Christine Ay Tjoe

Private Collection, Singapore

Taipei, The Path Less Found, Michael Ku Gallery, June 16 - July 29, 2012

The Path Less Found, Michael Ku Gallery, 2012, color illustration

This work is in good overall condition as viewed. Framed, under Plexiglass.
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Christine Ay Tjoe is a key figure in Indonesia’s contemporary art scene, and one of the most celebrated female artists in the country. Her oeuvre consists of dry-point technique, sculpture, mixed media and painting. The latter are largely intimate depictions of her psyche. Akin with a diarist who recounts their memories daily, the abstract paintings reflect key moments in her life that have influenced her way of being. For the audience the relationship with her paintings involves all aspects of the pendulum, from enigmatic dream-like compositions to slightly voyeuristic depictions of fleshed out forms. To group the works together is to reveal an individual whose personal history has established her oeuvre to be a complex visual history of her own self-identity.

The artist has a very special attachment to colors in her paintings. The present work When It Is the Only Path of Going Home is a continuation of such themes in her artistic autobiography. Certain hues can feature prominently in the artworks, before finding another color that better reflects her emotions and desires for that given period. There are a few colors that continue to reverberate and hold sway amidst the other hues that accentuate the compositions. The color red is a frequent presence throughout her oeuvre. Similar to a piece of thread that ties everything together, the color red symbolizes the artist’s self within the paintings, anchoring the abstract narratives into a familiar context that establishes a dialogue between the artist and her audience.

When It Is the Only Path of Going Home was created when the artist was pregnant with her first child. The composition is a nebulas of colors layered upon one another, each one pulsating with their own vibrant spirit. In the painting, Ay Tjoe has chosen to place the color red in the heart of the composition, thereby complimenting the clean starkness of the white amidst the cooler arrival of the blues and greens that fringe the edges of the work. The parts of the canvas that remain untouched are quiet moments of repose within the symphony of colors. The works created a few years before When It Is the Only Path of Going Home, as well as after, continued to find their voice in various tones of the color red, either completely covering the canvas with scarlet brushstrokes that seemingly overwhelmed the audience’s perception, or as brief shadows of crimson hiding beneath more dominant and darker hues. In the present work, the color’s significance has again evolved to underline a particular moment in her life.

Though she uses her own experiences as a catalyst for artistic expression, When It Is the Only Path of Going Home demonstrates a very special time in her life. There is a slight shift in mood that is different from her past works, a sense of a beginning that instills a positive quietude in the present painting. A swirling formation of red and white hues governs the central part of the composition, alluding perhaps to a path or tunnel that is running across the painting.  This visual imagery references classical archetypes of the prodigal son returning home, or finding what was thought to be lost, as well as the notion that the way to happiness is by going forward. When It Is the Only Path of Going Home succeeds in communicating Ay Tjoe’s excitement of approaching motherhood. The expansive composition that seeks to envelope the audience with its welcoming mass of colors and forms is an extension of the artist’s state of mind as she anticipates what the future will hold for her.

The joy that is being expressed in When It Is the Only Path of Going Home transcends the physical properties of the painting. Her sense of self has been reshaped by the presence of her child, and so her relationship with painting has also been redefined to mirror these changes. Home may be seen as an abstract concept, and thereby malleable in definition. As per the title of the painting, the artist is conceptualizing the meaning of home, and the personal understanding of what this term implies for herself as a woman and an expecting mother. It is a personal journey that she has shared with the audience, and they in turn understand the intimacy of the moment with which they have been entrusted.