Indonesia
As the culmination of the Appropriation Art course, students of the Study Programme of Fine Arts (SPFA), Faculty of Cultural Studies (FCS), Universitas Brawijaya (UB), held an art exhibition titled A&E Visual Art Exhibition 2024. The exhibition took place from Wednesday, 19 June 2024, to Friday, 21 June 2024, at the SAC Gallery, FCS UB. As implied by the course title, the works showcased were appropriation art pieces created by all students enrolled in the course.
Appropriation art is a technique that involves taking the form, elements, or style of a published work by another artist and re-expressing it using one’s own style. The exhibition featured a total of 22 works, each inspired by famous artists such as Hendra Gunawan, Edvard Munch, Raden Saleh, and others.
Each piece in the exhibition conveyed unique expressions and meanings, often communicated implicitly. For example, a work titled “FOMO” by Mochammad Dani was inspired by Edvard Munch’s famous painting “The Scream.” In the description of his work, Dani explained that he was expressing the psychological phenomenon often experienced by young people—the fear of being disengaged from the world, commonly known as FOMO (Fear of Missing Out).
The exhibition not only provided students with an opportunity to display their artworks to the public but also allowed them to sell their pieces. The e-catalogue available at the exhibition included descriptions and selling prices of the works, which ranged from Rp 700,000 to Rp 25,000,000.
In an interview, Aling Arafah El Ghufron, a student from SPFA FCS UB, shared her experience of producing her work and her journey through the Appropriation Art course. “There are many new things we learn when studying appropriation art. It’s not just about finding ideas to add to the original work, but the challenge is to maintain the techniques and perspectives of the original work to ensure a similar level of visual and technical quality,” she explained comprehensively. [trans.adhyaksa/ed.al/vidya/PR FCS]