ROBY DWI ANTONO: TILIK BELIK: VISITING THE AILING SPRING
Almine Rech Paris, Front Space is pleased to present ‘Tilik Belik: Visiting the Ailing Spring’, Roby Dwi Antono's fourth solo exhibition with the gallery.
June 14 – July 26, 2025
The arresting image of ‘A Ritualistic Purification of The Water Nymph’ provokes numerous questions. Who is lying down in what seems like a fish shroud? Is she going to survive? More questions emerge as we continue to consume the rest of the image and attempt to understand other elements that seem to defy logical thinking.
A self-taught painter based in Yogyakarta, Roby has never been one to over-articulate his motivations or inspiration. Even in interviews with the media, one gets the sense that Roby prefers to let his paintings do the talking: “I would often say that my works contain a set of idioms which have very personal meanings to me. However, at the same time, I also challenge myself to be able to create works that can make people’s emotions arise. I leave some visual cues in my works which act as a melancholic conundrum, for my audiences to set their eyes and mind upon. I love it when people try to guess the message behind my works and in the end each person will have their own interpretation, which is good because it opens the way for another enriching dialogue between us. The human experience affects both the idea and visual aspect of my works.”
Going back to the work ‘A Ritualistic Purification of The Water Nymph’, one will be able to notice a significant presence of water. Besides the character of the ‘water nymph’, the element of water as a sign of life is omnipresent, to replenish or perhaps to resuscitate a fallen being. Therein lies the first entry point into this current series of works. Subsequent works like 'Collecting Mourning Water' and 'Reviving Dying Springs' speak of a similar theme – water as both a source of grief and life.
The exhibition’s title, ‘Tilik Belik: Visiting the Ailing Spring’, draws from a Javanese expression that traditionally refers to visiting someone who is unwell—a gesture of care, presence, and empathy. In this context, the act of tilik becomes a poetic metaphor for attending to a landscape in distress. The belik, once a vital water source intertwined with local myth and ecological balance, is now fading—both physically and culturally—under the weight of modernization. Yet by invoking this phrase, Roby offers a tender, almost ritualistic encounter with loss.