Exhibition

REFUSE 'Garbage Evolution"

Solo Exhibition by Widodo kabutdo

Refuse ~ Garbage Evolution

by: Widodo Kabutdo

translate by: Denise Payne

Garbage has become an issue, and now is an alternative material for Art Media.

This exhibition is a contemplation process of creativity. Where, as human

... beings, we can refuse, or reject, garbage ~ Nature, in her own way, refuses it

through disease and disaster.

THE INFLUENCE

I have gone to places outside of Bali, and have intimately seen the disaster

that has happened. The garbage intuitively touched me to contemplate this

disaster, and to widely explore the sense of creativity. Specifically, in 2005,

when I lived near Cimahi, West Java, I witnessed the garbage erosion as it

buried homes and killed people. At this moment, as I observed what was

happening around me, I felt the garbage hurting all of us deeply.

Most of us identify garbage as dirty, useless, disgusting and repugnant, holding

only negative value. It intimidates. It carries connotation of disease,

disaster, and profound environmental impacts.

However, we are intricately linked to this waste we create, as well as linked to

all of its impacts. From consumption to waste, can we be more conscious about

the garbage we create? Can we become active global citizens, responsible for

where this garbage is going?

What I believe, and what I want to share, is that we must work closely in

collaboration with all people to create awareness and to begin a process that

educates and creates balance and sustainability for our Earth.

THE PROCESS CONCEPT

Non Organic garbage comes to me in many ways, everyday. I began to see the

possibilities of this garbage as a work concept. To take garbage to my studio,

I believe that something with no value can be transformed into something of

great value. An Art Work. Here, this artwork conjures phenomenal and

transformational possibilities.

The intention with this conceptual approach is to invoke a ‘wake up call’.

Perhaps shock therapy for the soul? To take forward into awareness the process

to create ~ to assist Nature, of which none of us can be without, to stay in

balance and stabilize the ecosystem of our planet.

THE PUBLIC SPACE To become THE PUBLIC ART SPACE

The Public Space is a concept to show Art Works in response to, and to

communicate widely to the public, an appreciation of art expression by the

artist themselves.

This area of Banjar Ambengan –Peliatan Ubud, was once the most heavily littered

areas in Ubud. With great effort by the banjar, the artists, the garbage

collectors, and you, our hope is to educate our community about the effects of

organic and non-organic trash in our streets, our rivers and canals, our land.

To come together, without judgment ~ only to share and build ideas about

education and solutions.

THE VISION

Through art, our vision is to change our thoughts about garbage, our ideas about

consumption, our feelings about choice, and our beliefs about responsibility.

To realize that we must work together as one, as well as realize our individual

roles in this process of solution. With this in mind we can begin to avoid this

issue less, and move closer to change, and begin to see the beauty in all

things.