JONATHAN HADIPRANATA

Solo Exhibition “Hide Under The Table”

April 1 – 11, 2021

11:00am~7:00pm（Last day ~5:00pm）

MEDEL GALLERY SHUでは、Jonathan Hadipranata（ジョナサン・ハディプラナタ）の個展「Hide Under The Table」を開催いたします。

本展は作家にとって初の個展となり、これまで取り組んできた口をテープで塞いだ少女と少年の絵画をはじめ、ジョナサン・ハディプラナタの世界をご紹介いたします。

1995年に中国系インドネシア人の家庭に生まれたジョナサンは、両親の都合でインドネシアに帰国後、独学で美術の勉強を続け、サンフランシスコのアカデミー・オブ・アート・ユニバーシティに進学しました。

彼のペインティングには一貫してテープによって口が塞がれ、あたかも殴打を受けたようなあざを持った少女あるいは少年の姿が描き出されます。そこにはアニメーションや漫画といったカルチャーシーンの影響を感じさせますが、一方で本人が長らく敬愛しているレンブラントの絵画技法に習った、絵画に演劇的な要素を持ち込む色彩の使い方など、西欧の古典絵画の技法が高いレベルで応用されています。そのテーマについて、ジョナサン自身は「個人としての自分と社会や外界との関係を含めた自分自身の経験」にフォーカスしたものだと話しています。傷つき、抑圧されたように佇んでいる少女たちを描くことの背景は、彼本人の言葉を借りるならば「自分自身について話すことの怖さ、それをどう思われるかを気にしてしまうこと。そしてそのうちに隠された感情を探ること」という、他者との関係性における自己言及的な深い洞察があり、それを踏まえるならば、彼の描く少年少女の姿に一種の象徴的な性格を読み取ることができるでしょう。

本展のタイトルである「Hide Under The Table」は、彼自身の経験を反映したものであり、周囲から与えられる印象や評価、言葉や性格など、ある種の人間関係への恐怖が根底にある。ある意味、彼が描いている子どもたちは、SNSをはじめとする他人の評価に常にさらされている現代の私たちの内面を視覚的に物語る試みであり、その姿は、誰にでも当てはまりうる時代の象徴のようなものとも言えるかもしれません。

内省的なアプローチで自己の深層を探るジョナサン・ハディプラナタが描く視覚的な物語を、この機会にぜひご覧ください。

MEDEL GALLERY SHU is pleased to present “Hide Under The Table,” a solo exhibition by Jonathan Hadipranata.

This will be the artist’s first solo exhibition, and will introduce the world of Jonathan Hadipranata, including his paintings of girl and boy with taped mouths that he has been working on.

Born 1995 in a Chinese-Indonesian family, Jonathan went on to study at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco After returning to Indonesia for his parents’ reason, Jonathan continued to self-taught himself in art study.

His paintings consistently depict a girl or a boy with her/his mouth covered with tape as if they are being shut, and thus carry a secret. On the other hand, the techniques of Western classical painting are applied at a high level, such as the use of colour to bring a theatrical element to the painting, which was learned from the painting techniques of Rembrandt, whom he has admired for a long time. As for the theme, Jonathan himself says that it focuses on “my own experience, including the relationship between me as an individual and society and the outside world. His depiction of children standing wounded and repressed is based on a deep self-referential insight into our relationship with others, which, in his own words, is the fear of talking about ourselves and worrying about what others think of us.

In light of this, it is possible to read a kind of symbolic character into the figure of the children he depicts.

The title of this exhibition, “Hide Under The Table”, reflects his own experience and is based on his fear of certain relationships, such as the impressions, evaluations, words and characterizations given by those around him. In a sense, the children he is depicting is an attempt to tell a visual story about the inside of us today, who are constantly exposed to other people’s evaluations, including social networking sites, and their image could be said to be a kind of symbol of the times that could be applied to anyone. We hope you will take this opportunity to see the visual narrative of Jonathan Hadipranata’s paintings, which explore the depths of our own selves through an introspective approach.

JONATHAN HADIPRANATA

What really drives my practice are emotions and storytelling.The concept of my painting in itself arises from my own experience and my view of society in which we are often unable to say what we want or express who we are, be it for the worse or for the better but almost always at the cost of our own happiness. Symbolized through taped mouth, the child figures to reflect our real innocence self, light or dark background that represents emptiness within.

I grew up watching cartoons and anime. They’re the thing that drove me to study art in the first place, and hence my stylistic choice in my work now. Over the years, I have had a lot of artists who inspired me, not limited to fine art painters, I am also very much inspired by illustrator, and designer of graphic, interior, and architecture.

One of the most prominent being Rembrandt, and the paintings during the “Dutch Golden Age”. When I was in art school, while most of my friends would focus on studying the impressionist or realist, I on the other hand, would analyze these paintings and try to produce the same result in my still life paintings. For Rembrandt in particular, I was in awe with the sense of drama and storytelling that he was able to capture in his paintings and drawings, his use of light and shadow, and colours in its theatrical way sparks my love to further studying colour and light. I am also inspired by contemporary Japanese artists such as Yoshitomo Nara and Yayoi Kusama.

Yoshitomo Nara in particular really inspired me in the way he was able to show subtle emotions through his works, almost as if you can see the artist himself (his personality, influences, and life) in his works.

Yayoi Kusama’s works really taught me what it meant to show your perception and understanding and at the same time, other people’s perception and their understanding of it.

While I no longer use a strong light and shadow in my works, as well as using a more limited colour palette, which in most of the paintings for the exhibition will be focused more on different shades and temperatures of white/light soft colour to reflect the emptiness, I still want to capture the sense of drama that I had seen in Rembrandt’s works.

My hope is through my works, people can relate it, recalling a moment, a time, and a part of their life be it in a professional environment, daily life, or private life and that they are able to embrace them, and understand themselves better. To be able to say what they want to say, and to show their real personalities. To admit our own weakness, our own qualities and face society as one’s real existence.