UK International Ceramics Festival 2011

Artwork Concept for Demonstration:
"Terracotta Ceramic Mask Dance of Human Face Characters"
UK International Ceramics Festival
by Ponimin Indonesia


 In Aberystwyth, I plan to perform a ceramic Mask Dance and Ceramic Music Instrument Playing. The dance came from philosophy about the true characteristic of human. Human has different attitude which reflected in his/her face. Anger, happiness, sadness, calm, wisdom, and patient.

There are some good characters and there are bad characters. These characters I would like to present by ceramic Mask Dance. Indonesia has philosophy which showed relation between human and soil, the major material which composed ceramic.

The Concept of ’CEREMONIAL OF HAVING MEALS WITH UPSIDE DOWN YELLOW RICE CONE'

On September 2010, I've got a chance to follow an International Exhibition in Jakarta which involved many foreign ceramic artist. Here I exhibited my artwork titled: ’CEREMONIAL OF HAVING MEALS WITH UPSIDE DOWN YELLOW RICE CONE'
The event run well, and I was so grateful for many attention given to my artwork from the audiences at that time.

The Concept of ’CEREMONIAL OF HAVING MEALS WITH UPSIDE DOWN YELLOW RICE CONE'

Indonesia is rich of various and meaningful local culture. From this country, there are so many inspiration sources for meaningful latest aesthetic expression. Also local culture “kenduri tumpeng” (ceremonial of having meals with rice cone – dining in togetherness). In this cultural process, a group of people have meals together with yellow rice cone. The yellow rice cone has tremendous symbolical meaning. It teaches glory, relation between macrocosmos and microcosmos. In ceremonial of having meals with yellow cone

2010 2nd International Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary Teapot Art

At April 27-29 2010, Shanghaitrg, an art institution invited me to an Exhibition titled "2010 2nd International Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary Teapot Art". Although there were some internal conflict on the Exhibition, thank God everything was running well, and I was given chance to exhibit my artwork, "TIGER FACED THE LIFE CHALLENGE" and "FLYING HIGH WITH EAGLE TO REACH LOVE"

Here are the complete concept of my artwork:
1. "TIGER FACED THE LIFE CHALLENGE"

Human life this year got more complex and competitive. We are faced to life competition which needs strength, tenacity with care. There needed patience, carefulness, and strength to face the competition. In order to make fortune and safety always belong to us, in this metal tiger year, we should increase the power by drinking holy water or tea water from the tiger teapot figure. Teapot with tiger figure which seemed to jump represent symbol of human fight to face a challenge. The tea from the teapot represented a symbol of holy water which gave strength to face challenges in this more complexes life.

05 Becoming a Wealthy Traditional Artist - Basic Knowledge in Our Field

Artists or Ceramic Artists should owe Basic Knowledge in their field. The Exploration and elaboration of the basic skill would make the artist special...
I think I have to write about it since in this information era, somebody could get a benefit from a field which he/she didn't master it well. Without strong basic knowledge, I agree that somebody might be able to make profit from certain field. But, just like a building without a strong foundation, it could be collapsed at any time.
As a ceramic artist, we should know the origin of ceramic, basic skill to shape ceramic, philosophy of ceramic, etc. It might take years to learn, but I'm sure that different learning method would create different result. No wasting time in learning.

Jinan 7th International Expo 2009 - Culture Park for Culture Exchange

In July 26th to 30th 2009 I followed an activity abroad, that was in Jinan Province – China. I was a design supervision/consultant to give advice for park as East java Participation in 7th China International Garden and Flower Expo Event. My participation in the program was to fulfill the invitation from China Government to East Java Province for the program participation.
About March, Jinan Province through Jinan Mayor with the Committee came to Surabaya offered the program to East Java Province. Next, East Java Government appointed Batu City Government to choose Park Designer also presented it in front of committee in Jinan, Meeting Public HallEast Java Province Office.

Why Should be a Registration Fee in Great Art Event?

If you read this posting, I beg your pardon since I didn’t mean to offend any institution. I just want to state something I have in mind and also some international artists who had intention to follow SERES’09 event in Eskisehir. I read some statements written by the artists which in general they were surprised about registration fee in SERES ’09.
From my experiences in following several international events, I never found any registration fee to follow the events. Some strict terms and conditions for me were good to assure the competency of the event, and I could accept them with some negotiation in here and there. In my opinion, the registration fee would make the ‘sacred’ event would seem commercial and reduced the quality of the event since skilful artists with bad financial condition certainly would find hard-way to follow the event, moreover if you needed 300 euros to follow the event (If I’m not wrong, the registration fee for SERES’09 is 300 euros). Wouldn’t it a great loss for the event?

04 Becoming a Wealthy Traditional Artist - Vision and Action

You might hear before. Vision and Action. Both of those terms should run together. In art, making creation without vision would be messy. In the contrary, vision without any action would be a daydreaming. Nothing happened. So, to be successful ceramic artist, you have to apply both, vision and action. I would give a description about applying both terms.
1. Vision
In making artwork, the most difficult part for me was finding the clear vision about what kind of artwork I would make. Here I considered all aspect, starting from theme, material, and process. When I got idea about making certain artwork, I kept it in my mind, I considered all things related to the idea. Just say I want to make a ceramic statue. I would imagine the philosophy behind the statue, how I express the philosophy into the statue’s form. I imagined how the looks, expression, signs in the statue that could represent the philosophy, etc. Then I tried to build the statue in my imagination. What material it would be formed, how it would be seemed, how the process to make it come true. I imagined it so strong so that I felt that I could touch the artwork, felt it textures, smell it, and watched the color very clear. This is really important process. It’s true that some people said that everything was created twice – once in mind and second in reality. When I found the clear vision about the artwork I would be made, I started to take action.