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Post a Picture: Exhibition ala Young Artist

Young artists nowadays are even more dynamic day after day in creating works of arts. Besides, with the influence of technology and information that is continually developing, the acceleration of exhibition publication and organization is getting more progressive. It is marked by the increase of art events as well as art exhibitions with new concepts that is different from one another.

In accordance with the development of visual arts that continually progresses, therefore it is customary for Balai Banjar Sangkring to provide an art space and a chance for the young artists to exhibit their works. The exhibition named Pameran Perupa Muda (Young Artist Exhibition) succeeds in drawing responses from 18 to 30 year-old young artist for submitting their works. The favorable news can be seen from the increase of applicants every year. In the fourth exhibition, the number of applicants is 350 people, increasing 20 % from last year’s exhibition entitled “Ring Road” followed by 280 participants. However, in 2016, the number of artists sending applicants was only 100 people. Therefore, it is possible that in the coming years the event will continue to develop and encourage more young artists to get involve in the exhibition.

To respond to the influence of technology and information in the art scene, “PAP” is chosen as the main theme of this exhibition. Some people are still not familiar with this term. Although it is popular among young adults, there are some people naively looking for the words in the English dictionary. This is a bit ridiculous because there is one definition that mention pap is soft food or a kind of porridge eaten by babies. “PAP” as the tittle of this exhibition is actually an acronym from “post a picture”, defined as posting a picture or an instruction for sending or uploading a picture demanded by someone. The term is very popular in social media but it is unknown who has popularized the abbreviation. However, the phenomena are very interesting to be investigated, because “PAP” relates to the rapid development of communication technology that impels people inventing new words and phrases. If we observe, the habit of uploading pictures has appeared with different purposes since the existence of social media. People uploading pictures in social media for different purposes beginning from giving general information and sharing pictures about various kind of activities. Reviewed from the perspective of history, uploading pictures digitally has been done since internet connection is invented for the first time in the beginning of 1970s. In Indonesia, internet exists since the beginning of 2000s with the appearance of popular social networking sites such as Frienster (2002), MySpace (2003), Facebook and Flickr (2004), Twitter (2006), Instagram (2010), etc. There are also some other sites that gives facilities that is adjusted with the need of the internet user.

In the art world, the development of internet and social media drives young artists keeping abreast of the time. I have ever invited some artists to talk about the phenomena. Some of the artists have created artworks before advanced technology emerged and some of them have enjoyed transitional era. They say that today’s young artist have more opportunities than the previous generation in which to organize an exhibition needs more effort because information could not be delivered very well. For some artists to send art works’ data was not as easy as today, where we can send it by sitting down, drinking, coffee, moving our fingers, and click send. According to the previous generation, artworks must be captured, printed, and then sent by post that will arrive at the destination address for several days to several weeks. In some cases, some artworks cannot pass the selection from the curation team. Even though until recently there are some galleries that still send files by mail, more galleries today send files in digital format. Besides, young generation can get the newest references more easily and also utilizes media networking for publishing artworks. Some artists and art communities hold exhibitions online.

The facility represents this era for today’s young artists. There are no boundaries in raising particular subject for creating artworks that can directly influence the development of cross media artworks as in the exhibition followed by 51 young artist domiciled in Yogyakarta. The artworks from the artists consist of paintings, graphic arts, installation, sculpture, photo, ceramic, and arts and crafts curated selectively. In which some of them arousing more than one sense simultaneously created by using equipment, materials, and techniques for making arts. Various kinds of ideas that have been renewed and developed bring artworks closer to the public. Thus, artworks provide room for public to interpret them in various perspectives.

Through Pameran Perupa Muda #4 (Young Artist Exhibition #4), young artists that have pass curation simultaneously are given opportunity to present artworks that begins from idea processing to the public. With the advancement of technology that have become more sophisticated, it is expected that today’s young artists are more enthusiastic in creating artworks and publishing their works.

Yogyakarta, 31 October 2019

Ryani Silaban