Art in Construction: Artist Rostarr’s Monumental Mural Enveloping Potato Head Beach Club

Those visiting Potato Head Beach Club are currently being welcomed by a new face – ‘Evolving Landscapes’, a black and white mural of epic proportions by Korean-American artist, Rostarr.

Potato Head Beach Club first opened in 2010, and its initial unveiling captured the imagination with its Colosseum-like façade fashioned by one of Indonesia’s most renowned architects, Andra Matin. An eclectic mosaic made up of thousands of teak window shutters, towering the elliptical wall that wraps the entire venue – a beach club envisioned as an art piece and amphitheatre, and the planting of the first seeds that would bloom into Desa Potato Head, Bali’s creative village.

16 years on, the iconic Colosseum remains the beach club’s most memorable visual brand. However, time has its way with everything, and the 6,500-piece puzzle is up for an overdue refurbishment. But what to do whilst a 66-metre-long, 20-metre-high façade is being renewed? Potato Head’s answer: make art.

Enter Romon ‘Rostarr’ Yang, an artist based out of Brooklyn, New York City, considered a pioneer in abstract calligraphy. Working across a range of mediums – paintings, sculpture, film, digital art – the artist has collaborated with global brands like NIKE and The Standard Hotels, with major solo exhibitions in New York, LA, Miami, Seoul, Tokyo, Paris and Milan. In fact, Rostarr first worked with Potato Head five years ago, to paint the group’s Sweet Potato bio bus, a joint collaboration with Green School Bali.

Visually, he has been sought after for his distinct iconographic visual language which he terms Graphysics, a dynamic, monochromatic style of calligraphy which has become his signature. It is this ‘visual language’ that now wraps around the entirety of Potato Head Beach Club’s façade.

Concealing the on-going construction of the shutter-mosaic, Potato Head presented Rostarr with a colossal vertical canvas, a space of 1,320 square metres (rough estimation) – the size five and a half tennis courts. Over several weeks, the artist brought this large-scale artwork to life, directly on site – with visitors able to witness his process unfold in real time.

The monumental mural and art piece has been aptly-named ‘Evolving Landscapes’, a title that speaks across many meanings: from the direct transformation happening behind the canvas, the ever-changing environment of Bali, the evolution of the island’s creative and cultural landscape, and of course the dynamic and transformative nature of Rostarr’s own work.

“I’m seeking inspiration from the vivid culture and people of Bali — incorporating gods and deities, traditional dancers, and sun and sea worshippers,” shares Rostarr, whose process is always spontaneous, with freedom and dynamism in his form. “I hope to represent these iconic images through my abstract calligraphic style to create a mural of epic proportions.”

Now complete, Potato Head Beach Club welcomes visitors with a message of renewal, designed as a of the evolving relationship between humanity and nature, creativity and environment, culture and change.

The installation will remain on display for 12 months, after which the visual landscape within ‘The Desa’ shall evolve once again.

Follow the artist on Instagram at @rostarrstudios, or see the mural for yourself at Potato Head Beach Club.

Desa Potato Head
Jl. Petitenget No.51B, Seminyak
@potatoheadbali
seminyak.potatohead.co