Herlambang Bayu Aji

Herlambang Bayu Aji is originally from Indonesia, but works and lives since 2010 in Berlin, Germany. He works with various techniques and art genres such as shadow puppets, paintings, education art, installation and graphic art. 

Herlambang Bayu Aji developed a strong interest in the traditional Indonesian shadow puppet theatre. Shadow puppet performance, also known as shadow puppetry or shadow play, is an ancient form of storytelling and entertainment, found from as far as to the West as Turkey and all over Asia. The narratives and these performances are often humorous and entertaining, and can be regarded as a kind of societal-critical cabaret.

Next to art exhibitions, the artist also uses his storytelling and performance skills on various art workshops and theater performances, as entertainment as well as education for children and adults, many times in collaboration with other artists.

Since 2016 he is working on a series of works titled Animalgination. The title is rooted in the two words “animal” and “imagination”, and as such is the output of his plays and imagination of new animals which do not exist in real life. 

The artist believes that everything is changing. The climate is changing and sooner or later forcing nature to change as well. The gobal warming threatens plants, land creatures and aquatic animals with extinction and pushes the environment to adapt those changes in many ways. Unusual attitudes of animals, awaking small plants or microorganisms in the land which have been covered by ice for thousands of years and even mutated viruses.

Animalgination provides the opportunity to create fictional forms of animals, like an elephant with a rabbit’s body and a crocodile’s tail, a flying cow with butterfly wings and a mackerel’s head, or a pig with an eel’s tail. The series symbolises, that every single person is changing during their life. These changes influence the people around that person and in turn is influenced by them as well. There are no absolute criteria to define identities, as identities are fluid and interdependent.

Animalgination is executed in linocut using oil paints on paper, painting with acrylic on canvas and an installation of paintings, papercuts, paper mâché, sounds and various natural materials.

Born:
21 May, 1982 in Solo/Surakarta, Indonesia

Education:
Master of Arts, Institute for Art in Context, University of Arts, Berlin
Bachelor of Arts, Sebelas Maret University, Surakarta 

Artworks by Herlambang Bayu Aji