Galeri Tiga Hari: Action of Participatory Art (original) (raw)

2015, Arts and Design Studies

A city as a physical entity and symbolic construct uses advertising to expand its presence amongst its inhabitants. Meanwhile in some spaces, the city is enriched with various forms of expression such as graffiti, which has become urban symbols. However, the city government banned graffiti presence all around the city. Which leads to the question, how do graffiti artists, and its audience respond if presented with a blank canvas in a gallery environment? A work is a process which involves the cooperation of several parties and therefore, the methodological approach used in this study is phenomenological paradigm approach. Gallery Tiga Hari which is a gallery within a gallery provides a blank canvas like the walls of the city to facilitate messages that can be conveyed to its citizens and in effect provides a participatory art which engages the artist and the viewers in one space. The exhibition managed to engage visitors by visualizing the artist's work in a participatory manner, by participating in the graffiti act themselves. The gallery is no longer the exclusive property of established artists, but as a means to reclaim the city spaces for residents of the city itself. Key word: Graffiti, space, expression and townspeople. Preliminary Modern cities are marked by the towering presence of its skyscrapers and as if symbolized by its inhabitants, supported by spaces occupied for blocks of settlement complexes and transportation systems below. Space has long been considered in two ways: on one hand, at the macrocosmic level, is a large container where everything is put into it and on the other hand, at a microcosmic level, as the gap between various things, which as if divides them (West-Pavlov, 2009: 16). Space is absolute because it is not defined in terms of anything other than itself (Turner, Turner, Davenport, 2009: xvi). Modern cities also exist as a physical entity and can be a symbol of general community growth, city border expansion, infrastructure development, and the tearing down of old buildings to lay anew. Jakarta for example, grows and blooms, shaping the vision and concept of dominant symbolic spaces including protecting the economic and social importance of the private sector and capital owners. The capital owners economically develop symbols of the city which is an extension of the economic and political value of the various groups in a variety of interests, including maintaining the status quo and promoting their vision befitting a city where one of which is an advertising activity. Advertising plays a role in the delivery of business messages and regulate social relations in urban spaces using both verbal and visual languages. Not only for the selection of the products or services that may be perceived as part of the needs of urban communities, advertising can be directed towards promoting destinations, i.e., such as Jakarta being promoted as a tourist spot. The use of popular brands, culinary, financial services, and convergence of shopping, entertainment, culinary, education and culture actually make Jakarta part of the world. With global communication networks that have created a global culture of worldwide symbols and images (de Mooij, 1994: 3). Thus, public advertisements in a city have became one of the integral visual elements to identify a city, not just by being a standalone element. The language of advertising has been described as a 'functional dialect', a term that describes the product of a process whereby language is chosen and used for a particular purpose (hence, 'Functional'), and consequently becomes a variety (hence, 'dialect') of its Because It Becomes own associated with this particular function (Kelly-Holmes, Helen, 2005: 8). The words and visuals, which are delivered in printed advertisements, recorded, and uploaded are there for a purpose and is generally encouraged as a commercial discourse in city spaces. Ads are displayed on billboards, banners and affect the community to become a consumer based society of the products being advertised. Not everything in a city is formed through calculated infrastructures and geometries. In certain, usually overlooked, places such as residential buildings, overpasses, parking lots, there exists various forms of visual constructs such as graffiti which defines urban symbols. The symbol, as a sign, represents a referral of agreements or cultural conventions. These urban symbols have become a phenomenon and become an Arts and Design Studies www.iiste.org