Do you realize that we all interpret success in different ways. Most of us probably view material things as a measure of someone's success or failure.
If so, of course after completing the DKV major, Agan Harahap will work at an agency and work like most of his friends did at that time. However, Agan admitted that he was different. His life's calling as an artist then leads him to always make decisions that are considered unusual, but he believes these decisions are the most appropriate choice for him.
How do you live your life by upholding your ideals as an artist? Can he live up to these ideals in the commercial world? Check out the complete journey with KARENA.ID!
Listening to the Call of Life
Agan Harahap makes decisions in his life based on his calling in life. Apart from career paths, another decision that is considered important is moving to Yogyakarta. Without anything urgent, you can suddenly decide to move to Yogyakarta just like that. Because for him, Yogyakarta is a city that supports his lifestyle as an artist. Not as big as Jakarta, of course, he admits that Yogyakarta has helped him develop.
Among its small curves, Yogyakarta brings you together with influential people in your career journey. Even though it is not always easy, listening to the call in life to become an artist and moving to Yogyakarta has made him happy.
Not that I've never been involved in the corporate world. Agan was also a photographer in the MRA group, but he admitted that he only learned about photography after becoming a photographer. Because, at first, Agan was not very enthusiastic about the world of photography. Your interest is more focused on what can be produced from a photo itself.
Eventually, Agan collects hundreds of photos, makes modifications, then combines them. The results of this combination then give birth to a new work of art whose meaning is no less than that contained in the photo itself.
Listening to the calling in life makes Agan Harahap happy.
Research, Research, Research!
The work you have been doing so far may seem trivial. However, behind each of his works, Agan admits that he always goes through a series of research. Research helps him develop a framework, so that his work can be on target. With research, you know how far you can set limits. For Agan, the research process is like a map on the journey he takes. It is impossible for him to produce a work without research.
One of the works that made his name as an artist rocket was an exhibition at the National Gallery. Then, a photography exhibition flew him to Portugal in 2008. So all this time, offers have always come to you, not the other way around. The curators, with the concept that has been created, will contact you and ask if you can include yourself in the exhibition.
Not all exhibitions result in the sale of the work, because at a festival in Portugal, for example, the photographs that had been exhibited were then torn down to avoid exhibition without permission. Because you have a soft copy file, this is certainly not a problem.
Where do you get the inspiration to create your works? For Agan, ideas come magically. It can be through friends' comments to the Facebook timeline. Or read books and watch movies. Agan also believes that society can measure the depth of an artist's intellect by looking at the work he creates. Not only that, we can also find out what influenced him during the creative process of making the work.
"The research process is like a map of the journey being taken."
Just focus on working, business is a bonus
The advice that you can give to friends who also have the desire to become artists is to focus on creating. Create something honest, from the heart, and focus on it. If the work can produce material, consider it a bonus. Because if we expect material from the start, this will affect the quality of a work.
Therefore, you never think too much about being able to have a luxurious lifestyle with an abundance of material things. He admitted that he just wanted to be able to live simply and simply, without needing to be abundant. The important thing is that he and the people around him are filled with inner peace and happiness.
As evidenced by this intention, his work was recently purchased by a museum in Berlin, under the name Hamburger Bahnhof, museum für Gegenwart. In his work, Agan mixes and matches Caucasian faces using traditional Indonesian clothing while local Indonesian faces wear European clothing. Agan admitted that there was no special message he was trying to convey through this work. He simply wanted to convey that even though we have different tribes and nations, we are still one.
Another work that Agan is currently working on touches on the issue of pornography by delving into the realm of culture. Through his research, Agan wants to present a work of visual art that invites people to reflect on the meaning of pornography as they understand it.
Because, if we look closely, each culture in its own country also has its own character that shows off the curves of the human body, but on a mission to celebrate aesthetics, not pornography. Our minds as responders then conclude it is pornography. Agan admits that such traps are a fun exploration in the creative process of producing a work.
Hearing Agan's life story, can you now find your own calling in life? Are you ready to consistently do it? Find other inspiring stories from various figures that we have selected just for you only at KARENA.ID.