PROJECT no 11
bits and pix by Narpati Awangga a.k.a oomleo
14 April – 5 Mei 2012
PLATFORM3
Jalan Cigadung Raya Tengah no. 42 (Studio Rosid)
Bandung
Press Release
PLATFORM3 dengan bangga mempersembahkan bits & pix, sebuah pameran yang menampilkan karya-karyaNarpati Awangga, alias oomleo. oomleo (lahir di Jakarta, 8 Maret 1978) adalah seniman muda yang pernah berkuliah di Studio Seni Grafis di Institut Seni Indonesia, Yogyakarta. Selama ini orang lebih mengenal nama Oomleo sebagai sosok musisi, disainer, penulis, penyiar radio, MC, DJ dan pegiat komunitas seniman ruangrupa. Para penggemar musik tentu lebih mengenalnya sebagai anggota kelompok musik elektronik Goodnight Electric. Tak banyak yang tahu bahwa ia juga seorang perupa yang telah lama bekerja dan mengembangkan teknik dan gaya visual yang khas.
bits & pix adalah pameran tunggalnya yang pertama, yang akan menampilkan karya-karya cetak digital dan video Oomleo selama 3 tahun terakhir. Sejak pertama kali jatuh cinta pada ‘ benda ajaib’ bernama komputer, hidup Oomleo tak pernah bisa lepas dari berbagai bentuk kebudayaan digital. Ia mengaku bahwa lebih dari separuh hidupnya dalam sepuluh tahun terakhir ia habiskan bersama dengan komputer. Ia mencintai komputer lebih dari benda apapun—sudah sejak lama ia tidur dan makan bersama komputer—dan seringkali rela untuk melakukan apapun untuk memenuhi hobinya mengunduh berbagai materi dari internet.
Dalam pergaulannya yang intens dengan komputer itulah, Oomleo menemukan suatu genre seni atau bahasa rupa yang menurutnya mencerminkan semangat jaman digital, yakni seni piksel (pixel art).Piksel adalah sekumpulan titik yang biasa kita lihat saat berhadapan dengan monitor komputer, yang muncul melalui pijaran cahaya yang dihasilkan oleh gelap-terang lampu RGB (ataupun sistim perubahan warna pada tampilan layar kristal cair / LCD). Cara pembuatan seni gambar berbasis piksel ini sangat khas dan memiliki tingkat kesulitan tersendiri. Berbeda dengan gambar dengan format vektor digital, gambar piksel mematok rancangan gambar berdasarkan ukuran-ukuran resolusi dan pembingkaian atau framing.
Karya-karya dalam bits & pix tidak saja mencerminkan prinsip estetik baru—’estetika digital’—yang lahir oleh karena teknologi komputer, tapi juga suatu bentuk adaptasi dan translasi budaya global yang didominasi oleh kepercayaan pada teknologi informasi. Dalam karya-karya Oomleo, kita tidak saja menemukan lingua franca digital, tapi juga kecakapan tangan (craftsmanship) dan simbol-simbol yang dekat dengan kehidupan kita sehari-hari. Humor dan keisengan berkelindan dengan absurditas; komposisi gambar yang serba mini, rumit, khaotik; semua itu jalin-menjalin menjadi seni piksel yang kuat dan berkarakter.
(PLATFORM3)
ENGLISH
PLATFORM3 proudly presents bits & pix, an exhibition featuring the work of Narpati Awangga, otherwise known as Oomleo. Oomleo (born in Jakarta, 8 March 1978) is a young artist who once studied in the Painting Studio of Indonesian Institute of Arts Yogyakarta. People generally recognize Oomleo’s name as a musician, designer, writer, radio DJ, MC, club DJ, travelling karaoke guide and an activits in Ruang Rupa’s artist community. Most music fans obviously would know him more popularly as a member of the electronic music group Goodnight Electric. Not many know, though, that he is an artist who has long worked on developing a unique technique and visual style.
Bits & pix is his first solo exhibition featuring pixel art, which will feature digital print and video work made by Oomleo during the past 5 years. Since he first fell in love with the ‘magical thing’ called a computer, Oomleo’s life was never far from various forms of digital culture. He admits that for the last ten years, half of his life was spent with computers. He loves computers more than any other object – he has long slept and eaten together with a computer – and is willing to do anything to support his hobby downloading various things from the internet.
It is through this intense relationship with computers Oomleo discovered an art or imagery genre which he thinks reflects the spirit of the digital age – pixel art. Pixels are the collection of dots we often see when we look at a computer monitor, caused by alternating shades of light from RGB cathode-ray tubes (or color differentiation systems on liquid crystal displays/LCDs). This pixel-based art is very unique and retains a distinct level of difficulty. Differing from other forms of vector-based digital images, pixel-based images define the picture’s plan based on resolution measurements and framing.
The work featured in bits & pix not only reflect a new aesthetic – the digital aesthetic – born from computer technology, but is also an adaptation of translating global culture dominated by trust in information technology. We not only see the digital lingua franca in Oomleo’s work, but also skillfull craftmanship and symbols close to our daily lives. Humor and cheekiness coincide with absurdity; chaotic, complicated compositions in miniature size – all of this combine and intergrate into a strong and characteristic pixel art.
Platform3
Artist’s Statement
For the last 10 years, I have spent almost half my life in front of the computer. This has never happened in the past: sitting, and looking closely at some sort of magical glass screen, observing everything happening in the world without having to turn my head, or squint, or stare. I do not have to travel, to break my back to get money, because there are so many activities that can be done without moving much of my body.
Pixels are the collection of dots that we see when we look at a computer. My pixel art work is a result of my relationship with my computer. My work is a pixelization of imagination, desire, babble, stories, dreams, and so on. It is a mediation of hardware, so that the ‘bit’ world can be felt by the ‘atoms’ of the world.
This is me, a servant of the digital world. I love the computer, more than anything.
oomleo
Article about the exhibition by Roy Voragen in Whiteboard Journal
The rain had stopped and we gathered for an opening at Platform3 on a Sunday afternoon, April 14, to see work by Narpati Awangga, who is better known as oomleo. We come to Platform3 to meet our friends (and their kids) and see art.
Three prominent curators – Rifky Effendy, Aminudin TH Siregaror and Agung Hujatnikajennong – and three successful artists – Ariadhitya Pramuhendra , Wiyoga Muhardentet and Radi Arwinda – founded Platform3 in 2010 to offer artists a platform to experiment. Each year, solo exhibitions are loosely organized around a different theme: art and postcolonialism in the first year, art and religiosity the second, and this year art and global sensibility.
The exhibitions at Platform3 are a wonderful combination of ambition and a good sense of humor. Especially the last two exhibitions attest to that. Like, the previous exhibition, by Yusuf Ismail was a witty appropriation of the history of video art (subsequently, Yusuf Ismail won the Bandung Contemporary Art Award. And oomleo took it a notch or two up on the humor scale. After all, he must have thought, why should art be a serious business? Which doesn’t mean that his works look sloppy, the artworks are all very well executed.
After having completed art school in Yogyakarta, oomleo (b.1978) returned to the city of his birth: Jakarta. And while he was trained as a painter, he got involved in the electronic music scene and he formed the group Goodnight Electric. In Jakarta, he is also active with the prolific artists’ collective ruangrupa….(read more)
http://whiteboardjournal.com/news/art-design/bits-pix-oomleo-at-platform3.html
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