Pop culture reexamined at Kedai Kebun Gallery<\/p>\n
Text and photos by R. Fadjri<\/p>\n
YOGYAKARTA (JP): Plazas, malls, pubs and superstores are not
\njust popular places in urban communities.<\/p>\n
They have become the substance of city-dwellers, in the form
\nof Coca-Cola, Hollywood, MTV, Batman and other pop culture icons.
\nThey are popular with children, they are loved by adolescents and
\nneeded by adults.<\/p>\n
And then there is the less glamorous side of urban life, with
\ntraffic jams, pickpockets, muggers and reckless drivers.<\/p>\n
Mix them all together, and you get a collage of urban culture.<\/p>\n
The chaos of urban life was the subject of works by Surya
\nWirawan and Ugo Untoro, through drawings and other works, which
\nwere on exhibit at Kedai Kebun Gallery from Dec. 1 to Dec. 31.<\/p>\n
The drawings and acrylic paintings by the artists from the
\nIndonesian Fine Arts Institute (ISI) describe the grip of pop
\nculture on urban areas.<\/p>\n
One untitled drawing shows skyscrapers filling the upper half
\nof a piece of paper. The text has a familiar ring to urban
\ncitizens: mall, plaza, pub, superstore.<\/p>\n
The lower half shows headless figures performing some
\nacrobatics while a TV camera records their actions.<\/p>\n
Pop culture is more emphatic in the picture of a naked woman
\nseated on a chair. She is surrounded by writings that remind us
\nof hedonistic slogans: old is sin, sexiest ... so disgusting,
\nfresh breath.<\/p>\n
In the background a naked woman is seated with a hair drier
\nblowing hot air. A nearby TV set shows a person shouting through
\na megaphone.<\/p>\n
Wirawan strengthens elements of pop culture with various
\ncosmetic bottles on which \"image\" is written. In large print amid
\nthe forms: Amazing is Beautiful.<\/p>\n
The forms and symbols of words in these drawings are messages
\nwritten in newspapers, magazines, on television, billboards along
\nthe roadside or on high-rise buildings. They are ads for consumer
\nproducts.<\/p>\n
In Candy Flattery, Wirawan strengthens the complexity of urban
\nsociety. Using acrylic on paper, Wirawan depicts violence in
\nurban life.<\/p>\n
Skyscrapers are the setting of the acts of violence. Figures
\nwith menacing faces cover the entire paper. There is a figure
\nholding a machete with one hand outstretched, another figure is
\nrunning with a Molotov cocktail in his hand, another is holding
\ndown and strangling another figure. These scenes remind us of
\nhoodlums in major urban centers.<\/p>\n
Wirawan also describes street violence. A city bus with a
\nbroken windshield heads toward a group of people. The bus is
\ncrowded. A woman is seen dragging her feet when exiting the bus.<\/p>\n
Our attention is drawn not only to people dressed as
\ncivilians, but also to soldiers. A soldier in riot gear on alert
\nwith shields and batons prepares for violence. Another larger
\nfigure is dressed in military fatigues with three stars on his
\nsleeves. The officer and four figures in clown outfits carry a
\nheadless figure on a chair, as if indicating that the figure is
\nthe man behind all the violence.<\/p>\n
Wirawan succeeds in illustrating chaos in urban society with
\nall the pressures that come with it.<\/p>\n
His work is a portrait of a Third World city facing the
\npressures of economic liberalization in a politically repressed
\nsociety.<\/p>\n
Ugo's lone work that was on display challenges the perception
\nof identical expression among people in the lower-strata of
\nsociety, through the expression of ordinary workers like kerosene
\nhawkers, chicken noodle vendors and tire repairmen.<\/p>\n
Their identical expression is revealed through symbols of
\ntrade names written on wooden boards or painted in red on the
\nyellow background of their kiosks. Noodle vendors paint their
\ncarts in blue and red. A tire repairman hangs a used tire with
\nsome writing on it.<\/p>\n
Ugo describes identity awareness within a group of ordinary
\nworkers in urban areas to show they contribute no matter how
\nsmall their role in the economy is.<\/p>\n
The exhibition's theme reminds us of pop art that has
\ndeveloped in the U.S. since the 1960s -- the art of expressing
\noneself through popular consumer products.<\/p>\n
Andy Warhol, a pop culture artist, painted a portrait of 25
\nfaces of Marilyn Monroe. In another work, Warhol painted Four
\nCampbell's Soup Cans in 1965.<\/p>\n
The enthusiasm to play with the idiom of pop culture products
\nis very strong in Surya Wirawan's work.<\/p>\n
There is indeed a tendency among artists of the 1990s in
\nYogyakarta to refer to pop culture as the language of expression.<\/p>\n
This is possibly an indication of how cosmopolitan pop culture
\nhas penetrated small cities like Yogyakarta, with Coca-Cola,
\nPizza Hut, the Big Mac, etc.<\/p>",
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