Dr.Ursula J.Krohn 's comment on Antonius Kho
ANTONIUS KHO
Figure and conversion
The pictures and reliefs created by Antonius Kho are characterized by diverse cultural influences. The diverse characters, symbols, colors and materials he uses may not be immediately apparent to the Western observer, but can be explained by his biography.
In Kho's native Java, numerous rituals are performed, that have Buddhist and Hindu sources and are also linked to indigenous beliefs. Kho grew up in a family that maintained their belief in reincarnation. The ashes of his grandparents stood on an altar where offerings were made regularly in order to protect the roots of his family. Outside of the family, he marvelled at and was deeply impressed by Borobodur Temple which depicts 100,000 verses of the Mahabharata in stone relief. Antonius Kho was also fascinated with "wayang" shadow puppet shows often performed at weddings and the like. In these all night performances, around 250 puppet shadow puppets made of water buffalo hide, come to life through a single puppet master, who tells the unscripted story of the fight between good and evil spirits represented through the 'Pandawa' and 'Kurawa' families of the Mahabharata.
Characters and scenes from the Mahabharata, as well as images taken from everyday life in Indonesia are central to Antonius Kho's works and include; images of women in the market, processions, animals and political issues. His works challenge the viewer to find a sense of direction. Countless lines, points and areas of color dance on the ground and foreground until we connect the first elements into a shape. Quickly this shape disappears giving rise to another as new eye or nose comes to the forefront and we recreate the perceived image anew. This structuring and restructuring process can be uncomfortable as the subject of the foreground cannot be pinned down because the background suddenly comes forth. This principle of composition allows an opportunity for the viewer to develop their own creativity. Diversity, surprise cancellation of, or challenge to our perception are often experienced as we look on this paintings. Then relaxation comes to us, especially when we are willing to let go of our judgements.
This ambiguity, is also content based. According to Javanese beliefs, before there was man, there were "Pandawa-Kurawa" or good and the evil spirits in the world. Both good and evil are necessary, so people need to offer up sacrifice. The war between good and evil, depicted in the Mahabharata, also takes place within every human being. Not unlike in the Christian religion, the Pandawa-Karawa stories well of an initial paradise. The people left this place of happiness, which was located in the mountains, and went into town. From then on, they distinguished between good and evil and were afraid and so found life difficult.
In the Mahabharata "wayang" stories there are many evil spirits and hybrid creatures. Antonius Kho responds to these different characters as they embody the diverse nature of man, and offer an endless display of possibilities. In relation to political changes in Indonesia, Kho addresses the fears of his countrymen using the simple yet colorful figures that also vibrate with the artist's desire for people to find their way back to the mountains, to simplicity and come full circle to completion.
Dr.Ursula J.Krohn (art historian)
Art Curators' Comments
ANTONIUS KHO
The works of Antonius Kho, born in Klaten, Central Java, are a synthesis of East and West. The vibrant earth tones of his native Java find life and substance in his carefully structured compositions. He seeks to resolve the fluid, graceful, mutable philosophy of Indonesia with solid, reasonable, almost cubist forms. His highly decorative and harmonious compositions capture, the soul of Java as they celebrate its mysticism and culture, in Wayang figures, masks and other folkloric emblems. His paintings embody a peculiar concentration and vitality which enables us to grasp their subjects on an intuitive level. The result is pure ornament. A rich feat of decoration that has an almost hypnotic quality. The more we look at these collages of color, the more they reveal.
These rich and various forms are rendered in slashing, vigorous strokes, with generous application of tropical colors. Kho, who studied with Barli, the famous Javanese artist well-known for his energetic images filled with movement, uses cloth, paper and string to give his flat surfaces energy and a three dimensional appeal.
Kho’s images form as a result of his experience in the Institute of Fine Arts (ITB) in Bandung, and his German training. Typically, artists trained at ITB Bandung look to the West for inspiration. They are inspired by cubist and abstract styles, and Kho is no exception. The rudiments of his style, learned in Bandung, were honed in Germany at the Academy of Fine Arts FH-Cologne.
Now, working from his idyllic studio in the quiet hills of Ubud, Bali’s artist heaven, Kho creates seductive and contemporary visions of Indonesia culture and mythology. With this exhibition we gain an insight into the Indonesian spirit illustrated in a language of our times.
Dipika Rai (Art writer)
ANTONIUS KHO
Antonius Kho was born in Klaten, Java and later pursued his artistic study in Cologne, Germany. He chooses mask as his subject matter and explores it to the full. The result is array of masks that never represent anyone, or for that matter, anything. The mask is in his paintings. The mask has shed its from original intentions, replaced by his own personal reflections. It lost its intended functions as cover for someone or symbol of something. Masks are utilized as the seed for his creativity, as a visual concept before he takes up the brush. Even when Kho could presents Petruk (a Javanese puppet character), he delves deeper into the mask’s basic existence, never Petruk at its face-value.
While the mask is not seen as who anymore. Kho”s explorations on masks has rached into its darkest nock and crannies. Every mask he finds, approaches and then explores accumulated into a creation. A million mask drops from his brush. Only the essence spreads over his canvas.
“Masks in my hand is power. A magistrate”, he said once
The fact that mask are able to penetrate Kho’s basest fantasy and imagination is heavily influenced by its diversity, ubiquitous and historical complexity. Indonesia proved to be a fertile ground for him for her extraordinarily rich heritage of masks. Thousands of mask has been created for a multitudinous of functions everywhere, from west Sumatra through to Irian Jaya east, since the beginning of time.
And yes, this challenges Kho to always create unique works. Which is his.
Agus Dermawan T. (Art writer)
ANTONIUS KHO
Antonius Kho was born a “Chinese-Indonesian” in Klaten, a small town of central Java, an “alien”, to a point , in his land. To him, when he was child, the Wayang , Batik and other images of the Javanese world came piecemeal through the jumble and rumble of the life of the streets. As references rather than living symbols and carriers of meaning. Meaning was with Buddha and the Tao wisdom. It was the candle put to burn with incense in front of the family shrine. And like the candle it too was withering, as withered all the Chinese mores and customs. Antonius Kho’s real tradition, thus, was essentially a mosaic of beliefs and visual symbols: the paradoxes roots of a modernity.
This modernity was given concepts and shape first at the Arts School of the Bandung Institute of Technology, that has to this day inspired most of Indonesian modernism, then at the Academy of Fine Arts of Cologne, Germany, where he was initiated on the ground to the historical logic of the Western art scene. Ever torn between the various layers of his identity, Antonius Kho now shares his time between Cologne and Ubud, Bali, and exhibits regularly both in Europe and in Indonesia. Like the masks he so much love to paint, his life has two facets, and his identity lies in this ambiguity.
Apart from his career as a painter, Kho is also known as an organizer. He set up in 1995 “Tata Ubud”, a one month “open studio” exhibition as a marketing alternative to the conventional galleries. He has also organized various encounters between Indonesian and Western artists.
Kho”s works, like his culture, are mosaic: they consist of vignettes of yellowish tones scattered across the canvas in an obsessive patterning of human figures and masks. When looking at it, though, it is impossible to focus on these individual patterns or sub-patterns, one’s attention is drawn away, made to run from one color surface to the other, dance across the canvas from one tone to the other, until this visual search indentifies signs: eyes. Eyes lurk everywhere in Kho’s works, “They are the ultimate presence or truth” he explains, therefore the life behind the mask-and, from an aesthetic point of view, the figurative meaning of otherwise highly structured works. Kho’s paintings are indeed eerily, figurative while having the formal qualities of abstraction. They can thus be interpreted at both levels, without the one interfering on the other. One may let oneself be either haunted by the weird presence of the “eyes” and masks or entranced by the hypnotic quality of the color patterns.
Antonius Kho sources of inspiration are multiple. Batik designs and the figures of the “Wayang” puppet show theater alike have probably provided his visual memory with the notion of pattern. The artist was for some time a batik painter. As for Wayang, the principal vehicle of Javanese ideas and narratives, its puppets are codified too so as to enable an immediate by the symbolic content of these traditions, “ideologically” alien to him, but by their form. His approach is thus definitely modern. “It is not the symbols which I borrow, he says, but the images. I recreate a meaning for my own use. Hence the formal restructuring of my patterns into modern compositions. “Concerning color, through, it is nature that plays the main role: “I like to take my inspiration from the life of nature”, he says, “I like most of all the butterflies, for their fluttering quality of color”.
To sum it up Kho’s best works can be equated to musical composition. Forms endlessly transform themselves into meaning, and meaning into color. By the magic of creation, a melody is born.
Dr Jean Couteau (Art writer)
ANTONIUS KHO
World of Tension
I know Antonius Kho in the late 1970”s in Bandung and open manner made us good friends quite quickly. We organized joint exhibition several times. As young sculptors at our own age at that time, we were both eager to learn and wanted to appear in progressive Bandung world of sculpture. Since 1977 we felt that we had the same opportunity what we would like to be.
As far as I know, Antonius Kho was an Indonesian born Chinese but he is strongly influenced by Javanese culture which makes him understand the nature and characteristics of Bandung sculpture. This means that he inherits the nature of a hard working Chinese man, Javanese dedication, and Bandung intellectuality which helps him adopt Western style of analysis. These tree qualities certainly make him one of the most outstanding artists in the country. One thing that I was not aware before is that Antonius Kho is also interested in being involved in organizational activities related to sculpture. In Bali he is involved in the promotion of Tata Ubud, an effort dedicated to establish networking among Balinese artists.
I haven’t met Antonius Kho in the 1980”s and I thought he just disappeared already. To my surprise I found that he was interested in Batik making in Yogyakarta and pursued his studies in Cologne, Germany. In the 1990”s we managed to meet more frequently. At the end of the 1990”s two of us held a get-together in Cologne. Antonius Kho’s studies could easily be observed through his work of art. I can say this because he sends me the documentation of his work regularly which allows me to learn more about him. In essence, Antonius Kho tries to manipulate different elements such as materials, techniques, nature of materials used and media development.
Observing Antonius Kho’s most recent work I noticed that materials became most important. He uses different kinds of materials such as paper, rags and jute not only attached together to give artistic flavor but also to create a sense of power and objective. His techniques are a combination of that of painting, batik making, collages” arrangement, producing field intersection. Decoration is skillfully and intensively done indicating a strong desire to produce artistic possibility. In the end, his very characteristic lies on fields’ compilation, maintaining line effects and colors. As far as color is concerned I noticed Antonius Kho combines the Europeans influence of colors with that of batik. I also indentified that he tries to reconcile the West and East (I do not think I can find the right word to express this!). This indicates that tree is analytical power within him self. At least he realizes that his life is divided into two cultural domains, i.e. in one year he has been exposed to European and Indonesian culture which has made him unite the two in his framework of mind. One might say that Antonius Kho is a quiet artist but inside his mind there is a constant tension. You can not only see this materialized in visible forms but also personalized through the themes of his work of art. Therefore, he seems to be certain to talk about something specific, such as representation of forms with eyes and past ornaments. However, the themes he has in his mind can talk much more ranging from humanity in the daily life to his critical attitudes of social phenomena of the peoples all over the world. The most interesting tension that Antonius Kho has in his mind is his love to the world of myth and restlessness on the material world. There are intriguing symbols but their use is not just to uncover meanings but also to presence the essence or not to talk about anything at all.
I believe that within Antonius Kho’s mind there is a never-ending world game to explore. He has done his exploration very seriously and accepted that life flows continuously but he selects such flows to capture the currents which take him to a serious game. At least that’s how I know Antonius Kho, a sculptor and a painter in the possession of diligence, dedication and intellectuality.
Maman Noor (Art writer)
Antonius Kho’s Travel Notes: the unified field or apparent paradox of divergent simultaneity
During our travels through the journey of life we all takes notes of one kind or another – often simply in our hearts, sometimes in written form or in the case of Antonius Kho in sketches.
For the last 10 years, Antonius Kho has been steadfastly devoted to organizing and participating in an astounding number of art exchanges with artists from 16 different countries (and counting) throughout South East Asia and beyond. Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia, Korea, Singapore, Cambodia, Bangladesh, China, Madagascar, Reunion, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, Bhutan, India and Mauritius are here represented though the lens of this accomplished artist who speaks of borders with great depth of feeling.
These independently organized art exchanges have been taking place between individual artists with a focus on sharing personal artistic, cultural and general life experiences for the simple purpose of enjoying both similarities and differences as a source of artistic inspiration.
After staying in each other’s homes, learning about each other’s specific social, cultural and environmental conditions and vision of them, the participating artists hold two group exhibitions; first in the host country and then in Indonesia.
These exhibitions are a testament to the tremendous wealth of talent found in these countries but perhaps more importantly they stand as a testament to the power of art to bring people together in their shared experience of love which both highlights and erases apparent differences.
These group exhibitions make both the differences and similarities of approaches to art found in each country clear by the contrast they provide and interestingly, this simultaneous highlighting and erasure of differences is aesthetically and conceptual pronounced within Antonius Kho’s own body of work.
Antonius Kho who was born in Klaten, central Java and went on to study in Bandung and then Germany where he raised his children before returning to Indonesia where he now resides. Kho has been journeying through life both metaphorically and quite literally since he was very young. Deeply feeling both the joys and sorrows of the fluidity and complexity of identity – how we view our place in the world, how others view us and the endless variations of how these intersect at any given time, Kho has developed a deep awareness of both the differences and similarities found amongst people of different places, backgrounds and experiences, a sharpened awareness of the different ways that people struggle as well as a deep compassion for the shared struggle of all humans to find beauty in the apparent chaos which he so poetically visualizes in his works.
As an artist Antonius Kho has been taking Travel Notes of all kinds throughout his life as a way to digest his experience of these complexities. These Travel Notes that all humans inscribe on their hearts, -in the case of Antonius Kho, have also taken the form of drawings or sketches since he first graduated from art school some 40 years ago.
These sketches of his surroundings started off as a pleasant way to practice his craft as a painter and over the years served as the basis for the creation of a truly masterful body of painted and sculpted works. These works speak of the very personal vision of his relationship to his surroundings and people he encounters but also to his heightened sense of emotional and social relations more broadly.
In more recent years these Travel Notes have been more literal in the sense that the sketches or transcriptions of his surroundings were created during the impressive number and scope of art exchanges mentioned above, and so also served as visual Travel Notes of the specific visual forms of the people and cultural expressions he encounters on this voyages.
These Travel Notes are not however simply a visual description of his experiences or of the places he visited but rather serve as a point of reference for his painted works that express the diversity and complexity of human interactions more generally with specific instances delivered to us through his interlocking lines and figures and multiplicity of perspectives within a unified visual space. These instances are not specific or bounded but instead invite us to feel the interconnectedness of all things – to feel the general though the specific or connectedness through separation.
The distinct headdresses of the court dancers of Thailand, the pronounced facial features of the people of Madagascar, the specific costumes and makeup of Chinese Opera performers, the ornate temples of Cambodia, the puppet dance of Laos and countless other visual cues can be seen in this collection of recent works. However, while these visual cues hold their own beauty, depth of meaning and potential reading as specific cultural markers, what is perhaps more interesting to note is how Kho uses these as a kind of celebration of the diversity of artistic and cultural expression he has encountered rather than as descriptive expressions of them.
The travel Notes that Kho took throughout these journeys, though certainly inspired by the specific places and people he visited, are clearly rendered in a way that reaches beyond the local speaking to a wider range of concepts and feelings. Amongst the many ideas indirectly expressed in these works are: the globalized world and how this affects our possibility for communication with people in disparate localities, how such interactions shape how we see our place in the world and point to the many ways we interact with one and other, the historic social and cultural influences between South-East Asian countries specifically but Asia and the world more broadly and the ongoing creation and recreation of identity and our feelings about this.
It is also interesting to note that although the works of Travel Notes clearly reference the vastly different places Kho has visited in these art exchanges, his attention to the human figure – not as simply an aesthetic form but as a representation of the separation experienced by humans as distinct entities and the endless variations of ways that we interact with one and other emotionally, there is a clear and pronounced similarity amongst all these works, a sameness that one could say expresses the divine nature that we all share. This divine nature or simply creative power of love takes endless forms yet remains cohesive and is experienced though the human heart in ways that we can all relate to.
This exhibition is simultaneously a visual record of the places Anotnius Kho has travelled to over the last ten years, and a kind of visual record of the human experience more generally. With powerfully expressive facial expressions yet uncertainty of boundaries, relations and interactions, with larger figures comprised of numerous smaller ones and boundaries between figures joined though complex line interwoven lines, we are faced with a chaotic rendering of unstable beings which nonetheless yield a harmonious composition that brings to mind ancient textiles with all their socially ascribed meaning and visual beauty.
Kho’s use of soft natural colors and simple sincerity to express the complexity of human experiences, and social conditions invites us to embrace these complexities with the knowing that there is a larger, deeper and all encompassing whole that is at the root of it all, an invitation to use our own Travel Notes to express the knowing that we are all love.
Gabyreel Rahayu(Art Writer)
ANTONIUS KHO
Figure and conversion
The pictures and reliefs created by Antonius Kho are characterized by diverse cultural influences. The diverse characters, symbols, colors and materials he uses may not be immediately apparent to the Western observer, but can be explained by his biography.
In Kho's native Java, numerous rituals are performed, that have Buddhist and Hindu sources and are also linked to indigenous beliefs. Kho grew up in a family that maintained their belief in reincarnation. The ashes of his grandparents stood on an altar where offerings were made regularly in order to protect the roots of his family. Outside of the family, he marvelled at and was deeply impressed by Borobodur Temple which depicts 100,000 verses of the Mahabharata in stone relief. Antonius Kho was also fascinated with "wayang" shadow puppet shows often performed at weddings and the like. In these all night performances, around 250 puppet shadow puppets made of water buffalo hide, come to life through a single puppet master, who tells the unscripted story of the fight between good and evil spirits represented through the 'Pandawa' and 'Kurawa' families of the Mahabharata.
Characters and scenes from the Mahabharata, as well as images taken from everyday life in Indonesia are central to Antonius Kho's works and include; images of women in the market, processions, animals and political issues. His works challenge the viewer to find a sense of direction. Countless lines, points and areas of color dance on the ground and foreground until we connect the first elements into a shape. Quickly this shape disappears giving rise to another as new eye or nose comes to the forefront and we recreate the perceived image anew. This structuring and restructuring process can be uncomfortable as the subject of the foreground cannot be pinned down because the background suddenly comes forth. This principle of composition allows an opportunity for the viewer to develop their own creativity. Diversity, surprise cancellation of, or challenge to our perception are often experienced as we look on this paintings. Then relaxation comes to us, especially when we are willing to let go of our judgements.
This ambiguity, is also content based. According to Javanese beliefs, before there was man, there were "Pandawa-Kurawa" or good and the evil spirits in the world. Both good and evil are necessary, so people need to offer up sacrifice. The war between good and evil, depicted in the Mahabharata, also takes place within every human being. Not unlike in the Christian religion, the Pandawa-Karawa stories well of an initial paradise. The people left this place of happiness, which was located in the mountains, and went into town. From then on, they distinguished between good and evil and were afraid and so found life difficult.
In the Mahabharata "wayang" stories there are many evil spirits and hybrid creatures. Antonius Kho responds to these different characters as they embody the diverse nature of man, and offer an endless display of possibilities. In relation to political changes in Indonesia, Kho addresses the fears of his countrymen using the simple yet colorful figures that also vibrate with the artist's desire for people to find their way back to the mountains, to simplicity and come full circle to completion.
Dr.Ursula J.Krohn (art historian)
Art Curators' Comments
ANTONIUS KHO
The works of Antonius Kho, born in Klaten, Central Java, are a synthesis of East and West. The vibrant earth tones of his native Java find life and substance in his carefully structured compositions. He seeks to resolve the fluid, graceful, mutable philosophy of Indonesia with solid, reasonable, almost cubist forms. His highly decorative and harmonious compositions capture, the soul of Java as they celebrate its mysticism and culture, in Wayang figures, masks and other folkloric emblems. His paintings embody a peculiar concentration and vitality which enables us to grasp their subjects on an intuitive level. The result is pure ornament. A rich feat of decoration that has an almost hypnotic quality. The more we look at these collages of color, the more they reveal.
These rich and various forms are rendered in slashing, vigorous strokes, with generous application of tropical colors. Kho, who studied with Barli, the famous Javanese artist well-known for his energetic images filled with movement, uses cloth, paper and string to give his flat surfaces energy and a three dimensional appeal.
Kho’s images form as a result of his experience in the Institute of Fine Arts (ITB) in Bandung, and his German training. Typically, artists trained at ITB Bandung look to the West for inspiration. They are inspired by cubist and abstract styles, and Kho is no exception. The rudiments of his style, learned in Bandung, were honed in Germany at the Academy of Fine Arts FH-Cologne.
Now, working from his idyllic studio in the quiet hills of Ubud, Bali’s artist heaven, Kho creates seductive and contemporary visions of Indonesia culture and mythology. With this exhibition we gain an insight into the Indonesian spirit illustrated in a language of our times.
Dipika Rai (Art writer)
ANTONIUS KHO
Antonius Kho was born in Klaten, Java and later pursued his artistic study in Cologne, Germany. He chooses mask as his subject matter and explores it to the full. The result is array of masks that never represent anyone, or for that matter, anything. The mask is in his paintings. The mask has shed its from original intentions, replaced by his own personal reflections. It lost its intended functions as cover for someone or symbol of something. Masks are utilized as the seed for his creativity, as a visual concept before he takes up the brush. Even when Kho could presents Petruk (a Javanese puppet character), he delves deeper into the mask’s basic existence, never Petruk at its face-value.
While the mask is not seen as who anymore. Kho”s explorations on masks has rached into its darkest nock and crannies. Every mask he finds, approaches and then explores accumulated into a creation. A million mask drops from his brush. Only the essence spreads over his canvas.
“Masks in my hand is power. A magistrate”, he said once
The fact that mask are able to penetrate Kho’s basest fantasy and imagination is heavily influenced by its diversity, ubiquitous and historical complexity. Indonesia proved to be a fertile ground for him for her extraordinarily rich heritage of masks. Thousands of mask has been created for a multitudinous of functions everywhere, from west Sumatra through to Irian Jaya east, since the beginning of time.
And yes, this challenges Kho to always create unique works. Which is his.
Agus Dermawan T. (Art writer)
ANTONIUS KHO
Antonius Kho was born a “Chinese-Indonesian” in Klaten, a small town of central Java, an “alien”, to a point , in his land. To him, when he was child, the Wayang , Batik and other images of the Javanese world came piecemeal through the jumble and rumble of the life of the streets. As references rather than living symbols and carriers of meaning. Meaning was with Buddha and the Tao wisdom. It was the candle put to burn with incense in front of the family shrine. And like the candle it too was withering, as withered all the Chinese mores and customs. Antonius Kho’s real tradition, thus, was essentially a mosaic of beliefs and visual symbols: the paradoxes roots of a modernity.
This modernity was given concepts and shape first at the Arts School of the Bandung Institute of Technology, that has to this day inspired most of Indonesian modernism, then at the Academy of Fine Arts of Cologne, Germany, where he was initiated on the ground to the historical logic of the Western art scene. Ever torn between the various layers of his identity, Antonius Kho now shares his time between Cologne and Ubud, Bali, and exhibits regularly both in Europe and in Indonesia. Like the masks he so much love to paint, his life has two facets, and his identity lies in this ambiguity.
Apart from his career as a painter, Kho is also known as an organizer. He set up in 1995 “Tata Ubud”, a one month “open studio” exhibition as a marketing alternative to the conventional galleries. He has also organized various encounters between Indonesian and Western artists.
Kho”s works, like his culture, are mosaic: they consist of vignettes of yellowish tones scattered across the canvas in an obsessive patterning of human figures and masks. When looking at it, though, it is impossible to focus on these individual patterns or sub-patterns, one’s attention is drawn away, made to run from one color surface to the other, dance across the canvas from one tone to the other, until this visual search indentifies signs: eyes. Eyes lurk everywhere in Kho’s works, “They are the ultimate presence or truth” he explains, therefore the life behind the mask-and, from an aesthetic point of view, the figurative meaning of otherwise highly structured works. Kho’s paintings are indeed eerily, figurative while having the formal qualities of abstraction. They can thus be interpreted at both levels, without the one interfering on the other. One may let oneself be either haunted by the weird presence of the “eyes” and masks or entranced by the hypnotic quality of the color patterns.
Antonius Kho sources of inspiration are multiple. Batik designs and the figures of the “Wayang” puppet show theater alike have probably provided his visual memory with the notion of pattern. The artist was for some time a batik painter. As for Wayang, the principal vehicle of Javanese ideas and narratives, its puppets are codified too so as to enable an immediate by the symbolic content of these traditions, “ideologically” alien to him, but by their form. His approach is thus definitely modern. “It is not the symbols which I borrow, he says, but the images. I recreate a meaning for my own use. Hence the formal restructuring of my patterns into modern compositions. “Concerning color, through, it is nature that plays the main role: “I like to take my inspiration from the life of nature”, he says, “I like most of all the butterflies, for their fluttering quality of color”.
To sum it up Kho’s best works can be equated to musical composition. Forms endlessly transform themselves into meaning, and meaning into color. By the magic of creation, a melody is born.
Dr Jean Couteau (Art writer)
ANTONIUS KHO
World of Tension
I know Antonius Kho in the late 1970”s in Bandung and open manner made us good friends quite quickly. We organized joint exhibition several times. As young sculptors at our own age at that time, we were both eager to learn and wanted to appear in progressive Bandung world of sculpture. Since 1977 we felt that we had the same opportunity what we would like to be.
As far as I know, Antonius Kho was an Indonesian born Chinese but he is strongly influenced by Javanese culture which makes him understand the nature and characteristics of Bandung sculpture. This means that he inherits the nature of a hard working Chinese man, Javanese dedication, and Bandung intellectuality which helps him adopt Western style of analysis. These tree qualities certainly make him one of the most outstanding artists in the country. One thing that I was not aware before is that Antonius Kho is also interested in being involved in organizational activities related to sculpture. In Bali he is involved in the promotion of Tata Ubud, an effort dedicated to establish networking among Balinese artists.
I haven’t met Antonius Kho in the 1980”s and I thought he just disappeared already. To my surprise I found that he was interested in Batik making in Yogyakarta and pursued his studies in Cologne, Germany. In the 1990”s we managed to meet more frequently. At the end of the 1990”s two of us held a get-together in Cologne. Antonius Kho’s studies could easily be observed through his work of art. I can say this because he sends me the documentation of his work regularly which allows me to learn more about him. In essence, Antonius Kho tries to manipulate different elements such as materials, techniques, nature of materials used and media development.
Observing Antonius Kho’s most recent work I noticed that materials became most important. He uses different kinds of materials such as paper, rags and jute not only attached together to give artistic flavor but also to create a sense of power and objective. His techniques are a combination of that of painting, batik making, collages” arrangement, producing field intersection. Decoration is skillfully and intensively done indicating a strong desire to produce artistic possibility. In the end, his very characteristic lies on fields’ compilation, maintaining line effects and colors. As far as color is concerned I noticed Antonius Kho combines the Europeans influence of colors with that of batik. I also indentified that he tries to reconcile the West and East (I do not think I can find the right word to express this!). This indicates that tree is analytical power within him self. At least he realizes that his life is divided into two cultural domains, i.e. in one year he has been exposed to European and Indonesian culture which has made him unite the two in his framework of mind. One might say that Antonius Kho is a quiet artist but inside his mind there is a constant tension. You can not only see this materialized in visible forms but also personalized through the themes of his work of art. Therefore, he seems to be certain to talk about something specific, such as representation of forms with eyes and past ornaments. However, the themes he has in his mind can talk much more ranging from humanity in the daily life to his critical attitudes of social phenomena of the peoples all over the world. The most interesting tension that Antonius Kho has in his mind is his love to the world of myth and restlessness on the material world. There are intriguing symbols but their use is not just to uncover meanings but also to presence the essence or not to talk about anything at all.
I believe that within Antonius Kho’s mind there is a never-ending world game to explore. He has done his exploration very seriously and accepted that life flows continuously but he selects such flows to capture the currents which take him to a serious game. At least that’s how I know Antonius Kho, a sculptor and a painter in the possession of diligence, dedication and intellectuality.
Maman Noor (Art writer)
Antonius Kho’s Travel Notes: the unified field or apparent paradox of divergent simultaneity
During our travels through the journey of life we all takes notes of one kind or another – often simply in our hearts, sometimes in written form or in the case of Antonius Kho in sketches.
For the last 10 years, Antonius Kho has been steadfastly devoted to organizing and participating in an astounding number of art exchanges with artists from 16 different countries (and counting) throughout South East Asia and beyond. Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia, Korea, Singapore, Cambodia, Bangladesh, China, Madagascar, Reunion, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, Bhutan, India and Mauritius are here represented though the lens of this accomplished artist who speaks of borders with great depth of feeling.
These independently organized art exchanges have been taking place between individual artists with a focus on sharing personal artistic, cultural and general life experiences for the simple purpose of enjoying both similarities and differences as a source of artistic inspiration.
After staying in each other’s homes, learning about each other’s specific social, cultural and environmental conditions and vision of them, the participating artists hold two group exhibitions; first in the host country and then in Indonesia.
These exhibitions are a testament to the tremendous wealth of talent found in these countries but perhaps more importantly they stand as a testament to the power of art to bring people together in their shared experience of love which both highlights and erases apparent differences.
These group exhibitions make both the differences and similarities of approaches to art found in each country clear by the contrast they provide and interestingly, this simultaneous highlighting and erasure of differences is aesthetically and conceptual pronounced within Antonius Kho’s own body of work.
Antonius Kho who was born in Klaten, central Java and went on to study in Bandung and then Germany where he raised his children before returning to Indonesia where he now resides. Kho has been journeying through life both metaphorically and quite literally since he was very young. Deeply feeling both the joys and sorrows of the fluidity and complexity of identity – how we view our place in the world, how others view us and the endless variations of how these intersect at any given time, Kho has developed a deep awareness of both the differences and similarities found amongst people of different places, backgrounds and experiences, a sharpened awareness of the different ways that people struggle as well as a deep compassion for the shared struggle of all humans to find beauty in the apparent chaos which he so poetically visualizes in his works.
As an artist Antonius Kho has been taking Travel Notes of all kinds throughout his life as a way to digest his experience of these complexities. These Travel Notes that all humans inscribe on their hearts, -in the case of Antonius Kho, have also taken the form of drawings or sketches since he first graduated from art school some 40 years ago.
These sketches of his surroundings started off as a pleasant way to practice his craft as a painter and over the years served as the basis for the creation of a truly masterful body of painted and sculpted works. These works speak of the very personal vision of his relationship to his surroundings and people he encounters but also to his heightened sense of emotional and social relations more broadly.
In more recent years these Travel Notes have been more literal in the sense that the sketches or transcriptions of his surroundings were created during the impressive number and scope of art exchanges mentioned above, and so also served as visual Travel Notes of the specific visual forms of the people and cultural expressions he encounters on this voyages.
These Travel Notes are not however simply a visual description of his experiences or of the places he visited but rather serve as a point of reference for his painted works that express the diversity and complexity of human interactions more generally with specific instances delivered to us through his interlocking lines and figures and multiplicity of perspectives within a unified visual space. These instances are not specific or bounded but instead invite us to feel the interconnectedness of all things – to feel the general though the specific or connectedness through separation.
The distinct headdresses of the court dancers of Thailand, the pronounced facial features of the people of Madagascar, the specific costumes and makeup of Chinese Opera performers, the ornate temples of Cambodia, the puppet dance of Laos and countless other visual cues can be seen in this collection of recent works. However, while these visual cues hold their own beauty, depth of meaning and potential reading as specific cultural markers, what is perhaps more interesting to note is how Kho uses these as a kind of celebration of the diversity of artistic and cultural expression he has encountered rather than as descriptive expressions of them.
The travel Notes that Kho took throughout these journeys, though certainly inspired by the specific places and people he visited, are clearly rendered in a way that reaches beyond the local speaking to a wider range of concepts and feelings. Amongst the many ideas indirectly expressed in these works are: the globalized world and how this affects our possibility for communication with people in disparate localities, how such interactions shape how we see our place in the world and point to the many ways we interact with one and other, the historic social and cultural influences between South-East Asian countries specifically but Asia and the world more broadly and the ongoing creation and recreation of identity and our feelings about this.
It is also interesting to note that although the works of Travel Notes clearly reference the vastly different places Kho has visited in these art exchanges, his attention to the human figure – not as simply an aesthetic form but as a representation of the separation experienced by humans as distinct entities and the endless variations of ways that we interact with one and other emotionally, there is a clear and pronounced similarity amongst all these works, a sameness that one could say expresses the divine nature that we all share. This divine nature or simply creative power of love takes endless forms yet remains cohesive and is experienced though the human heart in ways that we can all relate to.
This exhibition is simultaneously a visual record of the places Anotnius Kho has travelled to over the last ten years, and a kind of visual record of the human experience more generally. With powerfully expressive facial expressions yet uncertainty of boundaries, relations and interactions, with larger figures comprised of numerous smaller ones and boundaries between figures joined though complex line interwoven lines, we are faced with a chaotic rendering of unstable beings which nonetheless yield a harmonious composition that brings to mind ancient textiles with all their socially ascribed meaning and visual beauty.
Kho’s use of soft natural colors and simple sincerity to express the complexity of human experiences, and social conditions invites us to embrace these complexities with the knowing that there is a larger, deeper and all encompassing whole that is at the root of it all, an invitation to use our own Travel Notes to express the knowing that we are all love.
Gabyreel Rahayu(Art Writer)