Sunday, October 28, 2012



Linda Sim Solay's solo exhibition Continuum of Consciousness at IFI-Bandung has been closed. The exhibition brochure can be downloaded here. The next artist-in-resident at Roma Arts will be Manila-based performance artist Jef Carnay, who will stay in Bandung in November.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

A double act voyage of shadows, luminosity and skilful play


Open publication - Free publishing - More bandung

A double act voyage of shadows, 
luminosity and skilful play 

A review by Roy Voragen

From the beginning until the end
A duet exhibition by Haryadi Suadi and Radi Arwinda
Selasar Sunaryo Art Space
Jalan Bukit Pakar Timur 100, Bandung
Curated by Agung Hujatnikajennong
Catalog can be downloaded here.

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Roma Arts presents in collaboration with Institut Français Indonesia-Bandung Continuum of Consciousness by Linda Sim Solay





Continuum of Consciousness
Linda Sim Solay
A Roma Arts production in collaboration with IFI-Bandung
Curated by Roy Voragen
Supported by Oma Anna
Opening 12 October 7pm officiated by Tisna Sanjaya
Artist talk 13 October 4pm
The exhibition runs until 25 October
Institut Français Indonesia-Bandung
http://www.institutfrancais-indonesia.com/bandung
Jl. Purnawarman no. 32, Bandung

Singapore-based, 30-year old photography and installation artist Linda Sim Solay did a one-month residency at Roma Arts, Bandung, in June, and she returns to present her work at Institut Français Indonesia-Bandung. I first met her at a seminar Roma Arts organized at Selasar Sunaryo Art Space, December 2011. During her residency, the then work-in-progress installation had the working title Samtana (a Sanskrit term for stream of consciousness). While in Bandung last June, she worked with a focus and dedication rarely seen. She tested different ways to apply glue to glasses she brought along. She made trips to Pasar Baru to find the right scent for her installation. We visited several art spaces across Bandung to find a suitable space to present her work and the black box auditorium at IFI in Bandung is the perfect match. We had meandering, long talks about ideas dear to her she wants to express through her art. And in collaboration with Institut Français Indonesia-Bandung, Roma Arts proudly presents Continuum of Conscious, Linda Sim Solay’s art installation. Her art installation consists of elaborately glued together crystal glasses, which have been in her family for generations, forming a delicate column through which light will flow from the base to the top and back (light sources and mirrors are at the top and base). The installation also involves scent and sound elements; for the sound she was assisted by sound artist Bani Haykal, whom I met at his solo exhibition at the Substation, Singapore, earlier this year. Linda Sim Solay attempts to create an open space with little sensory distraction, which – hopefully – makes our senses more focused. The space can be perceived as a continuum: there are no starting- or endpoints; light, scent and sound will continuously flow throughout the space. And a continuum transcends what can be intellectually analyzed; art, then, can go where our intellect has to halt. Our senses, the sensual, beauty too, are imminent to appreciating life in general and art in particular.  

Artist statement – Linda Sim Solay – Continuum of Consciousness
Continuum of Consciousness references the stream of mind or consciousness, and hereby the continuity of individual and collective energy over space and time. It may appear as incomprehensible to us that existence with all information contained herein may indeed be infinite, even when considering that energy does indeed remain constant. With the stream of consciousness being said to carry information and awareness of all experience independent of time, it can be seen as an indefinite pool of historical, personal and sociological sensations and their resulting knowledge and awareness. Inspired by this concept as found in various spiritual teachings, particularly in schools of Hinduism and Buddhism, the installation explores the experience of sentient awareness of continuous reality beyond faith or system of belief. It aims to embody an intimate experience of self beyond its seemingly ephemeral nature, embedding notions of universality, awareness and ultimate progress and continuous growth. The created space can be perceived as a continuum, allowing for both focus and contemplation of its personal experience, without sensory starting- or endpoints. Notably, the very nature of a continuum lies beyond intellectual analysis.
2012
~ 400x10x10cm
Glass, LED lights, sound, scented seeds
Sound: Bani Haykal

Biography Linda Sim Solay
Linda Sim is a 30-year-old Swedish-Austrian artist, currently living in Singapore. Her practice in fine art photography and installation focuses on psychological and philosophical evolutionary thematics and contemporary science. Her work is orientated around shaping audience-internal atmosphere, spiritual proximation and potential for perceptive immersion. After earning her BA in Media Arts from RMIT University Melbourne in 2005 majoring in Fine Art Photography under Dr. Les Walkling, she has exhibited extensively both in Europe and Australia in over 30 solo, collaborative and group exhibitions, and has undergone artist residencies and extensive travels to over 30 countries.  Currently studying for her MA at Lasalle College of the Arts, Singapore, Linda's research on the use of scent in contemporary art has earned her the Golden Key Asia-Pacific Postgraduate Award as well as the Lasalle Scholarship. Recently she furthermore received the GK Visual&Performing Arts Achievement Award for her previous installation "Timensions" which thematically explores current models in Quantum Physics and String Theory; developed in collaboration with the Centre for Quantum Technologies at the University of Singapore.

About Roma Arts
Roma Arts, founded in 2011, promotes passionate, ambitious and focused ways of producing, presenting, experiencing, and writing about the diverse forms of arts. Roma Arts gives keen attention to art practices, forms of presentation, experiencing the arts, and discourses on art. In 2012, Roma Arts started a residency program to foster creative person-to-person contacts.

For the e-leaflet see here.