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The Rising of Sunstroke
Vicky Saputra began making artworks and participating in exhibitions in early 2016. At first, he explored watercolor painting on paper for about five years. He then moved toward acrylic, spray paint, and mixed media for the next five years. In 2024, during a residency program, he became interested in exploring the sun as a material for painting.
During this residency, he was deeply influenced by the architecture of the house, which was filled with openings and surrounded by a lush garden. He realized that direct sunlight contains energy that could be transformed into dots and lines. Using a magnifying glass, he created drawings and paintings by burning trails and holes into the surface, which he later combined with other media. The process of shaping these images also became a form of slow erasure. This method evoked memories of his experiences in and around Jakarta, which over time have shifted, distorted, or vanished altogether.
He named this technique ‘Sunstroke‘. The name comes from the word brushstroke, a traditional painting technique using brushes.
A year later, he began creating paintings using only the sun, without combining it with conventional paint. The Sunstroke technique gradually developed into an independent practice in its own right.
This process led him to reflect more deeply on the tension between science and spirituality ; the sun has been worshipped throughout human history as a sacred presence and a metaphor for the cosmos, while in modern times it has been studied as a scientific phenomenon. His practice also considers the tension between external and internal experience. With the advent of artificial light and modern systems of labor, human activity has become detached from the natural rhythms of daylight. A work can continue long after sunset, allowing many processes of production to exist by ignoring nature’s clock. Through this practice, Vicky seeks to sense and embrace the intimate relationship between the movement of the sun and the rhythms of living beings on earth.
He explored his work through an intuitive and spontaneous approach. He experienced his surroundings. The wind moving across his skin, the sweat produced under the heat of the sun, and the clouds that signal a moment to pause and rest. Human and natural experiences converge within a single moment of making. Through the magnifying glass, he brings these seemingly opposing poles into a single point of focus, where they meet and merge.
