work, symbols of regional culture, Indonesian writing and shadow puppets, have been forcefully coupled with Western commodities; Astari has imagined her self-image as a heroine who can travel through the famous places in the world. These overly dramatized scenes have surprisingly pushed the artists’ works to a core position. The two artists’ depictions and imaginings of reality are anything but a preference for a certain type of decoration or material. They are more rooted in the artists’ extreme focus on man’s situation. They are events and depictions, especially the direct usage of finished objects and the revelation of their power. As they see it, they are providing the ways and means to directly touch and experience all kinds of people from reality. They have provided a reading of the issues of politics and culture that transcends the level of opposition and conflict. Their works exude a strong air of contradiction and crisis, and even go on to hint at the emptiness of man, even life and the universe. In uncertain times surrounded by terrorism, bad press and a falling economy, the artists’ creations give us inexhaustible imagination. After a disaster, the restoration of the heart is a greater task than that of rebuilding the city and its buildings. The artworks often touch on universal and fundamental issues of humanity. They point at reality, but also touch the heart, affirming our values and beliefs about life – how important is the function of art.

Heaven is still beautiful, though it is no longer peaceful. Paradise is also full of man’s perplexities: it conceals suspicion, hatred and violence. The work of these two artists springs from the modern anxieties of our time, realist portraits of when we face the extremes of life, reality or death. They also reveal the unease and perplexity that lies below heaven’s halo: they lead me to look back on myself and everyone else, who yearn for this utopian paradise, the tourists and seekers who journey to heaven, the shared depths of our hearts are full of insurmountable emptiness and self-trickery.

In these circumstances of increasing globalization, regional differences and civilizational conflicts, even if we’re in “heaven” we can’t silence our own souls.

 

Evening of June 27, Wangjing