The Evolution of Fish and Fat Statue

The transformation of visual shapes into paintings and into a series of statues depicting urban life.

How can a fish swim at one time and ends up a carcass at another? Joko ”Gundul” Sulistio-no depicted his own version of fish evolution phases through a series of paintings called ”Evolusi I” to 1 Evolusi V”. He did not adopt the Darwinian way, though. Instead, he presented an evolution of the fish’s body parts. In the series of paintings made from mixed paint materials on canvas, he started by depicting the head of a fish who watched a little blue fish swimming inside a glass jar in front of it. The fish’s head was complete with a set of eyes, fins, gills, mouths and thick scales. The fish’s head seemed to be observing the little creature swimming lightly around the jar seriously.

In ”Evolusi II”, Joko depicted a fish without tail which was sup-ported by a single beam. The fin was stabbed onto the fish’s back. On its belly was a spinning propeller like that which is used to move boats at sea or on the rivers. Joko seemed to be ”transplanting” a electrical propeller mechanism to a fish’s body. In this painting, the little fish in the glass jar was standing by below it, as if it was ready to swim.

“Evolusi III” then depicted a fish with a fan propeller tail. It was supported by two beams, enabling it to stand upright. Little fish were swimming around it. “Evolusi IV” depicted a fish being chopped by two ropes coming from above it and “Evolusi V” depicted a fish as a trade commodity. The fish was weighed and helplessly waited for someone to “co-modify” it. The co-modification separated the fish from its original habitat. Ac-cording to the exposition’s curator, Joko was describing the differences between a fish who lives free in his original habitat and a fish as a fossil.

The copper statue made by artist Putu Adi Gunawan showed figures of men and animals in various expressions. The statue titled “The Blind Man” depicted a man with a large, short body, wearing glasses and holding a cane. He was walking using his cane as guide. The statue “Kid Rock” looked more cheerful. It depicted a little child carrying a guitar on his shoulder with his father in front of him. Both were raising their hands and showed excitement and happiness, whereas “The Kiss” is a statue de-picting a kissing scene between a man and a woman.

This two-dimensional and three-dimensional art exposition clearly showed that the two ISI Yogyakarta graduates are ar-tists who keep on experimenting and creating interesting wor-ks of art.


Title of Exposition : Two Signs
Artist              : Joko Sulistiono and Putu Adi Gunawan
Curator             : Asikin Hasan
Location            : Andi’s Gallery Jakarta
Date                : Desember 10-24, 2008

TEXT AND PHOTOS ahmad nurhasim
Source: arti 13th edition, maret 2009