Sebagai anak tunggal di keluarga multi-kultural dengan darah kreatif yang kental, seniman muda yang lahir di Jakarta, 13 Desember 1989 dan tumbuh besar di Bali ini telah terpapar pada seni lukis sejauh yang bisa ia ingat. “Saat kecil, ibu sering mengajak saya ke studio lukis. Beliau memperkenalkan apa itu kanvas, kertas, cat minyak, water colour dan membiarkan saya bermain dengannya. We always had art books, painting technique books in the house that I would always look at before I could even read properly,” paparnya. Setamat sekolah asrama jurusan seni di Thailand, Natisa meraih Bachelor of Fine Arts Painting di RMIT, Melbourne dan sempat bekerja sebagai desainer grafis di Jakarta sebelum menyadari jika hatinya memang tertambat di seni murni. Memperlakukan kanvas layaknya buku diary, ia tak ragu menunjukkan kerapuhan, a change of mind, dan kesalahan yang mungkin muncul saat proses berkarya untuk menghasilkan karya yang jujur.
Kapan dan siapa yang pertama kali membuatmu tertarik pada seni?
Saya tinggal di Bali, keluarga saya dari Jawa dan Kanada. Saya dibesarkan dalam keluarga yang kreatif. Nenek dan ibu saya sangat kreatif dan saya memang dari kecil (2 tahun) selalu menggambar dan melukis. My grandmother paints and makes things and so did my mother. Sejak saya kecil, cara saya memproses lingkungan dan dunia sekitar, adalah lewat mendokumentasikan hari-hari lewat menggambar dan menulis. Proses ini terus menerus saya lakukan dan tidak berhenti sampai sekarang. It’s just a way for me to process and understand everything around has always been through drawing and writing and making things.
Sebagai anak tunggal saya rasa saya mendapatkan banyak ruang/waktu untuk berpikir dan bermain sendiri. Karena selalu sendiri, kebosanan saya mungkin juga menjadi sebab untuk iseng berkarya yang lama-lama menjadi hobi dan menjadi keperluan saya untuk mengolah pikiran. A few of my cousins work in creative fields. So being creative has always been encouraged in my family. There is a strong creative blood in my family. My grandma told me my great-great grandfather was a grave-stone carver.
Apa yang kemudian mendorongmu untuk berkarya?
Saya tidak pernah berhenti menggambar, menulis, berkarya, dan setelah tamat universitas saya pulang ke Indonesia dan bekerja di Jakarta selama setahun sebagai ilustrator dan desain grafis. Dalam waktu renggang saya, saya tetap membuat karya-karya pribadi dan berpartisipasi dalam pameran. Dalam kurun waktu ini saya akhirnya menyadari bahwa saya merasa tidak puas bekerja dalam desain grafis. Saya memutuskan untuk meneruskan karier saya sebagai pelukis dan kembali ke seni murni.
Bagaimana kamu menemukan medium favoritmu?
Saya senang bereksperimen dan saya memang cepat bosan. Jadi jika saya sudah menemui formula dalam medium tertentu berkaitan dengan cara berkarya saya, saya pasti akan mencari cara untuk menggambar/melukis dalam metode lain.
As far as “style” goes it’s not something I think about much. I think it’s something that develops naturally as you keep creating over time. You see what works for you and what doesn’t. I think as long as it feels good to me, my voice and strokes will be there. As you grow as a person, you kind of keep evolving and developing, and hopefully the work should organically grow with you.
Untuk sementara dan beberapa tahun terakhir medium yang sedang saya favoritkan adalah akrilik, tinta, graphite, charcoal, guache, kanvas, dan kertas.
Siapa saja seniman yang menginspirasi?
Ralph Steadman was an inspiration sejak SMA. I was attracted to his idealism, rawness, and fearlessness. Lalu ultimate favorite sejak kuliah Tracy Emmin dan Louise Bourgeois. I got to see Tracy Emmin’s Art Talk in person early this year. That was a dream comes true. I have always been a huge, huge, nerd fan of her work. Karya-karyanya sangat jujur dan sophisticated.
In terms of mentality in creating I am highly influenced by the abstract expressionism/Action Painting movement – The New York School era painters: Robert Motherwell, Robert Rauschenberg, Adolph Gottlieb, Helen Frankenthaler, Mark Rothko. So many more.
My work is also really influenced by music – a lot of rap and hip hop.
My idealism started to become a huge part of my identity and as a creator I think since I became a die hard of M.I.A. since 2007. Haha.
Masih ingat karya atau ekshibisi pertamamu?
Karya pertama saya tidak ingat. Mungkin saya masih umur 2 tahun. Saya sering berpartisipasi di pameran bersama mulai dari SMA. But my first small solo exhibition really confirmed to myself that I wanted to be a painter. My work is highly personal so the first time it all went up, basically it is much like having pieces of my diary displayed for people to see. It made me feel vulnerable. But that’s the point I guess. When people felt connected to the works, it made me feel less alone. It was cool to see people connect to the work even if I didn’t know them. And connect on human level through art.
Apa idealismemu dalam berkarya?
My Idealism stems from just staying true to myself and makes work that I genuinely feel and relate to. No compromise. To not concern myself with what’s “cool” or pleasing. But if I am honest in my work hopefully that can create space for genuine connections with people. I want to be myself and through being vulnerable, I hope that can encourage other people to do the same. So I guess the idea is to create as genuinely/honestly as possible with good intentions and if people don’t relate to it, it’s okay.
Bagaimana kamu mendeskripsikan sendiri personal aesthetic dalam karyamu?
Secara aesthetic, mungkin ‘berantakan’ ya? Saya tidak terlalu fokus dengan “ciri khas” atau sengaja merencanakan style aesthetic yang spesifik. ‘Kebiasaan-kebiasaan’ saya dalam berkarya/menggambar dalam goresan terbentuk secara ‘organik’. Buat saya, goresan, bentuk, dan figur akan terjadi dan membentuk sendiri dan berubah tergantung waktu. Dan saya terus menerus merespons.
I create in a very intuitive/guttural way and it’s an instant action and reaction when I make something. Seperti menari bebas, bergerak tergantung musik. Sama dengan menggambar bebas tergantung mood dan sesuka hati. One creative decision on the canvas takes me to another and keeps going until it cant go anywhere any more.
Pencapaian paling berkesan sejauh ini?
Hmm… To learn to listen to myself and my heart no matter what. Realizing that in creating work, no one knows how to create your work better than you, yourself. And I think there is real strength in understanding that.
Di mana biasanya kamu bisa ditemukan saat weekend?
Di studio atau di rumah.
Apa rasanya menjadi seorang seniman di era social media seperti sekarang?
Maaf ya Lex aku jawab ini panjang lebar dalam Bahasa Inggris, my grammar and vocab in writing Indonesian is so embaressingly terrible. Maaf banget ya.
I think there are definitely huge pros and cons. Advantage and disadvantages about art in the era of social media. I remember before Facebook was crazy and it was heavily the blogging era – it was a really nice way to make work and you had a nice space to go to with other creatives and put work out – that didn’t have to be polished works. It was a very experimental and creative time of the internet I think. It hadn’t become too heavily corporate. And not everyone was on it yet. You weren’t bombarded with as much comments and advertisements. I miss that time of the internet. It grew up way too quickly, haha
On one hand, it’s great for artists to have free space to put work out and you can access more people with your work much easier than before. You can also educate yourself much easier as information is so easily available and it’s easy to access other artists, galleries etc. as well. But at the same time, I find myself being uncomfortable with the idea that – while creating work, there is a high awareness of the ‘audience’. Before social media, I feel like you have time to think and process the work yourself before placing it on a public platform.
We digest information much quicker I think, than before. So I feel sometimes there is this imaginary pressure of putting out material quicker. Or you kind of create the work out in the open where you share the process – “Tweet it, Instagram it, hashtag work in process, #wip, #process etc.” This kind of changes the whole process of creating I think compared to before social media. Before there wasn’t this easy, instant, gratification for your work – where as now there are likes and comments etc. Now the feedback is instant and as my work is highly personal, and it is very attached to me as a person, I am not a fan of sharing process work on social media too much. I find it too fleeting and can cause things to be ingenuine. For me, anyway.
Even before the internet you had to send a mail, and wait for that to be responded to, then meet the gallery, — the process of things and experience is takes longer. Now you email, post, chat up everything. The speed of things now just generally makes it hard for people to dig deeper or for things to last longer. There is always something new popping up. Sometimes I really don’t like that. With info, music, art. I’d like to magically slow everything down. Haha.
Scale also really changes perspective. If I put a work out on Instagram of a 2mx2m painting, it really degrades and mediates the experience of the painting. You don’t see texture, size, etc. It oversimplifies things. Things are reacted upon in a more surface manner. But that’s just me personally – I know a lot of artists who are really good at curating and catering their social media platforms to support their art. I’m just not very good at balancing that and working that way.
Target sebelum usia 30?
I just want to stay happy and healthy whatever comes my way by that time. I think that’s a big enough target. And I wouldn’t mind moving into a bigger studio space and maybe one somewhere outside of Indonesia too.