has been to curate the work from UK and Indonesian artists, with me stimulating Toyin with my knowledge as a curator. Despite the lack of internet and different time zones, we had many conversations, many discussions, and an exchange of knowledge and aesthetic values. I shared my experience on working with artists, how I choose artists, and how I define my relationship with artists as a powerful tool to develop art projects. Toyin defines social interaction in a different format to me, so that was interesting to learn. 

 

Toyin’s artistic practice started back when she was a child. She started to watch American cartoon shows, like Sailor Moon and Power Puff Girls and X-Men. She watched a lot of these from the 90s and 2000s. They made her feel happy and joyful – and they’re entertaining. She loves the way the programmes and films make the villains so evil, nasty and terrible – like a worst nightmare. “I don’t get scared by them but they are entertaining”, she said. Toyin shared that superheroes and villains bring back childhood memories and the good old days to her – “There’s a lot of pressure with being an adult and becoming independent, learning to do everything yourself… so watching, drawing and speaking about cartoons helps me to relax. I wanted to focus on this for the curatorial mentorship because it takes me back to those childhood memories and I can connect with other artists about our love of cartoons. And I want for other people to see this kind of art and for it to be given attention.”

 

The mentoring project itself introduces 10 artists that have never met each other before or even had a working relationship with Toyin. The sketchbook examination became the basis to observe the artistic practice of each artist. Toyin applied her experience as an artist to understand each artist’s statement with their work and chose to ask them a series of questions. The choosing process itself consisted of several stages together: communication and observation, mapping, selection and contextualisation. The communication and observation stage became the foundation for us to connect interpersonal and intercultural contexts. We listened to each other’s point of view, to help envision the project together. Toyin came with a strong topic — superhero characters. It seems in her subconscious,  superheros have become an inspiration, role models, and plots of stories that represent the universal values for many people in this world. For each artist represented, we witness their artistic process and story through their lines of figures and sketches. 

 

After many weeks of meeting, we decided to embrace sketchbooks as a window of artistic vision. The invitations we sent out to the artist’s has resulted in many colours, characters, motifs and stories being shared. Superheroes live in each artist’s sketchbook. Through this digital showcase we have explored the invisible part of most artist’s processes – sketchbooks. Artists often revisit sketchbooks after they have formalised their ideas or concepts. And by revisiting the invisible part of their artistic process, we see the broader scope of the artworks themself. 

 

Through this collaboration and digital output, we have visited the visible and invisible part of an artist’s journey.”

Below we share the 10 artists - 5 from the UK and 5 from Indonesia, that Toyin and Nilu have decided to share under the title: Le Visible et l’invisible (The Visible and The Invisible)

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TOYIN OLUBAMIWO

Toyin Olubamiwo has a very bold, innovative and experimental style, which manifests itself in many complex drawings and paintings. Her practice is varied, incorporating many different artistic styles to produce books, paintings, drawings and three-dimensional assemblages. These are often rendered with gel pens that create very vibrant and complex compositions. Toyin is very passionate about art and she continually immerses herself in history of art books and galleries. This energy and enthusiasm for art generates many ideas and means that Toyin is a very prolific artist that continually develops and pushes her work. Toyin creates stories with characters that become metaphors for the human condition. Many of these are observed from real situations and environments, which are then fictionalised and rendered into a variety of different outcomes.

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Toyin Olubamiwo, The Dark Elf A.K.A Negatress, Paint on paper, 30x42cm
Toyin Olubamiwo, The Golden Fire Lion Mask, Paint and ink on paper, 30x42cm
Toyin Olubamiwo, Tigermon with mastering the elements, Paint on paper, 42x30cm

Toyin decided on a series of questions that she wanted to ask all the artists involved, based on her interests and the themes she covers with her work. She decided to answer those questions herself too, so that she was able to compare answers with others:

Do you date the back of any of your works? Yeah I do that

How long does a work take you to do on average? Doesn’t take that long – I just go slow and steady but I don’t count the minutes and hours it takes

How long have you been making art for? I started when I was at nursery school and carried on throughout my education.

Where do you get your inspiration from? From cartoons, like Justice League, Marvel Avengers, Disney (like The Little Mermaid, and The Lion King)

Who is your favourite superhero and why? To be honest with you I have lots of superheroes on my list – choosing one would be too hard and unfair

Did you watch a lot of cartoons when you were growing up – and what were they? Yeah – thanks to my mum, she made me watch other programmes like Dallas, but I watched programmes like Power Puff Girls, Dexter Laboratory, and American Dragon

Do you buy superhero comic books? I used to buy Disney Princess magazines but I was not happy with my mum, she threw them away to give space in the house as I had too much and she thought I didn’t need them anymore. So now I create my own

How do you feel watching cartoons on the TV? It was fun – nice and relaxing

LESLIE THOMPSON

Leslie Thompson has a highly developed style, drawing both from memory and through live observational drawings. He depicts scenes from television and film from 1970–1990. His drawings are punctuated with fascinating anecdotes from film, music and TV and he also has a vast collection of superheroes, which he binds and protects as he incorporates them into selected artworks. Leslie has been a regular artist at the Venture Arts studios in Manchester for over twenty years, and through this has been able to extend his innate illustrative gifts into stitch, animation and printmaking. He has shown his work widely regionally, nationally and internationally. 

Leslie tends to work by producing originals on paper rather than sketching an idea out. He then transforms his drawings into other work, or something else off the paper. For the works selected for this project, which are drawings from his ‘In The Making Since a Hundred of Years’ exhibition, Leslie explored the history of black comic book superheroes from 1935 – 2020. These drawings are a reinterpretation of the characters Leslie researched during the pandemic, made using his ‘memory and imagination’. Here, we can see how his drawing of his superhero ‘Storm’ started as a black outline drawing, which Leslie then added colour and shading too from his iPad.

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Leslie Thompson, 1966 Black Panther, Digital drawing, 2022
Leslie Thompson, 1975 Storm, Digital drawing, 2022
Leslie Thompson, 1972 Green Lantern, Digital drawing, 2022

Toyin asked Leslie a series of questions to learn more about him:

Do you date the back of any works? Yes, but these aren’t the dates that I did the drawing.

Do you write dates on your work? Sometimes I write dates on my drawings. I write dates on the front. Sometimes it is today’s year and sometimes it is the old year at the time of the characters, like the seventies, eighties, nineties or two thousands.

How long do they take? My drawings can take about an hour. But sometimes it takes a long time and sometimes I work on it for weeks.

How long have you been doing art in general? I drew picture of snoopy and animals when I was a young boy. I did good drawings when I was young, working with Sandra Warhurst at the Grange School ever since it was 1986. It was two thousand when I did years of working on art with Venture Arts.

Where do you get your inspiration from? I use my memory for drawing and sketching. My favourite things are TV like The Muppets, Tarzan and He-man. And animals like the Brown bear. And Films like the original King Kong.  I also draw lots of musicians in cartoons.

Who is your favourite superhero and why? My favourite superhero is Superman and Super Girl. They wear a red cape and fly in the skies of New York from Krypton in the movies of the 1970’s. Superman is the best.

Did you watch a lot of cartoons when you were growing up – and what were they? I did. They were The Jetsons, Buford Files. and Dinky Dogs. On the old TV when I was little and very young. It was great fun. Good times. To turn back time of the 70’s and 8o’s.

Do you buy superhero comic books? Yes. I do sometimes buy Superhero comic books. It’s quite interesting. My favourite thing is action figures plastic toys.

How do you feel watching cartoons on the TV? I feel good watching the animation of the cartoons. I am comfortable in the tv room year after year.

SHAQUILLE OYENYINKA

Shaquille Oyenyinka, who has recently joined ActionSpace in London, has been drawing for over five years. He takes his inspiration from video games characters and memes found on the internet capturing their graphic forms usually in his favourite medium of a 6b pencil. Through his studies of the characters Shaquille combines and merges elements of the carefully observed forms in his drawings to create new characters.

Shaquille does not work in a sketchbook as such.  He works on separate pieces of papers, that he stacks up, as you can see in this photograph provided by ActionSpace. He places this selection of his drawings next to him whilst he is working, to refer to and to flick through in a similar way to a sketchbook. 

Toyin asked Shaquille a series of questions to learn more about him:

Where do you get your inspiration from? Animé, video games, comics

Who is your favourite superhero and why? Iron Man, because he is super smart and has a sense of humour

Did you watch a lot of cartoons when you were growing up – and what were they? Yes, they were Pokemon, Super Mario, Kirby Right Back At Ya and many more. 

Do you buy superhero comic books? No

How do you feel watching cartoons on the TV? I feel excited and have a sense of wonder

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Shaquille Oyenyinka, Ink pen drawing. Image courtesy the artist and ActionSpace
Shaquille Oyenyinka, Ink pen drawing. Image courtesy the artist and ActionSpace
Shaquille Oyenyinka, Ink pen drawing. Image courtesy the artist and ActionSpace

JONATHAN MCKINSTRY

Jonathan McKinstry creates his paintings with flatly applied colour, often in thick oil-slick strokes with a sketchiness and air of caricature. These paintings, made with haste but certainly not unconsidered, are a remarkable balancing act of picture-making and gesture. He is inspired by comic books, films and pop culture as well as landscapes and animals, and enjoys large scale painting and murals. Jonathan’s work is pleasurable with a dark edge; it’s lush but laid bare, it contains the pictorial rules of associated traditional landscape painting, but also breaks them. it is unpolished, but also with a stunning delicacy of touch. It is fascinating, but also diverting – and that is no mean feat. Jonathan attends the Project Ability studio in Glasgow, Scotland.

Toyin asked Jonathan a series of questions to learn more about him:

Do you make sketches before you do your bigger paintings? I do sketches beforehand – mostly little thumbnails. I also have a sketchbook that I use a lot for drawing superheroes

Do you put dates on your work and how long do they take? I put the year of the work on the back of the painting, usually. A big painting usually takes me a day and a bit. I have been doing art since approximately 2006

Where do you get your inspiration from? I get my inspiration mostly from other artists, and also things from my childhood

Who is your favourite superhero and why? Difficult to answer, but I’d say Wolverine. I like him because he is un-killable, and has cool claws

Did you watch a lot of cartoons when you were growing up – and what were they? I watched cartoons, yes – one’s I remember liking are Transformers and G.I. Joe

Do you buy superhero comic books? Do I? Of course! I’ve been buying them since I was 7 years old and have a big collection now

How do you feel watching cartoons on the TV? I still enjoy it – It’s very nostalgic

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Jonathan Mckinstry, Batman, Acrylic on paper, 28 x 40 cm
Jonathan Mckinstry, Man of Steel, Acrylic on paper, 28 x 40cm
Jonathan Mckinstry, Civil War, Acrylic on canvas, 100 x 80cm

JOEL BRAMBLE

Joel is a sculpture artist who has found a unique and innovative way to create his characters – he will create a Lego skeleton, build it up with clay and other materials, and bring it to life with paint, fabric, and even LED lights. He loves to explore important themes and their effects on people through his art, such as violence, mistreatment of minority groups, injustice and exploitation of power – subjects that are important to Joel as a black and disabled artist. Joel uses animals and characters that portray the issues close to his heart, and is particularly inspired by 80s and 90s comic book characters, using them as the basis of his sculpture work and developing them until completion. He will also use creatures of his own invention, including cyborgs, robots, monsters, heroes and villains, illustrating his imaginative ideas on a computer and building them physically. Joel attends Artbox London.

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Joel Bramble, Shellshock, 2022, Lego, clay and found materials, including old socks!, 10x35x14cm
Joel Bramble, Saber-toothed Lion, 2022, Lego, clay and found materials, including old socks!, 22x12x21cm
Joel Bramble, Protoclown, 2022, Lego, clay and found materials, including old socks!, 14x41cm

Toyin asked Joel a series of questions to learn more about him:

Do you date the back of any of your works? No

How long does a work take you to do on average? About a year now

How long have you been making art for? Since when I was little – from when I was about 5 or 6

Where do you get your inspiration from? I got it from the TV show, I got some of it from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Aladdin and Addams Family and then sometimes from Youtube

Who is your favourite superhero and why? The Red Ranger, Jason because I like the 90s and 80s characters – I like Jason as he’s the leader of the Rangers. The others follow his orders. He’s good. He’s fighting evil. He’s funny and powerful.

Did you watch a lot of cartoons when you were growing up – and what were they? Yeah – I remember Tom and Jerry, Two Stupid Dogs, The Swat Cats, The Flintstones, Yogi Bear, Scooby Dooby Doo.

Do you buy superhero comic books? No I don’t. I remember my mum never used to buy things like that so I just draw it myself.

How do you feel watching cartoons on the TV? It’s alright. I watch it on the internet. I feel all emotions when watching them. It’s good and it gives me ideas to copy into my art.

MUTIA BUNGA

Mutia Bunga is a young artist based in Yogyakarta. Born in Denpasar, Bali in January 1995, she later moved to Yogyakarta in 2013 to pursue her Fine Art degree at the Indonesian Institute of the Arts, Yogyakarta, majoring In painting. She also a Co-founder of TacTic Plastic (established in 2016); and an art group in Yogyakarta focusing on experimenting with plastic waste as their media and material.

Actively participating in exhibitions in Yogyakarta and outside the city. Starting her media and material exploration with plastic waste in 2016 with her collective friends who focus on this material.

Toyin asked Mutia a series of questions to learn more about her:

Do you write dates on your work? I put the year as a time marker.

How long do they take? It really depends on the size, technique and how complicated the works would be. It usually takes around 2 weeks for one painting. For installation works, I usually spend more than a month to work on it.

How long have you been doing art in general? Since I was 4.

How do you use sketches, sketch books or visual journal for your creative process? It functions as visual reminder to some random idea that comes up at a certain time. Whenever I’m ready to work further and elaborate that idea into acertain work, I’ll look up the sketch.

Where do you get your inspiration from? I get my inspiration from my surroundings as well as my friend’s personal stories. I have also been using social media and current discussions happening there too, to take inspiration for my works.

Who is your favourite superhero and why? Jessica Jones from Marvel

Did you watch a lot of cartoons when you were growing up – and what were they? Definitely! Every Sunday morning, my sister and I freed our time to watch our favourite cartoon together. Sometimes, when I’m in the mood and have more free time, I’ll accompany her to watch any cartoon of her choice while waiting for my favourite. We share our love for 5 cartoons: Doraemon, Ninja Hatori, Crayon Sinchan, Detective Conan and Inuyasha. Today, we keep exchanging information whenever there’s new releases or when our favourite ones get featured on Netflix.

Do you buy superhero comic books? I don’t think so.

How do you feel watching cartoons on the TV? I’m always excited waiting for my favourite cartoon on screen.

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Mutia, Betmeng, 2022, Pen on paper, 21x30cm
Mutia, Catwomeng, 2022, Pen on paper, 21x30cm
Mutia, Dancing-Man, 2022, Pen on paper, 21x30cm

MULYANA

Mulyana was born in Bandung, May 1984. Studying Art Education at UPI, Bandung, Mulyana started working with knitting media in 2009. Since moving to Yogyakarta, Mulyana’s work has experienced a rapid development with giant installation sizes and works with various knitting communities with a modular work system. He is known for his knitted installations and for creating The Mogus-his giant octopus-shaped alter ego which he uses as a medium to tell stories. The Mogus’ habitat is coral islands which are also made with knitted media.

Toyin asked Mulyana a series of questions to learn more about him:

Do you write dates on your work? Sometimes as a time marker.

How long do they take? For a 2D works, it usually takes a whole day. for an installation, it ranges from a month to a year.

How long have you been doing art in general? I made artworks since I was in primary school.

How do you use sketches, sketch books or visual journal for your creative process? To record all the spontaneous ideas as well as to write what I want to create in the future.

Where do you get your inspiration from? He derives his inspiration from his surroundings, movies, books and internet.

Who is your favourite superhero and why? Ranma ½

Did you watch a lot of cartoons when you were growing up – and what were they? Yes, I really love watching cartoons. I love how the creators create impactful cartoons out of great stories and imagination. They made me aware of cultures from abroad too. Through cartoons, I learnt many things, especially getting to know the spectrum of human characters.

Do you buy superhero comic books? No.

How do you feel watching cartoons on the TV? Very happy.

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Mulyana, Sea Remembers, Installation Artwork, 2018
Mulyana, Dimana Mogus, Installation Artwork, Singapore Art Museum, 2016
Mulyana, Satu, Installation Artwork, 2018

RIZAL HASAN

Born in Gresik, August 25, 1992, Rizal Hasan graduated from the Indonesia Institute of the Arts Yogyakarta, Indonesia. He is currently based in Sewon, Bantul, D.I Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

Selected exhibitions include POP Script: Encoding The Everyday at Indie Art House (2021); Special Art Project with Jogja Affordable Art at Jogja Art Gallery (2022); ARTJOG 2022; ART JAKARTA 2022.

Toyin asked Rizal a series of questions to learn more about him:

Do you write dates on your work? Yes, to mark the time I finished a certain artwork.

How long do they take? Around 2-3 weeks, depends on the size of the artwork.

How long have you been doing art in general? Professionally since 2017 after I was named as one of UOB’s Painting of The Year finalists in the same year.

How do you use sketches, sketch books or visual journal for your creative process? It’s a medium for me to record the visuals and ideas that came to my mind.

Where do you get your inspiration from? Comics, animation, my surroundings.

Who is your favourite superhero and why? Marvel and DC comics, Japanese cartoons.

Did you watch a lot of cartoons when you were growing up – and what were they? Dragon ball z, batman, superman dll

Do you buy superhero comic books? Yes, I bought Shaman King, etc.

How do you feel watching cartoons on the TV? Imaginative and happy.

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Rizal, 7 Deadly Sins, 2020, Acrylic on canvas, 150x150cm
Rizal, 7 Deadly Sins, 2020, Acrylic on canvas, 150x150cm

IDA BAGUS UDAYANA (DAPOTT)

Dapott was born in Denpasar, on November 13, 1995, and is an artist who focuses on visual explorations with various art mediums. His works are inspired by a collision between pop culture, memories of the past, and Balinese mythology.

Toyin asked Dapott a series of questions to learn more about him:

Do you write dates on your work? Yes, I do! This helps me to remember when the artworks were finished.

How long do they take? It depends on the medium and the design of the artworks. It took me 4 days to finish any works on canvas, and 2-3 days for digital illustrations.

How long have you been doing art in general? Since I moved to Jogja.

How do you use sketches, sketch books or visual journal for your creative process? I treat sketchbook as a visual journal to help trigger the creative ideas I had in the past. For me, looking at my sketches feels like walking through the abstract ideas in my head.

Where do you get your inspiration from? I took my inspiration from my everyday experiences and anything popular.

Who is your favourite superhero and why? akira, conan edogawa, sinchan, spongebob, doctor strange, studio Ghibli

Did you watch a lot of cartoons when you were growing up – and what were they? Sure, I did. So far, I’ve been so impressed by many cartoons from Ghibli Studio. I love how they show you diverse life lessons and values that are related to, for examples, the issue of environment, the relationship between human and other human as well as other creatures that live in the same ecosystem.

Do you buy superhero comic books? So far, I mostly read it on digital platforms. However, when I was a kid, I owned many copies of Bogbog and Bobo Magazine.

How do you feel watching cartoons on the TV? It’s a joyful time for me as I got to watch it with my family.

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Dapott, Sunday Morning, 2022, Acrylic, Aerosol on Canvas, 120x100cm
Dapott, Nothing in Stalking, 2022, Acrylic on Canvas, 80x100cm
Dapott, No bad days, 2022, Printed on billboard for the Kura Kura Billboard take over, 500x300cm

FATONI MAKTURODI

Fatoni was born in Klaten, Central Java. He studied in Islamic-based school (Madrasah), from kindergarten, primary school, first high school to secondary high school. He continued his study at Modern School of Design (MSD) in 1998 before taking a fine art degree at Indonesian Insitute of Arts, Yogyakarta. After graduated in 2003, he dedicated his time to make paintings.

Being inspired by Picasso, Fatoni paints spontaneously in a neo-expressionist and pseudo-naive style. He is known for intricate canvases full of intersecting geometric figures. While many of his paintings depict normal life in abstraction, Fatoni also collaborates with the Prison Art Programs (PAPs) Collective and is deeply involved in social issues involving the rehabilitation of prisoners through art.

Toyin asked Fatoni a series of questions to learn more about him:

Do you write dates on your work? I used to do it but not too often. I mostly put the year, sometimes with the month or the place as I treat my sketches as a diary/journal.

How long do they take? It depends on the size and the complexity. For sketches, it only takes me couple minutes to finish. For a small or medium size paintings, I need 1-2 hours or sometimes more. For bigger size, I can be months.

How long have you been doing art in general? Since I was a kid or preschool, I like to doodle. I went to my first drawing competition when I was in kindergarten.

How do you use sketches, sketch books or visual journal for your creative process? I function it as a diary, a place wher I can share my personal stories about anything, to take notes, doodle up some thoughts and whatever I feel and I have in mind at certain time.

Where do you get your inspiration from? From comics, any cartoons on TV or sometimes from VHS/Betamax.

Who is your favourite superhero and why? Megaloman

Did you watch a lot of cartoons when you were growing up – and what were they? I used to watch Dragon Balls, Sailor Moon, Silverhawk, He Man, Megaloman and many more. Megaloman is the most memorable one as I had to go to other city to find a DVD/VCD rental that has it.

Do you buy superhero comic books? Yes! I used to have a bunch of collection of Kungfu Boy, Dragon Balls and Fist of The North Star.

How do you feel watching cartoons on the TV? It made me very happy, it surely made my day.

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Fatoni, Mr. Bebop, 2022, Marker on paper, 30x40cm
Fatoni, Megaloman, 2022, Marker pen on paper, 40x30cm
Fatoni, Megaloman, 2022, Marker pen on paper, 40x30cm

All images courtesy of the artists, and their affiliated studios, unless otherwise stated

Thank you to the staff at Artbox London for their support with Toyin for this project. Artbox London is a charity that, alongside art workshops, organises trips to galleries and exhibitions for people with learning disabilities and autism. They aim to improve the wellbeing and inclusion of individuals, whilst increasing their visibility and profile in the wider art world.

Curating

Collections.

 
 
 
 
 

Butong X
The Roberts Institute of Art

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Curating Collections commissions disabled artists to curate projects with artworks from an established international collection.

 

For our first Curating Collections as part of the Art et al. X Ketemu programming, a collaboration between Butong (Sukri Budi Dharma) and the Roberts Institute of Art, funded by the British Council’s International Collaboration Grant. Butong is an Indonesian artist and activist whose work is rooted in advocating for access for disabled people in art practices. The Roberts Institute of Art (RIA) is a non-profit contemporary arts organisation, part of whose mission is to research and share the David and Indrė Roberts Collection.

Over several months Butong worked with RIA’s curator Yates Norton to explore, engage and examine works from the David and Indrė Roberts Collection. With the meetings being held virtually on Zoom and with the conversations graciously live-translated by Ketemu Project’s Sidhi Vhisatya, these discussions held particular barriers that could have hindered effective communication. However, with Butong’s thoughtful and thought-provoking observations, paired with Yates’ knowledge of the collection, an incredible curated selection and conversation emerged. 

#BehindInterest.

excerpt of #BehindInterest by Butong from e-catalogue

In this journey, I also created space to reflect and recognise how my own personal conceptions of self influence the way I appreciate an artwork. I considered how the recurring dialogues between my ‘ideal’ and ‘real’ self affect certain expectations and interests that guide my process of seeing or interpreting particular artworks. I questioned, how does an artwork resonate with the values I believe in? Does it make me feel seen? Or in the opposite way, does it make me feel uncomfortable? I offered this personal narrative during our meetings with Yates to make sense of the interrelation between my background and the way I build connectedness with the artworks I picked.

#BehindInterest

 

Below are two example works that Butong chose from the David and Indrė Roberts Collection to curate his project, #BehindInterest in partnership with the Roberts Institute of Art. These artworks represent each of the two concepts of his digital project: Body, Figure and Narrative and Material Objects Representing Humans. His ideas and the full selection of artworks can be seen above – viewable through the ISSUU catalogue, or available as a downloadable PDF for you to look through and zoom in and out of.

 


Body, Figure and Narrative

Miriam Cahn, Familie (2011)
Oil on canvas, 110 × 130 cm Courtesy the artist and Galerie Jocelyn Wolff Courtesy the David and Indrė Roberts Collection Photo by François Doury
© The Artist

Material Objects Representing Humans

Jo Broughton, Balloon Set (2006)
C-type print mounted on aluminium, 110 x 140 cm
Courtesy the David and Indrė Roberts Collection
© The Artist

“I took this collaboration as an opportunity to observe how international artists examine themes that might be considered either taboo or too subversive if they were shown in Indonesia – the place I grew up as a person and as an artist…During this collaboration, I was introduced and reintroduced to a diverse range of issues addressed by artists in the David and Indrė Roberts Collection.”

 

– Butong

“Each curation opens up spaces to tell stories and see artworks and the world through a new lens. When we were invited to participate in Art et al.’s Curating Collections programme, we knew that this opportunity would allow us to encounter different ways of looking at the David and Indrė Roberts Collection, while also exploring how it can inspire the work and practice of a guest curator.”

 

 

-Yates Norton, RIA Curator

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Chris Angell photo2 2022-1
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Chris Angell

Chris Angell is a self-taught artist working in North Norfolk in the East of England, at the Barrington Farm centre. He has attended this centre since 2001. Never afraid to experiment, Chris is confident in a variety of materials and techniques, though he works predominantly in pastels or acrylic with pens in subdued colours on paper or board. In recent works he has been experimenting with layering bright, water-based Posca pens on top of his paintings, giving his work a new vibrant energy. 

His interests and subject matter are wide ranging and varied, and often comment on popular culture or current events, with a surrealist edge. His work is bold and expressive, and often portrays his favourite themes such as landscapes and famous historical figures. Portraiture is a major source of inspiration for Chris, and he uses live models, printed material and his own imagination to create atmospheric drawings of people.

Chris’ work has been exhibited locally in Open Studios events, and in various exhibitions across the county. 

Budi Agung Kuswara

Budi Agung Kuswara (Kabul) is a Balinese contemporary artist based in his native island of Bali. He views material as a living character and is not limited to objects or subjects within his work. Budi explores different historical techniques to bring about different atmospheres in his paintings, for example he uses a cyanotype technique onto stretched canvas which is a technique he has developed over many years. In the last nine years, he has been questioning the function of art beyond the object of beauty, leading him to several social art experiments with local communities. Negotiation of existence, appreciation and equality that are inclusive of the surrounding social environment are his biggest concerns.

In 2013, Budi founded the Ketemu Project – a visual art collective focused on social engagement through art. As one of the programs of Ketemu, Budi initiated the Schizofriends Art Movement, dedicated to supporting people living with schizophrenia through group art expression and professional development opportunities.

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Their Artwork Beforehand

Although Chris and Budi both feature portraits within their work, they both have quite different styles and favoured material choices. Chris likes to try out new things constantly, but likes coming back to oil pastels and Posca pens, with portraiture being a key focus. Budi was charmed by Orientalism and how exotic images led to supposed attitudes and ideas of Bali by westerners. So in 2013 he started using an old printing technique to experiment with, and explore his ideas about cultural identity, while creating new inroads in Balinese contemporary art. Many of his works are cyanotype prints, with hand painted finishes on top.

The first meeting online involved each artist sharing about their art practice, sharing some artworks, and sharing about where they live and their different cultures. Chris had been doing his research on Indonesia and was asking lots of questions about the weather and different animals he had seen online that live there, including crocodiles.

Learning Cynotype

Chris became fascinated by Budi’s cyanotype work, and we all felt it would be good if Chris could learn this technique to see how it works, and the different levels of complexity with it. Barrington Farm got in local artist Kate Munro to run a cyanotype workshop on site, that Chris, alongside several of his artist peers, could get involved in. He loved the process, with Budi saying to Chris over zoom, “The interesting part of the cyanotype process is the relationship with the sun. You really are connected to the sun. The sun you use to make your print is the same sun that I use to make mine.” Due to the chemicals involved, this is not something Barrington Farm could regularly use as an art technique, but Chris and others really enjoyed learning about it all. Chris did continue to use it for several of his artworks that feature across this collaboration.

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Weekly Artworks

Each week, Chris and Budi set each other different projects to work on, or a brief to work on a particular theme. Much of it ended up with the artist exploring the other artists’ way of working, and use of colour and form. Both artists were really inspired by how the other worked – Chris liked how Budi layered up his cyanotypes with colour and other collaged imagery on top, and Budi was fascinated in how Chris articulated his thoughts through drawing and painting, and also how loose he was when he worked. Both tried to implement the others’ working processes into their own throughout.

Chris was so inspired, he also made many other artworks that he wanted to share, with several of these below.

When asked if they could tell Jennifer about the artworks made during the collaboration, the answers were:

Chris: Budi’s work inspired me to do fruit, flowers, eyes, crocodiles and snakes. I like to call it a brain explosion and very surreal. I never used to colour my pictures properly, but now I do. This project has inspired me to do more and beyond. I’ve increased my thinking time.

Budi: I have created some sketches based on Chris’ interest, trying to talk about personal identity. Then it went broader to topics related to the situation of war, so some of these works are my interpretation of some sketches that Chris made like warships, submarines and aeroplanes.

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In the first week after meeting online, Chris wanted to try and create works in a style similar to that he had seen of Budi’s, so the first two works showcase the blue of the cyanotype’s alongside the layering of other images like Budi had shared. Chris then took part in a cyanotype workshop, and over several weeks played around with adding colour onto the cyanotype’s, which again is a process Budi often uses. The last three images here, are drawings on acetate that Chris did and emailed to Budi, so that Budi could incoporate some of Chris’ imagery into his own work – an example of this can be seen below, with the boats.

Chris Angell and I Campaign For Peace by Budi Agung Kuswara, 2022, Cyanotype and mixed media, 60x42cm

Budi’s first work as part of this Peer to Peer collaboration, was a cyanotype portrait featuring his face as the main focal point. After chatting with Chris he wanted to try and be more free with his work, so decided to include other drawings around his face with a much freer line than how he would normally work, and layering things in a new way inspired by Chris. Above you can see two details from the larger portrait piece. For the second task, he tried a different medium altogether and printed a portrait cyanotype onto a canvas bag, again trying to be more loose with his lines. Each artist then sent acetate drawings to each other, for the other to feature in their work. Budi played around with simple colours on his, inspired from looking at Chris’ work, and he sent Chris a detailed drawing to take bits from, based on their conversations of nature and crocodiles and things found in Indonesia. Budi said he has learnt to put his expressions into his work more, and to be more spontaneous with his mark making and compositions.

Chris is a profilic artist and he was very active outside of the zooms. Here is a selection of artwork created during the collaboration, with many of the artworks inspired by his conversations with Budi, and things he was seeing in Budi’s works, like vases.

Final Collaborative Artworks

The left image is Chris’ initial cyanotype print, that was posted to Indonesia and Budi painted into the white square that was left around the face. Chris said he wanted to include Egyptian hieroglyphics, their names, Buddy Holly, and kites that were inspired by conversations with Budi. The flower head people painted by Budi were people in a state of bloom, and they are people happily expressing themselves. The right image is a cyanotype printed by Budi, and he also added some of the colour on the flowers in the vase. Once Chris received this in the UK, he decided to add his artwork around the bottom area of the picture, as he was scared to ruin it, since he thought it was so beautiful. He added sunflowers with surreal faces in them, and crocodiles, which comes from their conversations about animals in Indonesia.

Artists Interview

Art et al. co-founder Jennifer Gilbert chats to Chris and Budi at the end of the project to gain some insights into how they think it all went, and what they learnt. One thing both artists raised was although it was lovely to connect with an artist in another country online and how easy that all was, how nice it would have been to meet the other person in real life … food for thought for the future!

Jennifer: Once asked, what drew you to wanting to take part in this collaboration?

Chris: It seemed interesting to meet another person and I met this really skilfull man, Budi. His work is amazing.

Budi: I wanted to explore new possibilities working with people from different cultural and social backgrounds.

“My favourite part of the collaboration was meeting Budi, Jennifer and Sidhi online, and making them laugh!” – Chris

Jennifer: Has anything been a real surprise for you during the collaboration?

Chris: The work that Budi’s doing. That inspired me to do the crocodile. All the work I made.

Budi: The results on how Chris did his cyanotype print with his sketches and the use of his childhood portrait.

Jennifer: What are you hoping audiences get from seeing your work?

Chris: They might think it’s amazing or a bit out of proportion (in a good way), and [it is about] stretching your mind to the limit.

“Hopefully the audience can see our collaboration artwork is about equality, we inspired each other regardless of our physical and mental situations. Everyone will experience disability, especially for those who live long. So our collaboration art is about celebrating life.” – Budi

Jennifer: If you could describe the other artists work in three words, what would you say?

Chris: Precise, definite, love.

Budi: Fun, expressive, humble.

Jennifer: For others potentially doing the peer-to-peer collaborations in the future, what would be your advice to them?

Chris: When you do the project and put [things] down on paper, it should be from the heart. Focus is key. Never ever copy other people’s work. Love what you do. When you’re doing a picture, you use your head as a direct tool, and you use your pen away from you. I persevered with it. I wouldn’t be surprised if people opened me up and they might find some interesting stuff, like a brain power!

Budi: Being yourself is about understanding your peers.

Jennifer: Anything final you’d like to add?

Budi: I am really glad to be part of this program.

“My confidence is massive. It’s brought me out of my shell. I’d like to meet Budi in real life and do another project or stay in touch. I love the Indonesian culture. He’s inspired me.” – Chris

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This collaboration forms part of the year long Art et al. X Ketemu project, funded by the British Council’s International Collaboration Grants.

Images Copyright: Budi Agung Kuswara, Chris Angell and Barrington Farm, Ketemu Project and Art et al.

Pop culture is pervasive in our lives and, whether it’s through traditional or new media channels, even the most diverse cultures can easily interact with each other, sharing and exchanging cultural influences from across the globe. 

 

As fans with particular interests connect together into distinct fandoms and decide to make their own creations based on the pop culture that they consume, new narratives emerge based on the many facets of their backgrounds, making a back-and-forth conversation with pop culture. 

 

The diverse group of international artists in this exhibition explores this in a variety of ways. They may reflect on their own pop-cultural touch-stones, fandoms, and influences, or those of others, or else appropriate and subvert icons of pop culture to reflect on their own lives and the world around them. 

 

Whether utilizing cartoons, anime, pop music or gaming, or touching on the larger-than-life worlds of female wrestling, bodybuilding & superheroes, they each bring together their own influences, interests, and ideas with a globally popular cultural entity.

 

FANDOMINIUM is the first culmination of Art et al. X Ketemu Curatorial Mentorships, an initiative funded by the British Council and the Australian Council for the Arts.

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LARRY ACHIAMPONG & DAVID BLAND
MAYA BEN DAVID
JCO_Billie
JACKIE COUSINS OLIVA
El+Morro+Simpson_PRINT+copy
JORGE GUTIERREZ
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GRAHAM DOLPHIN
2
FERANSIS
web fondaminium
LALA NURLALA
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BETH EMILY RICHARDS
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KARIM SAAD

In this year’s collaborative project Art et al. X Ketemu Project bringing together participants from the UK-Australia x Indonesia with the aim of developing art practice and increasing understanding of things related to persons with disabilities or disabilities so as to encourage increased inclusiveness in the arts. The art practitioners in this collaboration include artists, freelance curators, and collectors (museums and private institutions) from three countries where they will complement and exchange ideas through the following programs:

  • Peer to Peer Artists

    Collaboration between artists with disabilities and non-disabled who will be encouraged to create a work of art together or individually.

  • Curatorial Collections

    Increase understanding for artists with disabilities about the collection process carried out by Museums or Institutions (fine art collections).

  • Curatorial Mentorship

    Participants (curators and artists with disabilities) will share their respective experiences so that there is an exchange of knowledge about the curatorial process and artistic experiences.

The results of this project are also expected to enrich the Ketemu Project Art and Creative Collaboration Toolkit. We will continue to share our programs on social media and the web, Ketemu Project and Art et al. Learn more about the Program !

Curatorial Mentorship
Matt Burrows X Lala Nurlala
Chris Angell, Vase With Skulls, Acrylic and pen, 59x43cm,Apr22
Peer to Peer
Chris Angell X Budi Agung Kuswara
Curatorial Collections
Butong X The Roberts Institute of Art
Peer to Peer
Karin Josephine X Christian Newby
Toylin_cherrybloosomgirl.white
Curatorial Mentorship
Toyin X Nilu
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Curating Collections
Sally Hirst X Mia Tjahjadi
Peer to Peer
Winda Karunia X Mawarini
Peer to Peer
Paul X Mutia Bunga

SEJIWA (Art for Wellbeing / “Seni untuk Kesejahteraan Jiwa”) is one of our social programs to facilitate our community friends to be able to be creative at home with the support of materials and art activities for wellbeing.

This project is our response in seeing the impacts of this COVID-19 pandemic to our mental health community friends. Most of them have to reduce their activities outside and stay at home more. This limitation creates great impact to their mental health, makes them triggered or relapses.

From that problem, we prepared art kit that can be a support for our community friends to stay at home and hone their creative abilities, also to practice focusing on positive things through drawing activities.

We hope that we would be able to help many more communities as possible in Indonesia, and everyone is invited to contribute. You can choose the kits on our Shop and buy accordingly to how many people or community you want to support. We will distribute the kits to the beneficiaries and we will send you the proof.

Check our social media for later updates!

What’s inside the kit?
A4 drawing book, activity list, coloring sheets, watercolor pencils, and pencil sharpener.

Collaborators
In this project, we work together with our friends in Lorku, one of the Creative Enterprises who received incubation program in Gerakan Kreabilitas project. They support in providing the list of art for wellbeing activities.
Thanks to Staedtler Denpasar for providing the drawing books as well.

First distribution
For the first batch, we distributed the kits to Schizophrenia community in Denpasar (Rumah Berdaya), Bipolar Care Indonesia in Jakarta, and a Mental Health Clinic Waluyo Jiwo in Blitar, east Java.