Incoma Asylum: Psychedelic Art of Safrie Effendi
Consciousness has been a prevalent topic to
mankind for many centuries. But what is the state of being conscious really
about? If we were to simplify the meaning of the human mind, we will find that
our consciousness was really just a set of opinions or feeling which is
believed together as the reality. The sensation of a color, the burnt of a sun,
the coolness of a water; it is all agreed upon in a convention. Sure we might
debate from times to times about how a color may seems more reddish rather than
purplish, but if we were to bring the issue of an awareness of our surrounding,
then there will always be an exact value we agreed upon as the same level of
consciousness.
Psychoanalysis compared our mind to an
iceberg. It is said that our consciousness was just a tip of a giant iceberg,
in which the bigger chunk of our psyche was actually submerged inside the realm
we are not really aware of. The bigger part of our mind, the subconscious,
would sometimes emerged in a form of dreams, or sometimes in a rare cases,
people experience mental phenomenon, known as astral projection, near death
experience, phosphene, etc. But because we are very customary of receiving the
information from our conscious mind, we seldom put so much thought into things
we experienced through subconscious mind. Surely there are a lot of people who
believed that dream is somehow has a prophesy attribute, or that the phenomenon
relating to the subconscious mind were somehow linked to a spiritual realm, but
not many aware of the cognitive potential of the subconscious for their waking
life.
Safrie Effendi was perhaps one of those exceptional
who could generate the potential of the subconscious into a creative feat. While
suffering from a dengue fever, he somehow managed to collect random images of
his subconscious into a form of a painting works. Safrie said that while he was
enduring the fever, he feels like he was teetering in a brink of death. He even
thought that he would never experience his forthcoming solo exhibition. This
edgy sensation he felt were perhaps a result of his previous excitement when
offered to do a solo exhibition, combined with a very unexpected incident,
where he got ill from the dengue fever.
Being over-sensitive, Safrie must stay in
the hospital for a whole week. It was during this time, Safrie encounter many
strange and random images in his mind. Surely every one of us has at least
experience a state in which our consciousness were being transitioned from
being asleep into being awaken. At these state, known as a hypnagogic state, we
would occasionally undergo a variety of sensory experiences. There is a certain
mental syndrome, following a hypnagogic state, which inspire people into
believing themselves were inside of a spiritual occurrence, or was in touch
with a higher level of reality, some even believe that they were experiencing a
near death phenomena. This hypnagogic state has also triggered Safrie’s mind to
encounter many appealing images and forms, precisely when he was rendered
powerless by his fever.
Safrie’s background as a DJ might be attributable
to his splendor imagination. His routine with rhythm and musical beat, could give
him a sense of cadence and regularity, which will dominates his imagery as he grow drowsy. When fighting with his fever, Safrie
was trapped between the conscious and unconscious, that was probably when his mind
harbor into his musical fondness. Even though many people also
experience a hypnagogic state such as these—some even claim to have experience
a more complex symptoms like phospene—but not many of us could engender a creative
outcome from our subconscious mind.
For
his inclination to work with the subconscious imagery, Safrie’s artworks, holds
a different aura compare with a conventional-representational painting. While most
painters control the subject matter of their artwork by bringing imagery of
their conscious mind into their canvas, Safrie brings “unintelligible” images into his canvas. As unintelligible as they were,
these “visual memories” are somehow show us a different realm on consciousness,
a new convention of form, shapes, and color. “Incoma Asylum,” quoted Safrie,
when asked about the name of his workshop and studio, “ is taken from a word ‘In a coma’, as in you are in a coma. And ‘Asylum’ It’s a place where people
with extreme mental problem are placed.
Somehow they can’t be cured; some people say it’s a prison for crazy
people. But however, don’t get me wrong; most of the times; these people do
imagine things beyond above normal people. It’s fascinating for me.” To take
that standpoint into consideration, it was no wonder Safrie’s current oeuvre; show
us much unconventional and bizarre imagery.
D. Tresnadewi Nf.
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