Bukan Lalu Bukan Datang

Bukan Lalu Bukan Datang (No Past, No Future)

Installation consisting; 365nm Fluorescent blacklight, paper, needles, woodenboard, video Projection, sound.

2021

The blue sky in the work is related to the days of the pandemic, when I really missed being outdoors. I imagined how to cut the sky (from outside) and then bring it home (to the inside). Even the sky  is not real, but what humans have now is only imagination, and we can still go on adventures, looking for things that are invisible, to feel present there. This work is a serenity while gazing at the sky, but mixed with regret for the past and fear and anxiety about what lies ahead in the uncertainty of the future. Space and time seem to repeat itself, who and what is right (real) or wrong (fake) are blurry.

The work is composed of cut sheets of white paper, pinned on blackboard using needles, illuminated by 365nm UV blacklights. The paper produces blue color, and the silhouette helps us perceive the cuttings as a clear blue sky, the paper then projected with moving images of moving clouds.

As a material, paper has an important role in human civilization, now in the age of paperless (digital screen), its function is also uncertain in the future. For me, a sheet of white paper is also a screen, a window to information or knowledge. In this work the papers also applied as (screen) projection media as in a cinema, home or office meeting room, but more intimate.

Blue colour commonly used for manipulation in screen media post-production, in the visual effects industry (chroma key), and also used as a “no signal” on digital monitors or “blue Screen of death” in computers. It’s a state of emptiness just like the clear blue sky. Right after the blue screen is filled by an image, we perceive it as ‘real’, the same as the silhouette from the cuttings, it creates an illusion that we perceive or believe as outdoor structures.