Between Life and Death

Between Life & Death

This work is a tribute to Raden Saleh Syarif Bustaman, widely recognized as Indonesia's first modern painter and one of the most influential figures in the history of Indonesian art.

Through this piece, I incorporate discarded cigarette packages as an integral element of the visual composition. These everyday objects—often overlooked and stripped of value once discarded—invite viewers to reconsider the significance of what society chooses to abandon. On one level, the work honors the enduring artistic legacy of the Maestro. On another, it reclaims discarded cigarette packaging as an object transformed through artistic intervention, allowing it to acquire new meaning and presence.

The choice of this material stems from the understanding that these packages once belonged to individuals who consumed products distinguished not only by their function, but also by their visual identity and packaging design. Through the process of artistic transformation, these abandoned objects are reintroduced as a medium for reflection on value, memory, and the ways in which art preserves both cultural heritage and the traces of human existence.

Rather than treating waste as a symbol of disposability, this work positions it as evidence of lived experience—an artifact suspended between permanence and impermanence, life and death.

Medium: Acrylic and discarded cigarette packaging on canvas.

Acrylic on canvas 2018

Size 150 x 110 cm