Dede Eri Supria: Labyrinth (from 'Labyrinth' series)

Sparked by his father’s work as an advertising painter, Dede Eri Supria’s interest in photorealism was fostered while assisting in the studio of Indonesian social realist Dukut Hendratnoto and at art school in Yogyakarta. In 1977, he joined the politically engaged Gerakan Seni Rupa Baru or New Art Movement, whose search for an ‘aesthetics of emancipation’ saw him apply his considerable talents to social criticism. Far from the idealised or romanticised subjects of traditional realistic painting, Supria’s epically scaled and intricately rendered paintings reflect the ugliness and chaos of much urban life. For his ‘Labyrinth’ series, Supria juxtaposed photorealistic images with illogical scenery, portraying vast, maze-like slums of commercial packaging from a heightened perspective. Through metaphor and a colour palette of nightmarish intensity, the works suggest the human suffering of urban poverty and its relationship to consumer society.