Studio Tour: Brojjol (Skateboart Foundation)

Our last Studio Tour saw us in East London's finest borough; Hackney as we spoke with Rosy Nicholas, set designer behind our recent Garfield Lookbook campaign. Now we're heading over 7,500 miles to the worlds largest archipelagic state -  Indonesia, Yogyakarta to be exact, as local artist and skateboarder Sofyan Hidayat gives us a tour of the tropical island based Skateboart Foundation studio... --------------- Who are you and what do you do? My name is Sofyan Hidayat, also known as Brojjol. I’m an artist and designer currently living and working in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. I love drawing and being creative and currently live in a small house which I also use as a studio space with 2 of my friends Dhika and Zul. Tell us a bit more about where you are from and the city you live in? Yogyakarta is the best city for art and culture, well, I can actually say it’s the “Capital of Culture” in Indonesia. It's where traditional meets modern, where heritage meets contemporary, it’s a dynamic city with so many events every week. From music, performing art, exhibitions and more. Can you remember your first experiences with art? Since we were kids we joined local drawing competitions. In my country it's typical to have simple art competitions for toddlers and younger children from an early age. How would you describe the creative community in Indonesia? The creative community here is powerful, it gives so much energy. It grows, it expands, with great variety; whether it’s a local traditional community that's preserving to produce local talent, or young art students gathering to create a collective project with the same backgrounds and interests, such as us. Tell us about the space you work in, it's part of a bigger project right? I live and work in a small house in the heart of Yogyakarta...friends called it the SF-Studio as it’s part of a bigger project called the Skateboart Foundation. The space is a typically small studio that belongs to young artists in Yogyakarta. The space may not be very big but we have a lot of fun and energy that inspires us to create art everyday. How many people are part of the Skateboart Foundation and what's your goal with the project? There are 3 main members who all work and live together in the studio, but when we have a larger project or something that will be ongoing for a longer period of time we get help from friends that always support us. Our biggest goal is simple, to become an alternative centre that combines skateboarding with art in a great environment. Here in Indonesia we want to utilise our project as a tool to expand the joy of being involved with skateboarding and art. What other projects are you currently working on?   We are currently developing a new online showcase through Big Cartel called Push&Brush, the project aims to open a new online/offline market in the skate-art industry. Focusing on working on art movements, promoting young artists and offering a range of artwork that you can collect and support. What are your day to day inspirations? Skateboarding, everyday things that happen in the street, the internet! Do you have a piece of work you've created which stands out as a favourite to you? They are all my favourite, they all have a story behind them and every piece has used a process that will make the best out of the story. Outside of SF which other artists do you admire? Basically, all the skateboard-related artists are our favourite muse, whether it’s local artists or international friends. From Pontus Alv, Michael Sieben, Dolan Stearns, they are all a constant inspiration to us. What would be your dream project to work on? Well, we would very much love to work with, or do some form of collaboration with all people who support us. It would be really good to work abroad, across all sides of the globe, especially the place where the skateboard itself came from, I think we would gladly get along with it for sure. --------------- Find more about Sofyan and his work by visiting his Tumblr here. Keep up to date with his day to day life in Yogyakarta by following him on Instagram here. Interested in learning more about the Skateboart Foundation? Follow Dkadikara and Zoulord and check out www.dhikadikara.tumblr.com.