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| ‘Birds’ Inspires a Flight of Nostalgia |
“Birds,” a new solo exhibition by Eunice Nuh, the artist otherwise known as PinkGirlGoWild, is anything but a scary sight. In fact, the young artist clearly misses birds in the urban jungle of Jakarta.
“In my last solo exhibition [in 2010], I launched a bird character named ‘Piyiko,’ based on my longing for the presence and songs of the birds that seem to have become increasingly rare nowadays due to rapid urban development,” the artist said.
“It turns out that it has also become increasingly difficult to actually see and hear birds unless you keep them [or] have an adequately large garden.”
Piyiko is a friendly looking, lovable character, painted with a lot of swirling and forceful curves in many different colors. He’s the kind of fellow you would love to watch chirping in the trees of a park.
After creating a whole series of paintings revolving around the story of Piyiko, the artist has now taken her work to the next level. She has added more paintings of Piyiko, but used different materials than what she is traditionally known for.
For example, she made use of ink instead of oil and acrylic or vinyl rather than canvas.
The story of Piyiko has also taken on a slightly different direction. The character is no longer simply a bird whose presence the artist misses. Instead, Piyiko stands for everything we have lost and only remember as faint remnants of the past. “Piyiko is not just a character anymore.
To me, birds eventually became a symbol representing my longing to see things that have disappeared,” the artist explained. “In this exhibition, the birds constitute faceless beauty, representing the identity that has disappeared and one that I miss.”
The idea of diving deeper into the world of birds came to her when she stumbled upon a CD in a record store that contained nothing but the chirping of birds. It was being sold for just Rp 10,000 ($1.20).
“Picture that,” she said. “How such a natural process, such honesty and beauty, can be purchased and packaged in the form of a CD, while we know that nothing can take the place of birds.”
The incident made her realize that birds are something magical, even mythical — a metaphor for freedom.
Personally, she added, she sees birds as a symbol for values such as sincerity, honesty and simplicity.
“The things that are increasingly difficult to find, to have and to value today,” she said. “With the ‘Birds’ exhibition, I hope I am able to convey my restlessness regarding the things that I miss, the simple but beautiful things, [like] looking at a little sparrow, twittering and hopping around in the garden, even if only for five seconds.”
The exhibition seems to match the artist’s personality: rather small and humble, but at the same time enchanting and charming.
While some of her paintings perfectly convey the artist’s idea of longing for all things lost, radiating melancholy and a hidden sense of sadness, other works also speak of hope and cheerfulness, as if she wanted to remind the visitors to the exhibition that there is still beauty in life.
A series of three paintings called “Creation” is close to the artist’s heart and represents a phase in her life in which she struggled to overcome personal problems.
“It’s my own story of personal loss and regaining hope again in the end,” she said. “Birds” gives visitors a rare glimpse into the artist’s sensitive soul.
She is not afraid to lay bare her vulnerability, as long as we are still capable of hearing her bird song that tells of beauty, joy and hope. x xArtist PinkGirlGoWild uses birds to symbolize things that have been lost in her latest exhibition.
Solo exhibition by PinkGirlGoWild Until Sept. 11 Inkubator at Forme Building Jl. Wijaya 1 No. 39 South Jakarta Tel: 021 7278 8242‘In this exhibition, the birds constitute faceless beauty’ PinkGirlGoWild, artist
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