ZONE – Out of Comfort is a celebration of a special event, where Desy Gitary managed to overcome her comfort zone. The comfort zone can mean the medium she has known all along, which is drawing with charcoal on paper, or the comfort zone in the sense of living with family. This exhibition marks a phase in which Desy Gitary realizes that she has managed to stand on her own feet and become the person she has always wanted to be, a cool artist who can work on various visual techniques and mediums, such as drawing, painting, or even creating photos and videos. Artists who never give up and are not satisfied easily with their achievements.
Desy has always been known as a person who has sophisticated artistic senses and a strong will. While living in the capital city Jakarta, Desy was a fairly well-known anchor on one of the private broadcasting stations. Her picture was hung on the wall of the station where she worked. I was a screenwriter in several production house back then. Several times after working hours, when we hung out together, Desy often talked about her desires, about her dreams. She repeatedly said that she wanted to be an artist. She tried many things to become one. She writes short stories, television screenplays, even commercial videos. The result shows the effort, in 2005 Desy managed to enter the top 10 of a short story writing competition in Yogyakarta, and published as a book. Desy is also eager to taking pictures, making poetry videos, until she was invited to make a presentation of her work at a cafe in Blok M. I can only chuckle in admiration, underneath the sorrow she keeps deep, whatever she makes become a piece of art.
In 2015-2017, after quitting as a TV anchor, Desy learned painting intensely in Melbourne and Bali and in 2017 Desy decided to move to Yogya. It is in this city that her dreams come true. Desy became an artist and has held solo exhibitions twice already. Desy admitted that moving to Yogya was very challenging to get out of her comfort zone, which she felt was hard because she had to be away from her family, separated from her support system, living by herself, and standing on her own two feet. To be successful, Desy must create her own support system, opening up networks with many artists and the artist community who are mostly art school graduates. This challenge motivated Desy to be keen to learn and produce more artwork. As the title of one of her paintings, Windmill, says that everything revolves sometimes up and some other time down. Creating the harmony that made her Desy we know today.
There are several things Desy wants to talk about in her third solo exhibition. The first is, as the title suggests, ZONE – Out of Comfort. Desy wants to share her experience of breaking away from her comfort zone. Desy admits that moving to Yogyakarta is her attempt to get out of her comfort zone. To be away from her family, live alone, free from her support system and stand on her own two legs were hard things for her. But Desy is very determined. Desy created her own support system. Desy befriends many artists so that Desy gains knowledge that can help her to be accepted into the artist community who are mostly art school graduates. The fact that she is a self taught artist motivates Desy to present exceptional works. Perhaps as the title of one of his paintings, Windmill, that everything revolves, sometimes up and some other time down. Creating the harmony that made her Desy we know today. In addition, ZONE – Out of Comfort also talks about Desy’s efforts to get out of the advice zone from other people, both from artists she knows and those she doesn’t. Desy wants to be herself, wants to hone the technique of painting that she really enjoys and is good at, which has embodied her already. Desy Gitary is known for her expressive and spontaneous painting style, following her intuition most of the time. The ideas inside her head and her heart are simply executed in an agile manner onto canvas or paper. Therefore, for the sake of ZONE – Out of Comfort, Desy learned more about lines and color mixing so that this exhibition offers something different from her previous solo exhibition. Several artists suggested her to show a new medium, but Desy felt that the style she had was her strength and she wanted to focus on it.
However, the fifteen works and 1 video in this exhibition are new works that try to break away from what has been shown in previous exhibitions, both technically and thematically. Self Care, Healthy, I love Me, The Beauty Inside are four of them which talk about their love for themselves. Desy wants to show that this exhibition is a testament to her love for herself, how Desy managed to take care of herself, after her hard struggle to realize her dream as an artist, and after her hard struggle to escape the shadows of her past and become herself. Just like the lyrics of one of BTS song – Mikrokosmos, which is also a title of Desy’s artwork : We are shining In each of our own room//In each our own stars // Some lights, ambitious // Some lights, wanders // People’s lights / All of them are precious // Dark night (don’t be lonely) // Like all the stars (we shine) / Please don’t disappear // Since you are an extraordinary existence // Let us shine…