Canadians have mixed reactions to Dadang's show<\/p>\n
VANCOUVER, CANADA (JP): After the performance and while Dadang
\nChristanto was bathing and dressing, Warren Arcan announced that
\nthe artist wished to hear the audience's reactions to his
\nperformance.<\/p>\n
This feedback session is in the tradition of grassroots
\ntheater in Indonesia and many places around the world.<\/p>\n
Yet it is somewhat antithetical in the West today, where
\npeople are used to being able to remain passive consumers of
\nevents (think of TV, movies, theater, art exhibitions).<\/p>\n
Dadang returned in his dark jacket and pants to enthusiastic
\napplause and sat down to hear what people thought. At first, they
\nwere still transfixed by the experience and shy to speak up.
\nSlowly, one after the other, they began to relate how the
\nperformance had affected them. Some had experienced the work at
\nan intensely individualistic and personal level, others as a
\nmoving philosophical and humanistic statement.<\/p>\n
Yet others had sensed a clear political message. They
\nattempted to get the artist to explain how particular features
\nwere meant to symbolize specific aspects of the current situation
\nin Indonesia.<\/p>\n
Some people even went on from speaking about their feelings to
\ngiving authoritative statements about what the artist had
\nintended to convey, with little regard for the fact that the
\nartist was right there to be asked. This was a sad comment on the
\nhigh status given to criticism which ignores artistic intent
\naltogether.<\/p>\n
A well-known American political scientist's question about
\nwhether Dadang's smashing of five heads held particular meaning
\nwas answered with a big smile and the comment \"No, there was no
\nintentional meaning to the number\".<\/p>\n
Dadang explained that he never planned the smallest details of
\nthe performance, but improvised as he went along and as the mood
\ninspired him. In his first performance of the piece, in New York
\nCity in connection with the first large opening of
\nTraditions\/Tensions, he had only smashed three heads. He said the
\nexercise had been so emotionally draining that he couldn't go on.<\/p>\n
Dadang said he would not have undressed completely if he had
\ndone the performance in Indonesia. Nudity easily becomes an issue
\nat home, he added.<\/p>\n
A veteran artist at Western Front said Dadang's performance
\nwas the most moving he had seen performed there.<\/p>\n
Many questions came to people's minds as they silently sat
\ntransfixed by the drama -- was the shedding of clothing symbolic
\nof the shedding of culture and civilization? Was the covering of
\nthe body with clay the return to a more pure, natural state of
\nbeing or a symbol of death?<\/p>\n
Was the depiction of the progression of the state of mind
\nevidence how violence, once started, feeds on itself and lowers
\nthe consciousness to the very deepest levels? Can watching such
\na performance purge the violence inherent in every person who
\nviews it?<\/p>\n
Dadang's performance lay in its masterful yet simple
\nconception and execution, his skills as an actor and the fact
\nthat the meaning worked on many levels. One could interpret it as
\na statement about human evolution and the essence of
\ncivilization, or a statement about the potential for violence
\nthat lies within every individual. It also illustrated something
\nabout the addictive quality of violent action. It also, perhaps,
\ndraws on specific historical and biographical experiences.<\/p>\n
The meaning of the work is thus rooted in a place where the
\nphilosophical and the political, the personal and the social,
\nintersect. In this way, although the specific readings and
\nmeanings of the performances vary according to the time, place
\nand audience concerned, Dadang's work has something to offer
\nwherever he takes it in the world.<\/p>\n
Chantal Pontbriand has written that performance art \"is a form
\nof art in which the reception the spectator offers to the work is
\nintegrated into the process of production. By reception, we
\nunderstand the ability of the spectator to play the role of
\nreceiver, to exercise a critical function, and even to become a
\nproducer himself. Performance makes possible the reversibility of
\ncommunication's terms, producer and receiver interchanging their
\nroles\".<\/p>\n
The strength of performance art that goes beyond the
\nnarcissistic concerns of a single individual to address issues of
\nbroader relevance, like that created by Dadang and other
\nIndonesian, Southeast Asian, Chinese, Dutch, American, Brazilian
\nor aboriginal artists, is that it involves the spectator directly
\nin the act of making meaning out of form and expression.<\/p>\n
People come to the art event as viewers but they may leave
\nwith a much fuller and more satisfying experience, having been
\nasked to be cocreators to an entire event which will never again
\nbe repeated in exactly the same way. The audience in this case
\nleft after a first-hand encounter with Indonesia's contemporary
\nart, one of its exponents and his concerns. (Astri Wright)<\/p>\n
The writer is an expert on Southeast Asian Arts and an associate
\nprofessor at the University of Victoria, Canada.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/canadians-have-mixed-reactions-to-dadangs-show-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}