PRESENTATION: Christine Ay Tjoe-Lesser Numerator
In her expressionist paintings, works on paper, and sculptures Indonesian contemporary artist Christine Ay Tjoe explores the human condition and its desires as well as the interconnectivity of humanity and nature. Having studied painting at the Bandung Institute of Technology, graduating in 1997, she began her career as a graphic artist, working with intaglio dry point prints and drawing inspiration from the plant life in her surroundings.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: White Cube Gallery Archive
Christine Ay Tjoe presents her solo exhibition “Lesser Numerator” with works that address themes of philosophy and spirituality, attempting to connect with our most powerful emotions and deep psychological fears. In her delicate works, Ay Tjoe aims to create various sensory experiences depending on how the viewer chooses to interpret the color, form, and movement. She embraces the emergence of characters or creatures that form spontaneously in her paintings, using them as representatives for forces of authority and higher beings. Her works are a reflection of her inner thoughts and happenings in her personal life. Ay Tjoe is one of the thriving female artists from the 90s generation who works in conventional mediums such as painting and printmaking. As a graduate of the Bandung Institute of Technology, she studied various art techniques, including intaglio printing and graphic arts. She began her career specialising in printmaking, later exploring intaglio drypoint prints, woodcuts, and textiles. The process of drawing is the essence of her works; she treats every medium as paper and pencil, as stated by Ay Tjoe in her interview with the Studio International. Having explored various art techniques to express herself on a larger scale, Ay Tjoe transitioned from drypoint on a paper to oil bar on canvas, which has now become her signature medium. Derived from Southeast Asia’s cultural diversity and ethnic background, the artist’s works explore themes based on Christian narratives and spiritual concepts, emphasizing human imperfections and duality. Her works are synonymous with the presence of strong lines, showing flawed figurative objects that are intensely abstracted. She uses the brushstroke technique in presenting rough to smooth transitions to breaking into harmony. Through layered abstract imagery, Ay Tjoe expresses human emotions such as melancholy, struggle, pain, and happiness, depicted from clusters of color throughout the images; She balances positive and negative space and color to illustrate the interconnectivity of humanity and nature. From 2010 onwards, the color in her paintings gradually shifted from primarily muted and washed-out earth tones to bright hues of rose, pale pink, vermillion, ochre, and rich brown, giving her compositions a more intimate feel. A prime example is in the painting “The Curious Hole” which depicts a potent sense of a beginning – a delicate interpretation of the exhilaration of birth and the fragility of newborn life – created during a special period when her first child was born. In the painting “The Workers” Ay Tjoe uses the intaglio drypoint technique and experiments with line architecture and form to enact each stroke with whimsy and improvisation. For direct engagement with the piece, she uses her hands and rubs the rough lines with her own palms to create a profound mix of color fields. “The Workers” conveys a sensation of polar opposites between loneliness and joy, most dramatically with black and white compositions. Through this painting, Ay Tjoe describes the significance of teamwork and partnership, the value of love, giving, and working together to create a world of kindness, faith, hope, and love.
Photo: Christine Ay Tjoe, Greed and Greed 2 2016, Oil on canvas, Diptych: 200 x 340 cm | 78 3/4 x 133 7/8 in., © Christine Ay Tjoe, Courtesy the artist and White Cube Gallery
Info: White Cube Gallery, 25 – 26 Mason’s Yard, London, United Kingdom, Duration: 17/11/2023-13/1/2024, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-18:00, www.whitecube.com/
