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RINGKASAN

The Circus of Life: Constellation of Body Moves, Emotions, Energy
and Lines on Canvas by Taher Jaoui

Written by Gatari Surya Kusuma

The ten works presented in this exhibition are inspired from a circus  performance. In the circus, the underlying beauty comes from surprises.  Even though people might have seen it more than once, performances with such an attractive movement and speed always allow the presence of unexpected things. Take for example when a performer jumps from one ring to another at high speed. As the audience, we already know that the performer will reach the final point eventually. However, due to the high speed and the equipment’s being possibly fragile, the audience is  provided with chances to be speculative about the unfavorable events. In case such unfavorable events are about to happen, the performers have  the right to improvise instinctively for their safety.


The circus performance is an analogy representing the way Taher sees,  feels, and responds to how his world operates. He realizes that the  unexpected will keep happening. However, the slight optimism will manage to sneak in among despair or feeling of uncertainty. For instance, at  the time I typed this writing, Taher had just gone through a crisis due to COVID-19 pandemic that caused him some restrictions. He is very adaptive and quick in finding ways to fit in. Even in his solitude, he gets by through quickly adapting to current situations and putting no restriction around his intuition.


It is the same as when Taher follows his feelings, emotions, and intuition  while drawing lines and stroking colors on canvas. He manages to put  his feelings, emotions, intuition, and senses in the balance in order to  respond to things happening outside himself and eventually transform  them into dynamic lines and colors on canvas. As I have mentioned  earlier, his lines work in a way that is full of surprises. As the  audience, it will remain a challenge for us to guess where Taher will  end the lines and start other lines at different points.

KARYA

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