Astari in search for woman's self<\/p>\n
By Jean Couteau<\/p>\n
DENPASAR, Bali (JP): The 21st century, we have been told,
\npromises to be a century of cultural eclecticism and women's
\npower. As ideas and symbols freely flow across the world in
\nmodern man's hectic and sometimes contradictory search for
\npersonal recognition, ethnic identity and international
\ncommunication, women, the eternal bearers of man's roots, will
\nprobably be those who articulate, as in ancient times, the new
\nvalues in the making.<\/p>\n
Astari Rasjid's Wings and Excursions exhibition at the Ganesha
\nGallery in the Four Seasons Resort in Bali, from Dec. 11, 2000,
\nto Jan. 12, 2001, may be a forerunner of this new trend, with
\neclecticism and womanhood as the two main pillars of her work.
\nMost of her paintings feature a standing woman -- the artist --
\nwhose face occupies the upper-central part of the canvas. The
\ncomposition is almost perfectly symmetrical; the treatment is
\nrealist, but there is a calculated stiffness in the posture and
\nthe gaze that gives it an air of meditative concentration. What
\nimmediately comes to mind are the Byzantine icons and the imagery
\nof the Middle Ages.<\/p>\n
Astari said: \"I just arrived from Moscow where I participated
\nin an international exhibition, and I was surprised to see the
\naffinity in spirit between my works and those of the Christian
\nOrthodox tradition.\"<\/p>\n
The affinity is at times stunning. In one painting the central
\nwoman, Virgin Mary-like, is holding a child in her arms. In
\nanother, she has angel-like wings; in yet another he is shown
\nkilling a winged dragon. Is the artist proposing imitations,
\nsimulacrum or an ironical deconstruction of Western religious
\nsymbolism? She is doing none of these. A modern, cosmopolitan-
\nminded Indonesian woman, yet with roots in the culture of Java,
\nAstari is using the symbols of the various cultural backgrounds
\nshe has known during her life and career as so many tools toward
\na reflection, \"her\" reflection, on the condition of woman. These
\ntools may be mainly \"Western\", as in her present series on
\ngoddesses, or \"Eastern-Javanese\", as in much of the discourse and
\nsymbols of her past works, but they are always personalized.<\/p>\n
Astari's eclecticism is not a sham. It is rooted in her life
\nexperience and corresponds to her real identity. Astari was
\nraised in a \"traditional\" Javanese family, i.e. in a milieu that
\nemphasized propriety of behavior and control of one's emotions
\nand in which women were to conform to rather than set the rules.
\nYet by a whim of fate Astari's father was posted abroad during
\nher youth, and she gained an international exposure and
\neducation.<\/p>\n
Add to this that she grew up to be stunningly beautiful and we
\nhave all the contradictory ingredients that have formed her
\npersonality and now her painting: the duality of tradition and
\nmodernity, Java and the West, submissiveness and liberty, all
\nseen through the eyes of a woman who is demanding recognition
\nbeyond her attractiveness and beyond the demands of both
\ntradition and modernity.<\/p>\n
This explains the apparent narcissism of Astari's paintings.
\nAstari's self-portrait is at the center of almost all her works.
\nAnd, if it is not, she is shown symmetrically to a male figure.
\nShe is thus a sort of cosmic figure: occupying the center, she
\ngives meaning to the world of symbols that surround her -- a
\nharpoon, signs of modernity (planes, time, background cities) and
\nsigns of tradition (the composure, the dress, the background
\nreferences). Yet, as the female element of a duality, she is part
\nof a world of order, that of the complementary opposites of
\nJavanese tradition (male\/female, tradition\/modernity, etc.)<\/p>\n
Interestingly, although she depicts herself as obviously
\nbeautiful, Astari never insists on her sex appeal. The woman she
\ndepicts is symbolic, and this woman is Astari herself: she
\nincarnates the Modern Indonesian Woman, a woman aware of the
\ncontradictions, positive and negative, that are weighing on her.
\nSo she is the \"healer\", the \"slayer\", \"Saraswati\" the goddess of
\nknowledge or the woman in the couple of a \"discontinued episode\".<\/p>\n
She epitomizes the modern Indonesian woman standing
\nimperturbable, \"conscious\", amid the winds of change and
\ncontradiction of values. Her self-representation, therefore, is
\nnot narcissistic. Far from being blinded by her own image, Astari
\nuses it as a means to open to the world, and to expose to us the
\ncontradictions of the condition of woman.<\/p>\n
All of Astari's paintings are painstakingly coded. To the left
\nof Solitaire, perhaps the key painting of the exhibition, is
\nwritten the French word tiroir, meaning that each of Astari's
\npaintings has several layers of meaning that should be deciphered
\none by one, symbol after symbol. In the same painting, a modern-
\nlooking Astari is featured with wings nailed to a wall: she
\ndreams of freedom, yet is immobilized. On her wings are drawn
\nimages of a modern city to the right, and of a tropical paradise
\nto the left: she is trapped between tradition and modernity. A
\nclock symbolizes the passing of time and a label she holds in her
\nhand the traps of one's social image; above her head a plane is
\nflying, calling to mind the presence of distant lands.<\/p>\n
Discontinued Episode shows similar constraints, but this time
\noriginating from the Javanese cultural background. The painting,
\na triptych in the European tradition, depicts a stiffly standing
\nwoman in Javanese wedding dress to the right, and her husband to
\nthe left. Both are wearing a broken chain on their wrists. In the
\nmiddle is a door on which are painted scenes of Indonesian
\npolitics, images of city and village life, and, overlooking the
\nwhole, a smoking volcano. Tradition thus seems to be an
\nimpediment to the wife-husband relationship and to the stability
\nof political life.<\/p>\n
In a third painting, The Slayer, the woman reacts in a violent
\nway: carrying her child on her back, she is shown slaying, St-
\nGeorge-like, a winged dragon, while in the background is a small
\nrepresentation of Rangda, the Balinese witch and symbol of
\nwoman's revolt.<\/p>\n
Astari Rasjid's paintings are often depicted as being embedded
\nin Javanese tradition. Her present exhibition, however, shows
\nthat she borrows many elements from other cultural backgrounds:
\nclassical Western mythology (Icarus); Christian iconography (The
\nMother, The Slayer); Balinese imagery (the Rangda figure and the
\nKamasan painting background). In fact, unlike most Indonesian
\nmale painters dealing with traditional symbols, Astari's
\npaintings express no longing for an idyllic past and a lost
\nidentity. Her work is instead a protest against the cultural
\nfetters that hinder women's full expression of their individual
\npersonalities. It so happen that this protest is formulated using
\nthe symbols and structural formulation of the very culture she is
\nprotesting against.<\/p>\n
As she further grows in age and wisdom, it will be interesting
\nto see how Astari continues redefining symbols in her
\ninexhaustible search for her woman's self.<\/p>",
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