Menala | Tuning In

Bandung-based artist Etza Meisyara (born 1991) will present a solo exhibition entitled Menala (Tuning-in) at Wisma 46, ISA Art and Design, Jakarta, from October 23 through 20 November 2021. Featuring two-dimensional installations and video works, this exhibition reflects the artist's ceaseless attempts to explore relationships between memories, music, sounds, objects, and images – between immateriality and materiality. The title of this exhibition, Menala, is inspired by the act or process of tuning (adjusting the sound of notes on a musical instrument) and underscoring Etza's passion for constant search and experimentation.

Most of the works in this exhibition consist of a series of two-dimensional works made of brass and aluminum plates. Etza affixes color, shape, line, and texture, yet the process she took was a bit different from a general painterly method. Apart from spreading paint and transferring photographic images to compose visual compositions, she spontaneously worked on the metal sheets by dousing or brushing certain chemical liquids, such as acid and sulfur. Allowing the materials to speak for themselves, Etza is fully aware that some of the images formed on the plate cannot be fully controlled. The shape and composition of colors that appear often come as a surprise. Etza reflects on this action as a manifestation of learning and surrendering to the process of nature.

Her works are a result of negotiations between her artistic intentions as a 'creator' and the natural language of the materials.