Ken is a Canadian artist specializing in stone lithography, producing iconic impressions of scenes in Indonesia. Ken first arrived in Indonesia in 1989 and has strong environmental ideals, producing works that often have hidden meanings.
You seem to have a fascination, or love of Indonesia. When this case started?
We moved to Jakarta for a year, it was 25 years ago, because my wife was offered a job here, working in the sector of education. My wife has a Dutch background, so this was a place she could not say no to. I had never been to Indonesia before, even if I had traveled the world. After a year here, we felt it was not long enough, so we stayed one year and one year, and after a while we just stopped counting!
Did you always know you wanted to be an artist?
so, yes. I am fascinated by the world, so I spent four years in the sixties who travel everywhere and in 1967, I thought I'd better do something myself and I went to college with the idea to get a degree in sociology. During my time at university, I questioned what a Bachelor of Arts in sociology would get me. It was a very interesting time to be in the world; things changed and it allowed me to get involved with the theater, and to my art again after not having done anything for six years.
A scene from Jakarta by Ken Pattern in the lithographic stone
Tell us how you first got involved in environmental movements .
The environmental movement was just beginning in the 60s and a local organization in Vancouver asked me to join them on a voluntary basis as a graphic artist. It was at that time that Greenpeace was born. In fact, when Greenpeace began, the group that I was part of them gave a cabin in our office.
There was a lot of student unrest at the time, and the government has started giving grants to produce educational materials, which was an opportunity for me to learn and improve my technical skills.
How is your first exhibition born?
I work as a graphic artist for the Canadian government and saved my winnings. After three years, I left and went to the Vancouver Public Library to reserve a space for my first show, scheduled for two years time. I left and traveled through Europe for eight months. When I returned, I sat in a basement and my product exhibition, which opened at the library in 1978. At that time, the money had almost exhausted, but I made enough the first exposure to the next to a commercial gallery in 1979. He just sort of grew from there.
You are known for your lithographic stones prints. How is this technique become your niche?
When I was drawing, once the piece was sold, that was all. I am familiar with the works of artist M. C. Escher, who produced what looked like pencil drawings, but many who were actually lithographs. I went to art school to learn the lithography process, after which I joined a print-making cooperative and I started making my own. I am able to do multiple, which meant I did not depend on a gallery and my work might have a string of galleries all over the place, which I still do today.
Print is called "the democratic form of art" because you can buy an original piece of art at a much cheaper price. This has become the backbone that allowed me to survive as an artist. Every year I go back to Vancouver for three or four months and working in the same studio to make lithographs, although most of my subject material is Indonesian.
What exactly is the stone lithography?
He started in the 1700s in Germany and the planographic printing method from a stone surface in which the image areas and non-image are on the same level and not physically separated. The separation of the image areas and non-image is obtained mainly by the principle that oil and water repel each other, and a chemical reaction resulting when a solution called "etching" is applied to the Pierre.
Is it difficult to make an artist's life? Were you supported by your parents?
For everyone who has a successful play, a film, a book or painting, there are tens of thousands who are struggling to do so. Going to school in the 50s and 60s, it was not something that most responsible parents would encourage because it meant a life of debauchery and poverty. I think my parents liked, I'm sure my mother does, but I do not encourage me to go anywhere with it.
Why have you focused on both scenes kampung in Indonesia?
There was a boom here in the early 90s and during those years I innocently walking through kampungs, take pictures of things that interested me. It could be six months or a year later I go back to the site to look at the issue more closely. Sometimes I'll return to a site and what had interested me was gone, left with a construction site of a large building.
Just behind the headquarters of the police in Semanggi, Jakarta, was a huge, well established kampung, which was demolished in the central business district.
I wanted to show the difference between new and old, rich and poor, symbolically very black and white. These places no historical or architectural value had a social value, so I started recording what I thought was a social legacy.
Is there a message you are trying to convey?
I suppose it is to appreciate the heritage and traditions that define a place. You could say I'm a little anti-globalization because I do not want to see the same things in all cities. Change happens and you can not deny people progress, but we hope that the old ways will not be discarded for something that looks nice and shiny and new.
Your poster entitled "Eviction Notice" is a stark reminder of our effects on tropical forests and your series on Marina Bay Sands resort in Singapore was very controversial. What were you trying to accomplish this work?
In our life, we can see that the orangutan will not have a natural habitat left due to the industry of palm oil and illegal logging . We sacrifice much of what has taken so long to make this world where it is in the interest of materialism. All proceeds from the sale of this poster go to Jakarta Animal Aid Network, a charity that protects animals in Indonesia.
I made the Marina Bay Sands complex as satire. The entire complex is dedicated to consumption and the game, which is very foreign to me. I lampooned it. I received a very mixed reaction, but I think a lot of people do not understand puns and double meanings.
Do you have any words of wisdom for aspiring artists out there?
You must do what your heart says. If you find something you like, it would be really remiss not to follow him. Talent is nice, but the most important factor in making success is luck, coupled with discipline.
Is Indonesia your home for good?
Finally, I think we will return to Canada. All year now!
lithographs of Ken Pattern are available for purchase at Galeri Hadiprana on Jl. Kemang Raya no. 30, Jakarta. Visit www.kenpattern.or.id for more information.