Lot 61

One East Asia, Singapore 2013
The Mainland Collection, Melbourne

Squaring the Circle, One East Asia, London, 30 October - 16 November 2013
"Yudi Sulistyo's most recent sculpture Rumah (Home) is hard-edged and bullish. While is a departure from his usual oeuvre of replicating war machinery and military equipment using the unlikeliest of materials - cardboard and recyclables - he maintains his characteristic exactitude in producing hyper-realistic objects. The difference Is in the subject matter, which has changes to 'dilapidated wooden houses' of both the indigenous poor and the immigrants who eke out of a living big city. The centrepiece of the sculpture is a miniature model of wooden houses hazardously stacked to form an eight-storey tower. This ominous building is encased within a cylindrical rocket head ready to be launched.

In Yudi's explanatory notes, he writes of people moving into the cities in the search for 'jobs that would hopefully 'rocket' them to a better life', yet the reality on the ground is stark: even finding shelter in a 'simple and poorly built' houses is considered to be a great comfort. The gulf between the rich and poor in Indonesia is startling: makeshift home shelters are found side by side with luxurious modern bungalows. The sculptor takes the economically deprived and socially disenfranchised and equips them with a rocket in the hope of launching them out of their poverty, away from their societal displacement." (exhibition statement)