Paintings explore dreams of Indonesian women artists<\/p>\n
By Sarah Murray<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): What are the dreams of Indonesian women?
\nAustralian artist Janis Somerville carried this question with her
\nto her four-month residency in the Fine Arts Department of the
\nBandung Institute of Technology. She then asked this question of
\nsix Indonesian artists and asked them to create works with her on
\nthis theme.<\/p>\n
The result: Pembawa Impian (Dream Carriers), closed recently
\nat the Soemardja Gallery in Bandung, and opened in Jakarta
\nyesterday at the Ruang Pameran Utama, Taman Ismail Marzuki for a
\nweek-long stay. After closing in Jakarta, the show will continue
\non to five cities in Australia.<\/p>\n
According to artist and curator F.X. Harsono, Pembawa Impian
\nis the first women's exhibition organized around a theme to ever
\ntake place in Indonesia.<\/p>\n
The Indonesian artists span a wide range of ages, ethnic
\nbackgrounds and artistic interests. There are two painters,
\nFarida Srihadi, the show's senior artist, and Nenny Nurbayani,
\nsculptor Dolorosa Sinaga, sculptor and ceramicist Innes
\nIndreswari S., performance artist Marintan Sirait, and Kumara
\nLily, the youngest, a student at the Bandung Institute of
\nTechnology, who, as yet, defies categorization.<\/p>\n
Wide variety<\/p>\n
Janis Somerville favors mixed media works in three dimensions
\nand installations. As might be expected with such a range of
\nartists, the show presents a wide variety of work. Some of the
\nartists took this opportunity to explore and create new kinds of
\nwork.<\/p>\n
Lily created a work from a series of wooden panels alternately
\ncovered with black and white checked cloth, and painted yellow
\nand black incised in places to create a pattern of plain wood-
\ncolored lines. At each end is fastened a mirror painted with
\nblack lines on one end, yellow lines on the other, that define
\nthe space of reflection. The work is hung at a height that allows
\nviewers to stand in the middle and see themselves, and their
\nreflections, reflected.<\/p>\n
According to the artist, the mirrors represent a process that
\nrepeats: a person has dreams and desires that she strives to
\nachieve; once she has achieved them, the process begins again,
\nwith new dreams. The exploratory nature of the work is
\nhighlighted by the fact that Lily was dissatisfied with the work
\nas it appeared in Bandung and changed it, painting the non-
\ncheckered panels fully and attaching some round, etched copper
\nplates.<\/p>\n
Sculptor Dolorosa Sinaga explores two-dimensional painting,
\nalthough still space is the most expressive element in each of
\nthe three pieces that make up her untitled triptych. All three
\nare framed by deep wooden frames.<\/p>\n
The first painting has an outer border of deep purple, an
\ninner one of white, with a center of purples, blues and blacks.
\nThis serves as a backdrop for two small headless bronze figures
\nthat stand in the left bottom corner, hands covering their
\ngenitals in proper Javanese submissive posture. They are fenced
\nin by copper wire, torn at the top and on one side, that doesn't
\ntotally surround them but obscures their vision.<\/p>\n
The second piece is all painting: a human figure hangs in the
\ncenter of the painting in what could be a doorway, head tilted
\ndownward in a posture that could be one of defeat and
\nhopelessness or one of restful sleeping, waiting to rise again.<\/p>\n
The rectangle of white that borders the figure is made
\nmysterious by the two other rectangles, one a bold outline of
\nblack that stands in the middle of the paper, the other a
\nrectangle that falls from the white rectangle containing the
\nfigure, as if light were falling from a doorway, or perhaps a
\npiece of a wall has been cut away and lies, fallen, on the
\nfloor.<\/p>\n
Is the figure standing in a doorway, or in fact pinned to a
\nwall? We can't tell.<\/p>\n
The third piece contains a small painted figure at the top
\nencaged by black mesh. Below lies a piece of paper, again painted
\nwith dark colors, that is half-rolled up and fastened to the top
\nthird of the paper, creating a hidden space that cannot be seen
\nby the viewer. The dreams of all her figures are thus bounded and
\nlimited: by borders, frames, fences, hidden spaces.<\/p>\n
But this isn't a comment about the status of women
\nparticularly; her figures are androgynous and the situation she
\nillustrates is one general to contemporary Indonesian life.<\/p>\n
Painter Farida Srihadi, after many years of living in the
\nshadow of her famous artist husband, is now coming into her own
\nand receiving recognition as one of the best abstract painters in
\nIndonesia. She is the only artist who used the cylinder given to
\nher by Janis; she uses it to suspend from the ceiling two long
\npieces of sheer white gauzy cloth with the texture of dreams on
\nwhich she has painted a symbolic progression.<\/p>\n
The first piece starts at the top with a dark blue night sky
\npeppered with gold stars and descends into reds, golds, and
\nblacks that surround various symbols that include an arrow
\npointing down.<\/p>\n
The second piece starts with a red circle of sun at the top
\nthat shines onto a big clear space of white, then descends into
\nbold brush strokes of black that cascade around two rectangles
\nthat contain the symbols for male and female, symmetrical and
\nbalanced on the cloth.<\/p>\n
The choice of the cloth is brilliant, but the painting itself
\nseems more thought than felt, although as always, Farida knows
\nhow to create visual drama through color and composition. She
\nsays the symbols of the piece express her private feelings about
\nissues of relations between men and women. She also has changed
\nthe piece for the Jakarta exhibition, adding a third piece of
\ncloth.<\/p>\n
Marintan created a beautiful and simple work entitled
\nPembangunan Rumah (Building A House), made of two different
\ncolors of rich, brown earth carefully arranged in an arc that
\nfollow the curve of the gallery's inner wall. The work represents
\nthe dream of having a house and land to call one's own. The area
\ndefined by the work is then used as the setting for her
\nperformance piece.<\/p>\n
A series of oil lamps are placed around the outer perimeter as
\nMarintan enters, in a simple costume of black. Slowly, slowly she
\nmoves, crouching over like an animal, and covers her entire head
\nwith a sheet of newspaper. She molds the paper to her features,
\ncrumpling and pressing it into shape, and slowly slides it off,
\ncrumpling it to leave it behind, as if it were a mask that were
\nincomplete or, already used, ready to be peeled off so the
\nprocess can start again.<\/p>\n
Sculptor Innes Indreswari S. has also created a mixed media
\nwork, creating a large circle of earth on the floor bordered by
\ntwo rows of rocks with a large red circle in the center. This
\npiece looks up at similar painting on the wall. Painter Nenny
\nNurbayani has expressed her striving for dreams and self-
\nexpression in painting entitled My Conversations with the Moon.<\/p>\n
The strongest<\/p>\n
One of the strongest and most fascinating works in the show is
\nby Janis, and as yet untitled.<\/p>\n
A large circle is traced in feathers. In the center lies an
\narrangement of objects as offerings: some beautiful and unusual
\nIndonesian cloth, a single red rose, a small carved Garuda bird.<\/p>\n
The overall effect is magical and eerie; a sense of power
\nemanates from the piece whose source cannot be found in any one
\nof the visual elements. Also included in the show in Bandung were
\npieces created during her residency at ITB.<\/p>\n
A strong piece is a work entitled Wanita-Wanita (Women). A
\ntrapezoidal bamboo frame is draped on three sides with batik
\ncloth, forming a kind of peep-show tent. A peep-show tent is
\nfound in western-style carnivals; holes are cut into a tent, and
\nmen pay for the privilege of looking through the hole at a sexy,
\ndancing woman.<\/p>\n
A light, at the back, shines through the cloth. Viewers who
\nenter can lift cut pieces of cloth to reveal images of women and
\nkey words clipped from Indonesian newspapers and magazines. The
\nimages of women from the magazines are of young, beautiful women
\nwho meet the media's unrealistic standards of beauty, while the
\nbatik represents the long tradition of female creativity and
\nbeauty in Indonesian societies.<\/p>\n
A third work by Janis, Winds of Change, consists of small
\nsquares of batik cloth which have ancient symbols of humanity
\npainted on them, hanging on a clothesline as if out to dry, blown
\nfrom behind by a series of fans.<\/p>\n
Feminist perspective<\/p>\n
Such works show the kind of feminist perspective Janis brings
\nto her work that is rarely found in works by Indonesian artists,
\nincluding those in this show.<\/p>\n
This lack became the center of a vigorous and lengthy
\ndiscussion on opening night between an audience of about 40
\npeople and a panel of five of the seven artists included in the
\nshow.<\/p>\n
Many were puzzled about why this exhibition was organized.
\nMany also expressed disappointment that the exhibition didn't
\nshow more visual coherence: although all of the works tackled the
\ntheme of women's dreams, the works that resulted are very diverse
\nand don't share any particular artistic approach. Most works also
\ndon't directly address issues of women's identity or status in
\nIndonesian society.<\/p>\n
The Indonesian artists who sat on the panel all strongly
\nresisted the idea that female artists suffered from prejudice or
\nlack of acceptance by male artists, and defended their right to
\ncreate work that does not reveal a particular identity as a
\n'woman' artist. Perhaps this is an important message in itself.<\/p>\n
The dreams of women, like the dreams of men, are individual as
\nwell as collective, and sharing a gender does not mean one shares
\nthe same vision or experiences of the world.<\/p>\n
The exhibition is more about the struggles of negotiating and
\ncreating female identities across cultural and social
\ndifferences, than it is about some kind of vacuous universe and
\nwomanhood.<\/p>\n
For Janis, a prime motivation for the show was her
\nunderstanding that there are much fewer professional female
\nartists in Indonesia than male artists, and that women have fewer
\nopportunities to exhibit their work.<\/p>\n
She also wanted the experience of working with Indonesian
\nwomen. From her perspective, the show has therefore been a
\nsuccess, for it has given an opportunity for a diverse group of
\nfemale artists to create and exhibit.<\/p>\n
In general, this show is one of questions, experiments and
\nbeginnings, rather than polished, finished pieces and clear
\nanswers. It's a show to dream over and absorb, not to analyze.<\/p>",
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