Geoffrey Tjakra (Chai Ye Liang)
MFA in Studio Arts (Ceramics) Terminal Degree from California State University, Los Angeles, CA, June 2007
BFA in Visual Arts (Sculpture) from Rutgers University, Mason Gross School of Arts, NJ, June 1994

ARTIST STATEMENT

My work is derived from the postmodern idea of pluralism. In a pluralist world, there is no one superior culture, religion, or political system that we should abide to, thus giving me freedom to create my own culture, religion, or political system. In other words, every person becomes empowered with the potential to create his/her own reality. And since there is no one reality, all things become hyperrealities created by an individual human being or groups of human beings using their particular biases and beliefs.

This premise of hyperreality was originally brought up by Umberto Eco (1987) and was defined as culturally specific situations in which the copy comes first. Additionally, Jean Baudrillard  (1983) explained hyperreality as a more general contemporary condition in which both representation and reality have been displaced by simulacra-defined as copies without originals. Hence, a world without origins opens a Pandora’s box of unlimited potential to create any world.

I am questioning the current society that we are living in. Who decides that the biases, beliefs and political systems-the ones that are created by the dominant group of people-are necessarily the most beneficial culture for everybody else? Can a person say that one thing is better than another thing, for another person? I am asking if their system is necessarily better than mine? Are you superior than I am? I am questioning this reality, by making my own reality. My created culture is not a superior culture, and it is no more or less inferior than your created culture.

What if society made you believes that your reality is only a fantasy-but in fact the reality that the society believes in is also a fantasy. Furthermore, all fantasies are hyperreality. And there is no one reality! As the artist, I become the ultimate creator of a world that is wholly mine, and mine only. I now possess the unlimited freedom to create art that reflects the unique reality that is I; based wholly and entirely on my personal biases, likes, dislikes, beliefs, education, surroundings, upbringing, experiences, race and culture. Indeed one as individualistic as my singularly unique set of biological genes.

Thus in my hyperreality, and my work, the simplest of my daily habits becomes the inspiration for something profound. I am making ceremonial utensils, spoons and bowls for eating ice-cream that is comparable to the ceremonial vessels of the Mayan culture, because there is No hierarchy in importance between different cultures and races! My ceremony of eating ice cream is just as important as the bloodletting ceremony of the Mayan or Aztecs; the paintings I did in kindergarten are just as important as Picasso’s or Rembrandt’s paintings; my sculptures are just as valuable as Henry Moore’s or Charles Ray’s! I become my own culture, god, religion, and civilization. I am my own kingdom, my own temple; with my own artifacts, ceremonials utensils, icons and idols and all!

I am exploring the possibilities of creating my own significant artifacts of effigies and idols. I am creating my kingdom’s fertility effigies. Artifacts that deal with human spirits, relationship issues and human conditions, by metaphorically comparing the techniques of handling the clay, and the clay’s own physical properties and it’s interaction with fire and temperature; to that of the interactions between human to human. So the effigies created became icons of my observation of the dynamics of the human perseverance, spirits, relationships, and fetishes.

Thus I attempt to question the definition of what is valuable art in a postmodern era? How can one creation be superior or more valuable than something else? Who decides? You? Me? Why? Or should judgment be passed at all? If there is no one reality which produces a set of standards to aspire to, be measured by, be judged against, what then are the limits of my creations? Are there any limits?

Biography

Geoffrey Tjakra (read “chuck-ra”) was born in Jakarta, Indonesia in 1973.He began drawing as soon as he was old enough to hold a pencil, and has been drawing ever since. His love for art grew as he matured. He is an avid traveler – when he was ten, he traveled all over Europe with his family. High-schooled in Singapore, received a BFA (visual arts/sculptures) from Rutgers University in New Jersey, and studied traditional clay sculpting in Taiwan and China (post-BFA).  These diverse environments influenced the diverse range of his art study and art making. His expressive interests include drawing & painting, jewelry design, sculptures in clay & bronze to video. The richness of cultures he has experienced is clearly reflected in the organic yet ethereal personalities of his figurines. Most recently he pursued formal studies in ceramics – for the past four years with Prof.Neil Moss in El Camino College; and he recently received his MFA in studio arts (ceramics) from California State University, Los Angeles, mentored by Prof.Luis Bermudez. He lives with his loving wife Ling, and their amazingly adorable baby girl, Eva Zen Tjakra.

My Inspirations

Growing up in Indonesia, the archipelago of 16,000 islands, with hundreds of cultures and a rich diversity of different races -- often living in harmony – has lead me to be intrigued by people. It poses the question, why are we so different in so many ways, yet essentially the same? This was the beginning of my artistic inspiration, since I can remember.

My formal education in the United States, the melting pot of western civilization, brings to my art catalytic diversity. I fuse my eastern instincts within a western structure. I deconstruct the human figure into its individual parts; i.e.: body, arm, hands, legs, feet, head, face, eyes, nose, mouth, and ears, to become my visual vocabulary.  The concepts of fantasy, politics, religions, life, love, sexuality, and suffering – become my metaphors. And the result of juxtaposing these concepts within the surrealistic architectural landscape of my imagination became my discourse.

I infuse that which I find interesting into my representations of people, always transforming them. I often imbue my people with horror, beauty or both. I inject my simplified forms with fantasy, inspired by my fading memories, thus abstracting them. I try to push the boundaries of figurative sculptures.

Similar to actors on a movie set, each of my figures is assigned a role. They fill a lead or supporting role in order to convey a viewpoint, criticism, or observation I’ve made. Some figures may be used within different sets to play different roles.

Working in ceramics lends to sculptures the removal of certain boundaries.  The plasticity of clay, its ability to be an additive as well as a reductive medium both physically and mentally, enable smooth adaptations of the subjects I’m interested in conveying. The clay medium free my hearts eastern instincts and wisdom, as well as my minds western intellect and logic, and this allow me to tell my unique stories in distinct ways.

I have a need to create. In the night I dream, in the morning I do. I find inspiration in anything and everything, from the mundane to the extraordinary. Faces especially captivate me – six-and-a-half billion – all diverse yet commonly and undeniably human. Like the numerous nuances a face can emote, I too enjoy the fluidly shifting expressions of my art, from a symbolist to a purist to a stylist – like mood swings. Art to me is more than the creative act; it is a state of being. Always changing, always growing, always exciting, always creating, always true, always extraordinary, always learning, always teaching, always inspired, always inspiring, every hour of every day – till the day my art is canonized for posterity… or so I dream!

Education/ Teaching Experience

Selected Exhibitions

Gallery Consignment

Xiem Clay Center, Pasadena, CA
The Hive Gallery & Studio, Los Angeles, CA
RedDot, Los Angeles, CA

Collections

Numerous domestic and international private collectors

Video production

Playing With Clay: Face Pots by Geoffrey Tjakra
(In the collection of American Ceramic Society Design Chapter-Southern California Section Video Library)

Publication

500 Animals in Clay, Lark Books – © 2006. Page 387