Teguh Ostenrik shines in Singapore churches

Jakarta Post, Indonesia
March 26 2005

Teguh Ostenrik shines in Singapore churches
Carla Bianpoen, Contributor/Singapore

When Teguh Ostenrik presented his "underwater" installation in the
early nineties, many saw him as a stunt maker. But those with a keen
eye were able to see his genius.

Teguh's exhibition of life-size sculptures depicting Christ's passion
and the Stations of the Cross, as well as terracotta etchings and
paintings on the theme of Christ's passion and resurrection, might
evoke similar views.

It is an exhibition to benefit projects identified by the churches,
including aid and rebuilding projects in areas affected by the
devastating tsunami in Aceh and North Sumatra.

"Why would one need to organize an exhibition to donate?" remarked
one person who has already made donations without much ado.

But others see the exhibition as being of significance, an underscoring
of the unity of spirituality that crosses the religious divide.

For Teguh, a Muslim by birth, religion is something that he feels when
in the process of creating his art. That is when the divine enters
his entire being. A genuine artist, he did not have a problem making
art for the Bukit Batok St. Mary of the Angels Church.

Familiar with the Christian faith from his early schooling in a
Catholic school, and having a broad-minded father who familiarized
his children with mosques, temples, and churches alike, Ostenrik only
needed to immerse himself in the basic points of the Catholic faith,
and the character of St Francis, the patron of the church.

Today, the ultramodern church of St Mary of the Angels at Bukit
Batok, Singapore, is Teguh Ostenrik's exhibition hall par excellence.
Suspended from the ceiling is his Corpus Christi, the only accent in
the church that strikes the eye and makes one feel this is the house
of God.

Hollow on the inside, the Corpus is not nailed to a cross, but the
outstretched arms and the folded feet suggest a cross.

Nevertheless, Teguh went beyond the usual thinking of the crucifix in a
church, incorporating Christ's resurrection and ascension. "After all",
he says, "Christ is more than the two murderers who were crucified
next to Him."

In addition, he also sculpted the figures of Mary and her seven
accompanying angels in the garden, terracotta frescoes in the
courtyard, St Francis, the seraph and eight Franciscan saints in the
columbarium. The latter is a space where urns containing the ashes
of diseased parishioners are housed in niches forming the walls.

The recent exhibition, organized by YaddoArt Singapore in St Mary
of the Angels, has added significance to the Lenten period preceding
Easter. It has paintings in the columbarium, while 150 to 200-kilogram
sculptures featuring various Stages of the Cross are placed in the
forecourt of the church.

>>From the newest church (2004), the art exhibition moves to the
oldest church in Singapore, the Armenian church (1836).

His bronze sculptures follow a style that is probably his alone.
Consisting of what looks like bronze slabs, the hollow figures
featuring various stages of the Cross take on the appearance of
creatures that have just been pulled out of the soil.

But it does not put people off; rather, one can watch them, adults
and children alike, lovingly letting their hands touch the bronze
Jesus figure and his crown of thorns.

Teguh's paintings featuring biblical scenes of the Passion show a
renewed vigor, reminiscent of his homo sapiens series, but unlike
his homo sapiens paintings, they radiate an incredible inner light,
visualized through a yellowish-orange glow that flows over the
juxtaposition of earth colors.

Why would the Franciscan friars of Bukit Batok select a team of
non-Christian architects and artists for the building of their
church? History tells us that it was also a friar, the Dominican
Father Pierre Marie-Alan Couturier, who first paved the way for
"non-believers" to contribute their art to the church in the mid
20th century.

The founder of L'Art Sacr~B, a magazine that sought to highlight the
significance of genuine and true art as sacred art, Couturier was
of the opinion that it was better to have a talented atheist making
Christian art or designing churches than to have a pious artist who
was mediocre.

Indeed, under his patronage artists like the leftist Fernand L~Bg~Br,
the agnostic Henri Matisse and the non-believer Le Corbusier produced
artworks that have become famous in the history of art.

For Teguh Ostenrik, the decision of the Franciscan Friars to give
him the commission to make all the sculpture work in their new church
(2004) was like divine intervention that restored his energies.

He is now working hard on making the 14 stages of the cross as
part of a commission he received from Manado at the northern tip of
Sulawesi. This will be a Via Dolorosa, the Way of the Cross, in the
open air, and is expected to open in September of this year.