Language
The Sovereign of Mount Merapi
Mariyanto - Layered Lines, Weight of Memory
These large works by Indonesian artist Mariyanto capture myths and memories centered on active volcano "Merapi" in central Java. Growing up experiencing oppression and economic instability, these historical traces deeply underlie his works.
Composed of four large charcoal canvases exceeding 2 meters each, Mariyanto uses traditional techniques similar to ink painting but brings "sgraffito" technique—scraping and carving surfaces.
This is "act of revealing memory," visualizing time-made traces like wounded geological layers. Delicate yet resolute lines, rough yet delicate textures contain destruction and regeneration sensations.
His sculptural language critically visualizes Southeast Asia's geographical conditions, colonial history, and resource extraction realities. "Collectors" and "extractors" symbolize those preserving memory versus exploiting resources.
Black-white contrast shows boundaries where oppression and resistance, silence and outcry, forgetting and memory cross, providing artistic reflection on environmental destruction and social inequality.
Responding to biennale theme "Neighbors of Civilizations," he inscribes today's unbalanced reality on traditional ink painting format, crossing boundaries between past and present, East and Southeast Asia.
Southeast Asian solidarity sharing geological conditions and colonial experience expands through this work into sympathetic resonance between civilizations.
Composed of four large charcoal canvases exceeding 2 meters each, Mariyanto uses traditional techniques similar to ink painting but brings "sgraffito" technique—scraping and carving surfaces.
This is "act of revealing memory," visualizing time-made traces like wounded geological layers. Delicate yet resolute lines, rough yet delicate textures contain destruction and regeneration sensations.
His sculptural language critically visualizes Southeast Asia's geographical conditions, colonial history, and resource extraction realities. "Collectors" and "extractors" symbolize those preserving memory versus exploiting resources.
Black-white contrast shows boundaries where oppression and resistance, silence and outcry, forgetting and memory cross, providing artistic reflection on environmental destruction and social inequality.
Responding to biennale theme "Neighbors of Civilizations," he inscribes today's unbalanced reality on traditional ink painting format, crossing boundaries between past and present, East and Southeast Asia.
Southeast Asian solidarity sharing geological conditions and colonial experience expands through this work into sympathetic resonance between civilizations.