Pressure and Pleasure: An anthology of contemporary writing inspired by the works of Agus Suwage
Author: Eka Kurniawan, Erni Aladjai, Goenawan Mohamad, Laksmi Pamuntjak, Ziggy Zesyazeoviennazabrizkie, Mahfud Ikhwan
Category: Literary
Agus Suwage (b. 1959, Yogyakarta, Indonesia) is one of Indonesia's most important contemporary artists. He lives and works currently in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Trained as a graphic designer at the Institute of Technology in Bandung, and obsessed with rock and roll, his studio is a playground of books and musical instruments and art in various stages of completion. He is well known for his self-portraiture, quick to say is about self-criticality before anything else. His provocative drawings, paintings, assemblages, and installations, incorporate relationships between humans and animals, and draw on religious imagery and popular culture. Suwage, an ever curious artist, responsive to human impulses. He participated in the Asia Pacific Trienniale, Qagoma Brisbane (1996), the 6th Biennale of Havana, Cuba (1997), the Singapore Biennale, Singapore (2006), Biennale Jogja IX, Yogyakarta, Indonesia (2007), and a retrospective at the Jogja National Museum, Indonesia (2009), which was accompanied by a comprehensive monograph of his work "Still Crazy After All These Years" (2010).