UNDRGRND ARTIST: STULKA
AUG 12TH, 2022
Each week artists are commissioned for a piece of art through the UNDRGRND Grant Program. 100 NFTs are minted and are randomly airdropped to UNDRGRND Membership Cardholders. To find out how you can be featured as an UNDRGRND Artist check out our Discord.
We are used to thinking that happiness comes from fame, physical beauty, and achievement. When a well-known product releases its latest series of mobile phones, many people are willing to queue for hours to become one of the first owners of the limited series. Beauty products, whitening agents, and body parts enlargers are selling well in the market. Advertisements in various mass media indoctrinate us that happiness is determined by detergent, shampoo, soap, and certain brand perfumes.
The acceleration of technology and the presence of social media on the internet force us to care about the lives of others. The whole of Indonesia or even the whole world is invited to participate in worrying about the fate of a celebrity's marriage, to be anxious to see the pattern of parenting a celebrity's child, and so on.
Modern human life is filled with various public norms. You have to earn this much before a certain age, you have to have a house, you have to get married after graduating from college, and you have to dress in certain ways. We are led to believe that we have no other choice but to obey the general will. It is tiring, even sickening.
In this work called It's Not Like I Give A Damn, Minarti Soerono, also known as Stulka, openly expresses a rebellious attitude against all general boundaries that impede her. This dismissive attitude is expressed through the writing It's Not Like I Give A Damn in a decorative font with sharp corners; in the form of a flashing neon light reminiscent of a 1980s discotheque.
With a yellow-orange background and a red oval frame in the center, Stulka's work feels warm even though the 3 figures present in the mp4-shaped digital painting show flat expressions and don't care. All three give the impression of fluid gender. Stulka presents three long-faced figures with slanted cold eyes and ears that are quite large and sticking out.
The figure in the front wears a brown suit, white shirt, and a maroon tie, just like a young professional. The long hair is dyed in an electric pink that emphasizes the 1980s style. Shapes of light blue stars and light green tears decorate his cheek as if they were shedding tears. On the shoulder sits a black dove with neon-colored wings. The style immediately reminds one of a Korean boyband member who has a cool and beautiful image and sometimes with flashy colored hair.
There is a figure with a similar blonde hairdo in the center photo frame. The figure seems to be holding a glass. There is a game of lines and color contrast on the second and third figures on the back. The black and white striped shirt collided with the green and white checkered glass.
A third figure stands behind, looks slim and tall, wearing a green leaf sweater with the words “Je Suis Stulka” in striking yellow. One sleeve has red and olive stripes, while the other sleeve has bright blue and orange stripes. A sweater that reads “Je Suis Stulka” (French sentence meaning “my name is Stulka”) looks like a statement of the artist's identity. Instead of introducing herself by her birth name, she prefers to be called Stulka which means "woman" in the Old Norse language which is widely used in Scandinavian countries such as Norway, Sweden, and Iceland.
Stulka carries a skateboard with a checkered motif and a red cell phone. Interestingly, in the 1980s, skaters tended to be identified with a rebellious attitude. Meanwhile, cellphones are also accused of making people self-absorbed and ignorant. Many people secretly voice their rebellion against various imperatives and concepts of pseudo-happiness through various social media that they install on their cellphones. They no longer give a damn to the system or what people say.
All these colors and lines are harmoniously colliding, highlighting each other. Stulka presents "electric" vibes, unique, attractive, "stuns" the audience with messy hairstyles, and shows rebellion through a collision of colors, lines, and shapes. She breaks all order and necessity through a powerful fashion statement. The use of neon colors reinforces the badass image and the retro and futuristic feel in this work.
So give a damn about Stulka’s artwork!