In early November, Artemis Art had the opportunity to pay a visit to Yogyakarta, where visual artist Dedy Sufriadi now lives and works. He was one of the ten artists who took part in “Sepuluh Perantau” (loosely translated: Ten Immigrants), a group exhibition of artists originally from South Sumatra. Dedy, originally from Palembang, came to Jogja to further his studies in Fine Art at the prestigious Institut Seni Indonesia (ISI) (Indonesian Institute of the Arts).

Dedy Sufriadi’s contribution to the exhibition, which ran from 9 – 25 November 2019, was in the form of one large-scale book installation, a large sculptural work, and two paintings.

I Cursed Your Thoughts and Texts into Stone comprises some 16,000 books with a cumulative weight of approximately 4.5 tons. This huge quantity of books was bonded together with cement to form a 260 x 1230 cm wall occupying two walls in one of the exhibition rooms at Jogja Gallery. The construction of the installation took over a week to complete. A significant portion of the books used are from Dedy Sufriadi’s own collection, amassed over a period of close to 20 years, covering topics of interest to the artist. Among others are books related to visual art and philosophy. The remainder of the books are overruns the artist purchased in bulk from publishers and book distributors, with no specific topical focus.

In order to provide a level of protection to the books from his collection, Dedy had each book wrapped in clear polyethylene sheets to prevent – or at the very least minimize – any damage to them once the installation was dismantled at the end of the exhibition. We did check with him, and at the time of writing we’re happy to report that none of the books from his collection suffered any damage.  

A detailed explanation of the installation may be found in an interview video we produced, which has been included in this posting (see below). 

Video Features

As part of Artemis Art’s documentation activities, two video features for the installation have been produced to feature “I Cursed Your Thoughts and Texts into Stone“. One is a montage video of the installation itself, taken during the Sepuluh Perantau opening night, while the other is a video interview with Dedy Sufriadi, where he talks at length about the installation.

These two videos may also be viewed on Artemis Art’s YouTube channel.

Dedy Sufriadi’s Exhibited Artworks