Birds of Paradise: Sinta Tantra

September 17 - October 23 2021

Birds of Paradise
Sinta Tantra
Sinta Tantra

Sinta Tantra (B. 1979, New York) is a British artist of Balinese descent. She studied at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London between 1999–2003 and later continued her studies in art at the Royal Academy Schools in London, graduating in 2006. Tantra describes herself as a painter working on an architectural scale in an abstract geometric style, exploring colour, identity, and narratives while questioning the function of spaces. Sinta Tantra is highly regarded for her site-specific murals and installations in the public realm.
- Solo exhibitions include Birds of Paradise, (Upcoming), Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Berlin (2021); Constellations of Being, ISA, Jakarta (2021); Modern Times, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London (2020); Your Private Sky, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London (2018); A house in Bali, Isa Art Advisory, Jakarta (2018); A Romance of Many Dimensions, Pearl Lam Gallery, SOHO Hong Kong (2016) and Fantastic Chromatic, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery (2015).
  
  Group exhibitions include Freedom and the Promise, (Upcoming), ISA, Jakarta (2022); Facing the Sun, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Schloss Görne, Germany (2021); Buah Tangan, ISA, Jakarta (2020); On the Nature of Botanical Gardens, Framer Framed, Amsterdam (2020); Reinventing Eve, Isa, Jakarta (2019); Y: Collect 3.0, Ruci Art Space, Jakarta; Woven & Illuminated (2019); Strangers in Town und Art Dubai, mit Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Dubai (2019); Reflections, Puerta Roja Gallery, Hong Kong (2018); Karachi Biennial, Pakistan (2019); Always Bright, Ambiente Indonesia via Isa Art Advisory, Jakarta (2018), Empirical Atlas, Pearl Lam Gallery, Singapore (2017), High Noon, Accademia Belle Arti di Rome, Rome (2017), Quotidian, Pearl Lam Gallery, Shanghai (2017); Lost and Found: Place, Space; Identity, the World Trade Centre, Jakarta (2016); Nick Hornby & Sinta Tantra: Collaborative Works, Choi and Lager Gallery, Cologne (2015); Bend Sinister, i-CAN, Yogyakarta (2014); Gatekeeper, William Holman Gallery, New York (2014); Indonesian Contemporary Art and Design, Grand Kemang Hotel, Jakarta (2013); The Fine Line, Identity Gallery, Hong Kong (2013); and Confined, NEST Gallery, The Hague (2012).
- Highlights and collections
  Sinta Tantra’s artworks can be found in international private and public collections, including Government Art Collection UK; Karachi Biennale; Benetton Collection; Folkestone Triennial, Canary Wharf. Tantra is a recipient of many awards including the Bridget Riley Drawing Fellow at The British School at Rome (2017); British Council’s International Development Award (2014); and Deutsche Bank Award (2006). In 2018 she received an artist residency at the Stoneleaf Retreat, New York. Sinta Tantra’s work has been featured in both UK and international press including The Evening Standard, Tate Shots, FAD Magazine, The Jakarta Post and BBC Radio Indonesia. Public commissions include: Temple of Flora, Ocean Flower Island, Hainan (2021); Illumination, 22 Bishopsgate, London commissioned by Contemporary Art Society (2021); The Grand Tour, Dulwich Picture Gallery, London (2020); Poins Square, Jakarta (2020); Horizon to Horizon, Sharjah Islamic Arts Festival, Sharjah (2019); Bright Dawn, Karachi Biennale, Karachi (2019); Compose Motions und Tasted Flight, Honer Hills, Seoul (2019); Sunset in Tanah Lot, Facebook, London (2018); Collaboration with Nick Hornby, Broadgate sites, London (2018); In the Mood for Love, Lee Tung Avenue, Hong Kong (2018); 147, Folkestone Triennial (2017); A Means of Liberation, Newnham College, Cambridge University (2016); Songdo, Songdo, South Korea (2015); The Eccentricity of Zero, Royal British Society of Sculptors, Holland Park (2013); Together Yet Forever Apart, Liverpool Biennial (2012) and A Good Time and a Half!, Southbank Centre (2007). Tantra’s most notable public work includes a 300-metre long painted bridge commissioned for the 2012 Olympics, Canary Wharf, London.
Birds of Paradise

Five hundred years ago, in 1519, a fleet of Spanish ships set out on a voyage around the globe in search of distant lands, and amongst the many wondrous things they bought back were the skins of birds of paradise and the various tales that mythologised their presence. For her latest solo exhibition, entitled Birds of Paradise, at Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery Berlin, Sinta Tantra weaves together painting, sculpture, slides, sound and archival material to lead the viewer on a journey through three distinctive spaces that chart the bird’s transformation through history in the context of contemporary discourse around otherness and post-colonialism.
- The exhibition begins in a darkened room where a multi-sensory installation made in collaboration with academic and historian Dr. Natalie Lawrence. Two whirring mechanical projects play a curated selection of slides of archival imagery, historic illustrations and maps, some of which Tantra has embellished with her own playful drawings to inject a sense of colour and dynamism, while a voiceover narrates the transformation of the bird of paradise from sentient being to highly coveted, decorative object."While the bird of paradise may not indigenous to Bali, I saw this beautiful creature as a metaphor for my own identity. I have recently been drawn to moments or signifiers between the East and West and the bird of paradise came to represent all this cultural history and these contemporary issues around colonisation since it was sold and traded from the 16th century,” says the artist.
  
  In the second room, Tantra alludes to the mythical and exotic qualities of the bird with an immersive installation of pink painted walls and vinyl applied onto the windows. A new series of large-scale paintings employ muted, monochromatic tones with delicate touches of gold leaf. Marking a departure from the more minimalist language of the artist’s previous works, amorphous, curvaceous shapes suggest the silhouette of the birds while others evoke fleeting, dance-like gestures.
- The painting entitled Lovemaking & Cirri, for example, evokes the mysterious courtship of the birds through smooth, sensual shapes rendered in muted tones while the artwork Black and White is Writing, which borrows its name from Jean Arp, balances organic and geometric forms. Throughout the exhibition, there is a palpable tension between movement and stillness, which resonates with the narratives surrounding the bird of paradise. Hunters in New Guinea traditionally removed the legs of the birds before drying the skins to decorate themselves for tribal dances. When these skins were brought to the West, it led to a warped perspective of the birds’ mobility; some reasoned that since they were unable to land on earth, the birds of paradise must be eternally airborne and as such, they were likened to “fallen angels.”
  
  In the final room, Tantra draws on bright saturated colours of the birds’ extravagant feathers to create bold visions in emerald, yellow and pink alongside a collection of brass sculptures that protrude from the wall, evoking cosmic forms that reference the bird of paradise’s mystical status (in 1598, Dutch astronomer Petrus Planchius made the bird into a new constellation). The space is further elevated by the atmospheric sounds of two birds of paradise making love, which plays out from two vintage speakers, creating a sense of circularity as the exhibition comes to a close. At the same time, it is significant that birdsong takes over from human narration, perhaps gesturing towards a sense of freedom just as the paintings embrace a new-found sensuality.
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Video entries
Sinta Tantra "Birds of Paradise"
September 15, 2021
Five hundred years ago, in 1519, a fleet of Spanish ships set out on a voyage around the globe in search of distant lands, and amongst the many wondrous things...

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Birds of Paradise: Sinta Tantra

Birds of Paradise

Sinta Tantra

Birds of Paradise

Sinta Tantra "Birds of Paradise"

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