Syagini Ratna Wulan's sculptural painting appears to shift & change tone
Syagini Ratna Wulan, Indonesia b.1979 / Parhelion 2021 / Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene plastic, stainless steel, lacquer paint / 300 x 500cm / The Kenneth and Yasuko Myer Collection of Contemporary Asian Art. Purchased 2022 with funds from Michael Sidney Myer through the QAGOMA Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Syagini Ratna Wulan / View full image
Parhelion 2021 appears to shift and change like beams of coloured sunlight, Syagini Ratna Wulan uses en masse hundreds of modular painted prism shapes arranged in a wave-like pattern to build an overall colour gradation, while each small prism creates additional angled surfaces, so the spectrum shifts through different viewpoints across the sculptural surface.
Watch | We install hundreds of modular painted prism shapes to bring Parhelion 2021 to life
Wulan has become a well-known proponent of abstraction in Indonesia, finding broad influences across colour theory, Western science and digital and screen-based contemporary culture. She is fascinated by the unique ways we perceive and consume colour — from natural phenomena such as rainbows and spectral colours to digital screens and gadgets — and the sensibilities colour can instil in us.
The artist contemplates how we consume colour through images today. The fact that our viewing experience is altered by the wideranging variance of artificial light and by using computers and gadgets — as well as the awareness that digital images are often manipulated and distorted — contributes to the intrigue and ambiguity of colour reception and optical effects Wulan explores.
Syagini Ratna Wulan, Indonesia b.1979 / Parhelion 2021 / Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene plastic, stainless steel, lacquer paint / 300 x 500cm / The Kenneth and Yasuko Myer Collection of Contemporary Asian Art. Purchased 2022 with funds from Michael Sidney Myer through the QAGOMA Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Syagini Ratna Wulan / View full image
Syagini Ratna Wulan, Indonesia b.1979 / Parhelion 2021 / Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene plastic, stainless steel, lacquer paint / 300 x 500cm / The Kenneth and Yasuko Myer Collection of Contemporary Asian Art. Purchased 2022 with funds from Michael Sidney Myer through the QAGOMA Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Syagini Ratna Wulan / View full image
Entitled ‘Halo’, her series emerged through exploration of geometries and how artificial colour can emulate the physical and mathematical phenomena that produce light and colour in nature, such as rainbows. Each work explores a particular optical phenomenon, such as the parhelion (illustrated), caused by ice in the atmosphere that produces bright spots on either side of the sun. In the series, Wulan also experiments with the painted surface as her works become sculptural, manifesting of geometries, materials and structures. Through different materials and modular forms, hard edges and polished surfaces are delicately balanced by soft minimalist palettes and subtle, faded shifts in tone.
Syagini Ratna Wulan’s Parhelion 2021, installed in ‘Wonderstruck’, GOMA 2025 accompanied by Bridget Riley’s Big Blue 1981–82 / Photograph: N Umek © QAGOMA / View full image
View Syagini Ratna Wulan’s Parhelion 2021 in 'Wonderstruck' at the Gallery of Modern Art until 6 October 2025 or delve into the captivating works on display with our weekly highlights.
Wonderstruck
28 June – 6 October 2025
Gallery of Modern Art
Gallery 1.1 (The Fairfax Gallery), Gallery 1.2 & Gallery 1.3 (Eric and Marion Taylor Gallery)
Brisbane, Australia
Free entry