Anti Aging
2 June - 2 July 2007
Abdi Setiawan, Agus Suwage, Anusapati, Beatrix, Christine Ay Tjoe, Eko Dydik 'Codhit', Eko Nugroho, FX Harsono, Hedi Hariyanto, 'Jompet' AG Kus Widananto, Melati Suryodarmo, Nindityo Adipurnomo, Popok Triwahyudi, S. Teddy D, Terra Bajraghosa, Cemeti Public Art
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FX Harsono, Point of Paint, 2007
Art Exhibition Project at Gaya Fusion Art Space, Ubud, Bali
In the world of cosmetics, ‘anti-aging’ is understood as an attempt to delay the process of aging, which, biologically, is most apparent on the human skin. The process of biological aging in the human body is natural and uncontainable; it can only, perhaps, be delayed. Many efforts have been made to slow the effects of aging, and new efforts are always underway: via medical means, traditional means and those using modern technology.
Biology has also revised the traditional definition of ‘aging’ by viewing it as a process of deterioration. Slightly different from the paradigm known to the world of cosmetics, the new biological paradigm takes an age-neutral viewpoint (in which ‘old’ is no worse than ‘new’) and provides anti-aging interventions that repair the worst of the damage / destruction. Some researchers in gerontology approach aging as an illness. They’ve found that certain genes affect the aging process, which, in turn, follows the basic rules of genetic modeling. Genes, and thus the aging process, can be handled, treated, and engineered by human beings. Among the genes known to affect the aging process are those belonging to the sirtuin group that significantly affects the lifespan of a living being. Examples of genes directly affecting lifespan include RAS1 and RAS2. The genes are present in a higher frequency in centenarians, revealing correlations as well as causal relationships in the aging process.
Along with the effect of genetics, diet also has a substantial effect in determining the lifespan of all life from the laboratory rat to human beings. This is particularly true in the case of a strictly controlled caloric intake of 30 to 50 percent of an individual animal’s standard capacity to consume. Meanwhile, the issue of aging populations, and the associated social effects of the increasing human lifespan, are gaining in importance around the world. Young people tend have stronger commitments to social struggles — they are driven to launch social and political changes, to adopt and develop new technologies. The middle-aged, on the other hand, have differentabilities and roles in the framework of social orders and governmental politics. They tend to uphold their distinctive values and often wield disproportionate political influence. In many countries, older people dominate voting while the young are often restricted in their right to voice their aspirations.
Age in social terms is often associated with mature thinking and the ability to control one’s emotions — a result of accumulated and refined experience, learning, reflection, planning and evaluation. At the same time, however, any demographic categorized as “old” is frequently assumed to be unproductive, with a corresponding loss in social functions and value. All these paradigms are shifting, however, as a new critical mass of natural phenomena discovered by scientists inspires and impacts the shape of thinking patterns toward some progressive reconstruction of social and cultural orders. The economic side of aging is also important. Young people and adolescents have meager financial resources of their own, but they have a significant impact on the market because their consumption habits are still in a formative stage. The 15 to 35 age-bracket is the most sought-after demographic in marketing. Unlike the world of cosmetics, many cultures do not consider aging to be a problem. Some hold old age in high regard: the older person essentially graduates to a higher stratum of life. Chinese traditional culture uses two different ways of assigning age, Xusui and Zhousui. In the Xusui method, a newborn baby is assigned the age of one year. And the Japanese tend to give more social attention and importance to the recognition of different age strata than, for example, Indonesia. In cultures developing in many nations of Western Europe, the social and emotional considerations of children and the aged are not taken to be trivial in comparison with the adolescent’s and the youth’s. Meanwhile, I’m not in the position to confidently say that the phenomenon is directly proportional with a nation’s accomplishment in restraining its population growth rate with the effect of easing inter-generational frictions and shifts. The arts, visual arts in particular, haven’t shown much response to the body of knowledge growing out of biologists’ studies of living beings’ lifespan, let alone highlighting the subject. Nevertheless, many works by artists today indirectly deal with such biological studies and findings, or even analyze them as curatorial designs. Take, for example, intense debates on critical questions around art works as material products and/or ideational products; the issue of esthetic versus artistic conser-vation; the myth to preserve the ‘masterpieces’ of modernist artists versus the myth itself as a tradition taken for granted; and discussions around fetishism as well as the belief in the ‘evergreen-ness’ of works of art. Such issues represent the source of ‘the dynamic of problems’ in art consistently intriguing and invoking new ideas. One important aspect of this dynamic is that scientific studies in the field of biology, as well as those in other disciplines, always contribute to the advancement and evolution of the human knowledge, not only in hard science, but also in the social sciences, politics, economics and culture. Art, as the smallest part of culture and in its distinctive course and mechanism, is often considered to be the embryonic form of change in the thinking of society. The simple reason is that art refers to free thinking, open-mindedness, new ideas and thoughts, auto-critiques, and profound fantasies of life. The curatorial concept of this ‘Anti Aging’ project is to provoke and motivate the embryo of new thinking that emerges in the characteristic modes of artists’ work, in line with inspirations coming from the findings of hardworking scientists. The curatorial design of this project is not confined to a narrow re-reading of the accomplished works by the participant artists. Instead, it assumes as a starting point that these fifteen artists have already been through their respective artistic and esthetic internal tussles. Having been through such internal tussles, these artists use their vital energy and fantasies to launch fresh and lively idioms to explore and experiment with notions around aging. They intelligently and accurately reflect on findings from the observations, surveys, studies and research that form their motto in life.
Abdi Setiawan, "Loro Blonyo", 2006
Christine Ay Tjoe, Human Package # 2, 2004-2007
S. Teddy Darmawan, 8 Media, 2005
Melati Suryodarmo, "Father I am Ready", 2006
Popok Triwahyudi, "Korban yang Berbahagia", 2006
Agus Suwage, "Mickey", 2003
Nindityo Adipurnomo, "Between My Daughters II", 2007
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