Samsul Arifin's story is a story of a restless soul. He told me about the many things that have affected his life and added colors to it, since he began to be interested in paintings until today, when he works on his visual creations involving many things and objects. Samsul had always been very much interested in art. His journey in the art world, however, had not been smooth. He started out in Malang, but the town could not facilitate his artistic aspirations and idealism. Eventually he moved to Yogyakarta to study art at the SMSR (the Secondary School for Visual Arts). Now he continues his study at the department of painting of ISI, Yogyakarta. He chooses to create installation works as the outlet for his artistic endeavors, although sometimes he feels that some people do not approve of this choice.

Samsul's departure to installation artworks was triggered by several exhibitions at the Cemeti Gallery (now the Cemeti Art House), a gallery that often displayed contemporary visual arts. The experience in viewing and watching installation projects and performance arts gave him new visual vocabularies. The room he now rents near his school also functions as his studio. The room-cum-studio is teeming with paintings added with cotton and clothes that he has made himself. He works diligently on the objects for his works and carefully sews the clothes for his performance art. "Artists must strip themselves bare," he states as he talks about his work for this biennale, Kasur Image (Mattress Image). The mattress for him is the symbol of the disappearance of ethics, norms, and good manners. One is free to do anything on the mattress: think, fantasize, dream, complain, sleep, imagine things, or be naked. Samsul sees this as a symbol for the artists who are free to express anything, a symbol for the absence of rules and tendencies. For him, the mattress is also a symbol for the attitude of not taking sides.

Kasur Image takes the form of a bed with 400 dolls made of clothes and cotton. The dolls are piling up upon each other, following the contours of the mattress. Samsul has the bed specially made, taking up one full month. The installation fits Samsul's restless spirit, which continually questions his own art world. He keeps questioning about the freedom and the limitation of an artist, about art that is ideally free from any tendency.

Samsul's works generally tells of morality and ethics, which he continually questions. As one of the artists who begin their career in the year 2000, like his predecessors, Samsul practices the freedom of choosing his artistic media. He presents Kasur Image as a metaphor for the social realm of the contemporary art. It represents a statement and an ode from Samsul to his fellow artists.

A. Sudjud Dartanto

Born on March 5, 1979.
Studies at Indonesia Institute of The Arts (ISI), Yogyakarta.

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
1998 Yogyakarta Arts Festival X, Vredeburg Fortress Museum, Yogyakarta.
1999 Art Centre, Bali; Group Exhibition of the KOSONG, Vredeburg Fortress Museum, Yogyakarta; "Chaos", Merdeka City Center, Malang, East Java.
2000 Group Exhibition of the KOSONG, Vredeburg Fortress Museum, Yogyakarta.
2001 Yogyakarta Arts Festival XIII, Vredeburg Fortress Museum, Yogyakarta; Indonesia Arts Festival, Indonesia Arts Academy (STSI) Padang Panjang, West Sumatera; Group Exibition of the KERETA, ISI Yogyakarta.
2002 Group Exhibition of the Sri Wahyuni, Gelaran Budaya Art Centre, Yogyakarta; Group Exhibition of the KAMAR KECIL, Akseri Gallery, Yogyakarta.

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