Mittwoch Macht Frei: Bicycle Portraits, Not Just A Bicycle Enthusiast

As a bicycle enthusiast, I actually feel a bit sappy over "bike to work" movements in Jakarta. I'm not saying that they are no good at all, but sometimes they are overwhelming with their worth-more-than-ten-million equipments. You forgot to enjoy how fun biking itself. Forgive me for being so cynical with them. I certainly not riding my bike from home to office back and forth in daily basis. Oh come on, we still got another transport mode like train (they are supercomfy now). But I agree that cycling reveals how do you achieve your goals in life. The harder they come, as Jimmy Cliff said. To get your ass up to sit perfectly on fake leather seat for hours to deliver mails, see your friends, or just flaunt with the latest fashion, is not an easy task either. 

Bicycle Portraits, a project by Stan Engelbrecht and Nic Grobler in South Africa, aiming to investigate South African bicycle culture and the lack of cyclist commuters out there on our roads. For more stories, please visit their site at Bicycle Portraits and kindly support their pledge. Staying Alive!

Bicycle Portraits - Staying Alive from Bicycle Portraits on Vimeo.

Sebagai penggemar sepeda, saya agak sedikit "sedih" melihat komunitas "Bike to Work" yang ada sekarang. Bukan saya menganggap apa yang mereka lakukan tidak baik, tapi terkadang mereka itu seperti "keberatan alat". Sepeda yang harganya sampai berjuta-juta sampai mengejar onderdil sepeda yang harganya bersaing dengan harga sepedanya sendiri. Sepertinya jadi lupa akan kenikmatan bersepeda dengan sepeda seadanya. Membuat proteksi akan diri mereka biar tidak terkena polusi lah, biar tidak cepat lelah dan lain-lain. Ya ampun, kalau begitu sih lebih baik naik angkutan lain saja, seperti kereta api (sekarang sudah super nyaman lho) atau bus. Namun saya percaya, bersepeda itu sedikit banyak menggambarkan bagaimana kita mencapai keinginan lho. Bayangkan usaha kita untuk bersusah payah naik di atas sadel sepeda hanya untuk antar surat ke kantor pos, main ke rumah teman atau gaya-gayaan di car free day.

Adalah Bicycle Portraits, sebuah proyek dari Stan Engelbrecht dan Nic Grobler di Afrika Selatan, yang mengangkat tentang kebudayaan bersepeda dan berusaha mencari tahu mengapa orang-orang di Afrika Selatan enggan menggunakan sepeda sebagai alternatif alat transportasi. Padahal secara infrastruktur transportasi umum di Afrika Selatan kondisinya tidak jauh atau mungkin lebih parah daripada Indonesia. Nah, kalau mau tahu lebih banyak tentang Bicycle Portrait, bisa langsung mengunjungi situsnya. Semangat ya!

Keep Calm and Ride On

I wish you will always be a present tense

Deer Attack

Welcome to the family, rusapink. I prepared them for a collective postcard show in July at artists initiative nearby. I made three new drawings (out of five), so far. You could see the first one I posted here.

Mittwoch Macht Frei: inaluxe

Since I was a kid, my mum used to tell me my color mix had a dull, sulky tendency. I hardly paint with extreme vibrances. I mixed all blue with brown, red with green, purple with black or even enjoy it only in graphite.  I wasn't sure this was a good idea though, until I found the blog like geninne's art blog and this one: inaluxe.

turn on the light bulb above head, please?

(via inaluxe etsy shop)

(via inaluxe etsy shop)

Kristina Sostarko of inaluxe

Boost from Ms. V

("Paramita Rusapink", watercolor on paper, 13x16 cm)

Meeting Ms. Vantiani is such a bliss, especially as a crafting mood-booster. Many times after meeting her, I always came out with a very good result. Thanks ms. Vantiani, I never regret the moment we met at the bookstore. Here a sneak peek of my newest drawing & collage (it's actually for a project with her, but she decided to drop it, because it's too complicated for kids).

("Yellow Casio", magazine collage, A5 color paper)

Row It Fast or Slow

Boat, sometimes could be an escapade to greater things.

Like writing and making things in the middle of docufilm making workshops.

The Inn We Stayed In

For past 7 days, I'd been quarantined for pre-productions workshop, altogether with the participants of multicultural documentary video making from Aceh, Papua, Jakarta, Bandung and Ambon. We were having DVD marathon (as many as you can imagine and as I went home, I felt a bit tired of DVDs), discussions and outdoor shooting for two days at the nearby farmers market. I can't stop gleaming at the interior of this inn we stayed in. So many birds involved and kitschy too.

Selama seminggu kemarin, saya terkarantina bersama 5 peserta workshop film dokumenter lintas budaya yang diadakan di Bogor. Pesertanya datang dari berbagai kota seperti Aceh, Papua, Jakarta, Bandung dan Ambon. Sayang sekali seorang peserta dari Palu batal ikut serta, karena masuk rumah sakit di hari keberangkatan. Di sana kami menonton banyak sekali film (aduh, sesampainya di rumah saya agak mual melihat tumpukan DVD saya), berdiskusi dan mengambil gambar di pasar tradisional Cisarua. Di sela-sela kegiatan, mata saya tidak bisa berhenti mengagumi pajangan kecil-besar di penginapan kami. Ya ampun, banyak hiasan burung yang bikin ngiler.

Wrong Fabrics

Scheiss! I bought 20 metres of wrong fabrics. 20 METRES, COMRADE! and sent with enormous shipping cost with express mail. Besoffener Idiot bin ich.

Mikisi on Crafty Days #4

Our dream came true! We opened our first booth at this wonderful craft fair at Bandung, West Java last weekend. Altogether with my partner in crime slash co-owner of Mikisi, Julian, we've spent two days of meeting incredible people buying our stuffs, having chit-chat, exchanging new ideas and name cards (of course!). I met Tita Larasati (writer of Curhat Tita, she bought my bookplates for her daughter) and I kept pinching Julian "it's her..it's her!"

We've never expected that our plushies, notebooks, pouches and lunchbags would sell like hot cakes. Our owl plushies, all notebooks and peacock lunchbags are sold out! On Sunday night, we forgot the moment we shout at each other about screen prints and bag measurements, colors or anything. We just sat at this small restaurant nearby the inn, ate our super delicious grilled fish and lyonaise fries, not to mention free mushroom soup and three scoops ice cream.
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Akhirnya mimpi kami jadi kenyataan! Mikisi buka lapak di Crafty Days ketika libur panjang kemarin. Bersama sahabatku, Julian, kami menghabiskan waktu bercengkrama dengan para pembeli dan penjual yang manis-cakep dan super terampil, bertukar kartu nama dan ide brilian, tentunya! Sungguh tak disangka, Mbak Tita Larasati mendatangi lapakku untuk membeli bookplates. Aku gembira setengah mati dan mencuwil-cuwil Julian "itu lho Tita-nya Curhat Tita..."

Pada awalnya kami pasrah saja, tidak balik modal ya tidak apa-apa, namanya juga lapak perdana. Namun ternyata hasilnya sungguh di luar ekspektasi kami. Plushie owl, buku catatan dan tas merak tandas! Tempat pensil gambar gunting yang kami bawa 10 buah hanya tersisa 3 buah saja. Malam harinya, kami sudah lupa bahwa kemarin-kemarin kami sempat bertengkar gara-gara sablonan dan ukuran tas. Kami bisa makan enak di restoran kecil di dekat penginapan. Ditambah masing-masing dapat semangkuk sup krim jamur gratis lagi. Enak banget!

Tita Larasati & daughter

she's wearing our bag

Nuri & Tisa from Kandura bought the last notebooks

I still got more pictures at flickr