I interviewed my friend Reiz Ariva Hale about his art. We have known each other for 4 years. We met in the same intake as candidates for a food and beverage role at the Sydney Aquarium.

A riveting artist of many talents he is a musician and a writer.

Born in Bandung Indonesia, Reiz was raised by an artisitic family. He has described his upbringing as a “remix”.

“ My grand mother was a singer while my grandfather owned a guitar factory back in Indonesia. My mum paints and my father plays several instruments and makes video documentaries. I am pretty much a remix of all of them, if I could say that.” 

I was able to find a possible correlation in regards to Reiz’s creativity. In the Jakarta Post titled ” Bandung: Get the creative juices flowing “, Bandung have been described as a city with vibrant creative scene in which contemporary art exhibitions, concerts, fashion shows and community gatherings regularly take place (Sabirini 2008). Furthermore, compared to other cities in Indonesia, Bandung’s cultural economy differs in the sense that it is closely related to human creativity. Whereas Yogyakarta is best known as the centre of ‘traditional’ culture, Bali for ‘religious’ based culture and Jakarta for ‘commercial’ related culture, Bandung can be described as a city of ‘creative culture’ (Radjawali & Somardi n.d).

It is rather intriguing whether Reiz’s creative root a result of his cultural upbringing or, regarded as a natural phenomena? After asking him how and why he makes art he simply credits his parents.

” I started making art when I was very young because, both of my parents always loved music, drawing and painting.”

Reiz also embodies raw human emotions through writing. Most are inspired from personal experiences. He perceives writing as a mirror to understand one’s own perception.

” Writing is a mirror by which we can understand our own perception of the world. I would love to just keep on creating and share them that hopefully it can help inspire people in any shape of form.”

During the interview I asked him how he perceives his audience? The response was quite poetic and endearing (not surprising coming from a writer).

” I see them as the people whom I share my finished progress/product with.”

According to Reiz, he holds a passion that have shaped him to have a clear understanding of the world. As a result built him to be more patient and persistent in reaching his goals. He concludes “What I enjoy most about my passion is that it keeps me busy doing what I love. It has shaped me as a person to have a clear understanding that the better you master your art or passion, the better your artwork can be. It’s built me as a person to be more patient, more persistent, in reaching goals or whatever it is I want to achieve in life.”

References 

• Sabarini, P. 2008, ‘Bandung: get the creative juices flowing’, The Jakarta Post, 4 May, viewed on 23 April 2015, <http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008/05/04/bandung-get-creative-juices-flowing.html&gt;
• Radjawali, I. & Somardi A.R, n.d, ‘Creative Culture and Urban Planning: The Bandung experience’, Institute of Technology, Bandung, Indonesia,

Image References all courtesy of the artist