Subsume

Subsume
Restu Ratnaningtyas
Dates: April 8-May 6, 2017
Opening Reception: April 22 6-8PM

Baik Art presents Subsume, the first solo exhibition for the Indonesian-born artist Restu Ratnaningtyas in the United States. Her works have been exhibited primarily in Indonesia, but also in Art Gwangju in Korea, Arter in Istanbul, National Museum in Jakarta, and Newsagency Gallery in Sydney Australia, among others. Ratnaningtyas’ very personal art practice centers around making hyperrealistic depictions of everyday objects that play simple but vital roles in our lives as humans. She asks us, specifically, to consider the phenomenon of comfort-seeking. Blankets serve as both physical and metaphorical warmth in her works to symbolize the feeling of seeking comfort as we find ourselves isolated and protected, simultaneously.
Ratnaningtyas’ work brings into question whether human casualties come in a form similar to the figures she depicts. She engages her audience to consider how much time they devote to helping those they love. It seems that we must somehow manage to do both and everything - impact ourselves while impacting others. Or, in other words, we must seek happiness for ourselves while also avoiding crushing the happiness of others who might pile up in a gesture of assistance.
Living, therefore, appears to be a fragile balancing act. We embark on our journeys for self-fulfillment while attempting to cause as little harm as possible. On these journeys, we seek warmth through objects that both isolate us and protect us, feeling a constant push and pull between putting on clothing for protection, and stripping it bare off our bodies, all the while, allowing the world to flood us with ideas, voices, sounds, and new perspectives.
Ultimately, we can embrace this fluctuation between moments when we are present in the world around us and when we are present in the world inside our own heads because both types of moments are vital to the human condition. The artist propels us into a point of engagement and reflection that sits at the crux of this great human paradox.