Lot 13: Ambition

REDY RAHADIAN (b. Indonesia 1973)
Ambition
mild steel
47 1/4 x 30 3/4 x 27 1/2 in. (120 x 78 x 70 cm.)

As a very young sculptor, Redy has shown a great maturity towards a full three-dimensional conception of form. The little stick-like figure is the quintessential subject in Redy's sculptural work which is always doing various acts in the work, be it the carrying of the globe as in the present work or circling the block in the following one. This attenuated, stick-like figure is always full of vigor and ideas, and always caught in some sort of an action. Redy cleverly contrasts the smallness of the figure against the volume of the globe or the block, which the protagonist is trying to lift or embrace, hence creating a sense of contrasts; of smallness versus bigness and of nimbleness versus heaviness and of a sense of vigor against a feeling of grounded weight. The juxtaposition of such contrasting energies intrigues the viewers.

Redy always creates an intriguing sense of space between the three-dimensional work and its environ. In fact, he creates an inescapable dichotomy for a viewer as one approaches to contemplate the subtle relationships between mass and space, the position of volumes, the contrast between heaviness and a lightness of being and the juxtaposition of the apparent and the obscurity. In this regard, Redy as the sculptor deals with issues of the metaphysics: the believable and the unbelievable. Whilst it is plausible to understand the various acts engaged by the little figure(s), as we the viewers, would also engage in carrying, embracing, balancing our bodies in various exercises etc, however the empathy is abruptly interrupted as we look at the actual circumstance such as the carrying of the globe which is humanly impossible. As such, the tactile object of art interestingly assumes an air of contemplative energy tinged with a sense of surrealism.