Meet the artist taking cues from Buckminster Fuller

Sinta Tantra’s floor installation at Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery gives visitors a splash of the public and architectural spirit of her work.

(Image credit: Luca Piffaretti)

By Harriet Thorpe

last updated 1 August 2022

in Features

Drink up striking colours and minimalist compositions in this solo exhibition by Sinta Tantra in London. The British-Balinese artist is using the space at Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery to explore her artistic journey, from public art to architectural interventions and works on canvas.

The exhibition title ‘Your Private Sky’ is lifted from a manuscript of the same name written by Buckminster Fuller, the American architect and polymath who inspired Tantra’s investigation into philosophy and the imagination by way of mathematics. It was in this text that Fuller outlined the design for his glass geodesic structure, relevant to Tantra for its ability to project and reflect. ‘The idea of “your private sky” expresses a twofold experience – a mode of thought that is both collective and individual. Blue-sky thinking, where visionary ideas can grow from simple musings,’ she says.

Canvases with different shapes & colours — *A folding screen of linen canvas by Sinta Tantra installed at Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London.*

With a decade of experience in public art, Tantra is well-versed in the command of spatial systems, scale and dimensions. This has manifested in her newer works, small-scale canvases that elevate line drawings into abstracted geodesic-style forms. ‘Whereas my previous works used colour to celebrate the spectacle, I recently started thinking about what would happen if colour was taken out of the equation,’ she says.

‘After studying the blueprint designs used in preparation for my public art projects, I became fascinated by line, and how at times it offered more imaginative possibilities than colour,’ says Tantra. Two questions motivated the minimal, stripped back canvases that can be seen in the first part of the exhibition: ‘Can total immersion be achieved through the simplicity of line alone?’ and ‘How does this relational experience alter the way we see and imagine?’

The second part of the exhibition features a floor installation, giving visitors a splash of the public and architectural spirit of her work. It’s a maximalist piece that absorbs its riders in graphic shapes and dazzling colours lifted from tropical motifs and nature.

Sinta Tantra polychrome canvas in London

Sinta Tantra monochrome canvas in London

INFORMATION

'Your Private Sky' is on view until 1 September. For more information, visit the Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery website and Sinta Tantra’s website

ADDRESS

Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery
533 Old York Road
London SW18 1TG

Harriet Thorpe is a writer, journalist and editor covering architecture, design and culture, with particular interest in sustainability, 20th-century architecture and community. After studying History of Art at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and Journalism at City University in London, she developed her interest in architecture working at Wallpaper* magazine and today contributes to Wallpaper*, The World of Interiors and Icon magazine, amongst other titles. She is author of The Sustainable City (2022, Hoxton Mini Press), a book about sustainable architecture in London, and the Modern Cambridge Map (2023, Blue Crow Media), a map of 20th-century architecture in Cambridge, the city where she grew up.