Cempaka Surakusumah, Translating Emotion into Geometric Form
Cempaka Surakusumah’s works are rooted in observation of how sound composition and imagery influence the way people feel. Since childhood she has been drawn to string instruments, orchestras, and classical compositions. Her creative process almost always begins with music. Melody becomes a vessel to express emotions that are difficult to capture in words. Guided by music, she translates feelings into geometric abstract compositions.
Her profession as a graphic designer influences her strong attention to composition. Exposure to the paintings of Wassily Kandinsky also shaped her visual sensitivity, especially in seeing form and color as a language capable of conveying emotion.
Her interest in visual art and music began early. Wherever she went, she carried crayons and a sketchbook. When visiting relatives, she would look for a corner to draw. She admits it was also a way to avoid too much small talk. When traveling, she would take time to capture moments through drawings.
“The drawings were not always detailed or clear, sometimes just random scribbles. But through lines and colors, I feel I can preserve the memory of a place better,” she said.
Music developed alongside her visual practice. It began with imitating her older sibling playing musical instruments, which gradually nurtured her interest in different sounds. She often listened to the radio and searched for frequencies at random. She recalls accidentally discovering a classical music station with unstable reception. Although the sound was often distorted and faded in and out, she found calm in it. Without realizing it, visual art and music had influenced each other since childhood and shaped her creative process later on.
Her professional journey began in the editorial world. There she learned structure, hierarchy, and how layout, grid, and typography shape the way people read and absorb messages. A turning point came when she joined Thinkingroom Inc. There she understood that design is more than neat visuals. She learned about design thinking and began to see typography as a visual element with persona and character, almost like a human presence. From that point, she realized that graphic design carries wide value and always offers new possibilities for exploration.
Her curiosity led to the formation of PoLA Artistry, a design studio that also became a sister company of Thinkingroom Inc. Initially focusing on invitation design and daily life products, the studio expanded into cross medium experimentation through the project Person A Person. The project combined storytelling, design thinking, and textile in wearable art.
She also explored the role of design in the film industry and later studied design implementation in the public sector through GovTech Edu. Through these phases, she recognized her interest in integrated design, viewing design as a human centered system that connects visual, narrative, and empathy.
Although her path may appear shifting, she sees each phase as part of understanding how design can exist in a complete and relevant way. Ultimately, what she enjoys most is the moment when an idea begins to take form.
At the same time, she realizes that daily design work requires many considerations and compromises. This awareness created a need for another space. Through participating in exhibitions, she found that the freedom of making art became an important balance. Design provides a space to communicate ideas clearly and intentionally, while art allows her to speak in a more intuitive and personal way.
She grew increasingly convinced that abstraction can serve as a bridge between sound and visual. The forms she creates are not representations of objects, but representations of feeling. Melody and rhythm help her process emotions that are difficult to articulate. Each composition becomes an emotional landscape formed through repetition, rhythm, and balance.
Most of the music she uses is instrumental and classical. “I usually begin each work by listening to one song repeatedly until the sound dissolves into pure rhythm and emotion. In that meditative space, I let harmony guide me, transforming something invisible into a visible form,” she explained.
Cempaka calls her practice Shapes of Emotion. She sees it as a space to translate a spectrum of emotions into visual form. One theme she often explores is finding happiness, how happiness appears in small moments that are often overlooked.
“My work explores how emotions emerge and take shape from simple everyday moments. Through quiet observation, I try to capture the essence of what it means to feel, to pause, and to reconnect with the subtle happiness hidden in daily life,” she said.
This theme is also her response to social realities that define happiness through certain standards. She feels that the glorification of an ideal image of happiness often feels less relevant. For her, happiness exists in more personal and simple forms, in everyday experiences that may not appear grand but feel real.
One recurring challenge in her creative process is the inner conflict she faces. Her background as a graphic designer trained her to work with clear structure, rational consideration, and the need to justify every visual decision. When entering a more intuitive space, that mindset still lingers.
“I can find myself going back and forth between letting intuition flow and the urge to make everything logical and structured,” she said.
On the other hand, her works speak about emotions that are often unspoken. In daily life, she does not always need to articulate those emotions explicitly. Yet in creating art, she is required to confront and translate them into visual form. The process can feel raw and personal. From this she learned that intuition has its own structure, and not everything needs rational explanation to feel whole.
In her practice, Cempaka experiments with various materials, including acrylic painting on canvas, embroidery on textile, resin, and laser cut techniques. One of her significant works is Look Closer, exhibited in 2020 at Exhibition Trash New Order in Shenzhen.
From a distance, the work appears as a harmonious color composition. Upon closer inspection, it is constructed from fragments of beverage labels and plastic food packaging cut into small pieces, frozen in resin, and assembled into a geometric abstract composition. The work addresses the beauty of packaging and how that beauty often makes products feel more valuable. Yet behind it, plastic waste lasts far longer and poses environmental risks. She invites audiences to truly look closer.
The production process was challenging because it took place during the pandemic. She could not attend the exhibition in Shenzhen. The work was produced remotely with volunteer artists there. The greatest challenge was maintaining artistic vision and consistency despite the distance.
The year 2025 became a contemplative phase for her. After years in the design industry, she began questioning the direction she wanted to pursue. She felt a desire to focus more on her artistic practice, where she felt most calm and honest with herself. Participating in 100+ Asia Shenzhen became an important moment.
In that exhibition, she presented a compilation titled The Gentle Light. The collection translates emotions drawn from simple happiness within daily routines. One small moment she reflects on is walking under sunlight while listening to music. Guided by compositions from Gabriel Fauré, Claude Debussy, Camille Saint Saëns, Emillie Mosseri, and Hemio, she translated emotion into geometric abstraction. In Japanese there is a word, komorebi, referring to sunlight filtering through trees. This concept became the foundation for the collection. Light becomes form, silence becomes color, and harmony finds shape.
The collection explores various materials, from acrylic painting to combinations of acrylic with stainless steel, laser cut and acrylic print. In the same exhibition, she also presented an installation titled Resonance. Visitors were invited to sit in the garden area, enjoy fresh air and sunlight, and experience a pause within everyday life.
For Cempaka, moving between design and art is a way to understand herself and the world. Her exploration of abstraction becomes both language and therapy. “My works are reflections of how emotions move, shift, and find their form through sound and space,” she stated. Between structure and intuition, she continues to search for honesty.
