In The Beginning

“I see things around me constantly, like a shadow observer”
Ay Tjoe Christine

The Indonesian artist Ay Tjoe Christine works in a variety of mediums including installation, sculpture, photography, but it is her painting, according to the Sotheby’s Auction House, that has excited international interest. As they stated in a 2014 Auction Catalogue,” it is the latter [painting] that has garnered the artist international acclaim, placing her amongst Indonesia’s fast growing group of young artists who are redefining the country’s contemporary art scene. Her abstract paintings may be viewed as an existential analysis of the subconscious, a pairing of ego and mind to unveil the inner workings of her psyche.”

Ay Tjoe’s painting grew out of love of dry point etching, the printing technique that has drawing as it emphasis which is still evident in her painting today. As she told the Luxury Insider Magazine “Some art disciplines such as sculpture, painting and printmaking require a lot of patience and tenacity. My earlier works were dry point etchings, because I like the immediacy of translating my ideas simply by drawing with needles on a copper plate and printing straight away. Then I explored with different materials and methods, and learnt patience.”

It was this immediacy of expression that led Ay Tjoe into the practice of fine art whilst studying at the Bandung Institute of Technology. As the Jakarta Post’s Carla Bianpoen tells the apocryphal story “in her first year at school where she majored in graphic art, she thought she would never make it. But instead of quitting, she silently kept her frustrations to herself. She was lucky that she was noted by a well-meaning senior at school who saw her talents. But it was only by triggering her fury through grave offense that he succeeded in having her spill out her emotions in works that were to be the beginning of her artistic career.”

Over the years Ay Tjoe’s work has grown to include an exploration of the issues that confront the spectators of her work and offers her personal reading for their contemplation.

As the Sotheby’s catalogue states, “A person’s mind knows no limits, with the imagination the only authority, and it can be implied that Christine’s paintings are a visual exploration of that world. Throughout her oeuvre, the artist uses herself as a guide to reveal the mysteries hidden within every individual.”

Or as Ay Tjoe has said “I’m very concerned about the universal human experience in this age of globalization and fast-paced living, and I try to explore these conceptual dialogues in my artwork.” 

Tjoe’s current exhibition Perfect Imperfection is on show at Korea’s SongEun Art Space until the 20th of June.