A new slang in contemporary Indonesian art

By Amir Sidharta

JAKARTA (JP): Contemporary Indonesian art, as that represented in works nominated for the 1996 Indonesian Art Awards, according to art critic Agus Dermawan T., "showed a tendency toward the odd, absurd, pathos, artificial and protest". The works nominated in the 1997 Indonesian Art Awards were not much different. Dark, daunting, and chaotic, was the title of an article about the awards in Republika daily.

Most art critics familiar with contemporary Indonesian art would agree that more and more works of art by young Indonesian artists today show such a tendency. The same is true of works by Yustoni Volunteero, S. Teddy D. and Hafiz presented in an exhibition titled Sebuah Percakapan (A Conversation) at Erasmus Huis, South Jakarta, that runs through Aug. 26.

The three young artists have been working together for the past eight months establishing an art network. Artist and curator of Cemeti Gallery, Mella Jaarsma, points out that they have found similar approaches in their ways of thinking and expressing their ideas.

The exhibition, a result of their work as a group within the network, clearly shows that they speak a common language. Perhaps what Agus Dermawan and the other art critics have seen developing recently is precisely the development of a new prokem (slang) in Indonesian contemporary art. Groups of young artists, such as the group consisting of Yustoni, Teddy and Hafiz, seem to have developed their own dialects, if you will, within this new artistic language.

Their language, like Basquiat's, combines elements of visual images and text, Yustoni claims to no longer trust the printed word, especially that in the mass media, and uses cut-out newspaper headlines combined with found or painted visual images in "scrap-book" compositions, to create his own messages. He also incorporates his own written text into the picture, and often they are crude curses in English, which are overused in Hollywood movies to which he is certainly exposed. These words certainly suggest a tone of protest.

Born in a Central Java village in 1970, Yustoni entered the Art Department of the Indonesian Fine Arts Institute (ISI) Yogyakarta in 1991. He often participates in demonstrations opposing government and campus policies and these themes are predominant in his works.

Teddy was born in Padang, West Sumatra in 1970. He entered the Indonesian Arts High School (STSI) in Surakarta, Central Java, in 1990, and transferred to ISI Yogyakarta two years later.

Hafiz was born in Pekan Baru in 1971. Following in the footsteps of his father, a Riau artist, Hafiz became accustomed to painting. In 1990 he entered the Jakarta Arts Institute and studied printmaking.

Yustoni's visuals include icons of military soldiers, rural farmers and rice stalks. He includes words like paddy (rice), hidup (life), land, rice and people-land, and bumiputera (indigenous people). Both visual and textual symbols reflect his concern over abuse of power over the livelihood of common people as well as the conservation of natural resources for our future.

Teddy's work epitomizes the spontaneity of the group's style. His paintings seem to be completed very quickly using abrupt brushstrokes. Once the image appears, the artist stops; there is no further attempt to improve the depiction. Instead, he completes the picture with English words. Yet the incorporation of text in his paintings is not even an attempt to clarify what he is trying to convey. His paintings seem to be purely an expression of his confused thoughts.

Sculpture seems to be a more potent medium for the artist. Three scorched yellow ironing boards in the form of human figures, on wheels, are lined up in Jalan Menuju Generalissimo (The Way to Generalissimo).

A glass of drink, a stool, a fan and the word "LIER" are icons common in Hafiz's paintings. The images seem to be associated with the objects which can be found in the artist's room; they hint at his somewhat reclusive life. His woodcut, titled Terbuang, dan Tidak Apa-apa (Thrown Away, and Does Not Matter), shows a naked figure standing within the confines of a small toilet stall. Sometimes the crescent moon and star, the symbol of Islam, emerges in Hafiz's works, suggesting his strong ties with the religion he embraces. Yet, the symbol often appears along with other symbols which seem to be his temptation: a can of beer, a television set and even a cross. His art works provide him with a means for contemplation, while for other people it is one way to be able to know and understand his complex and perhaps even confused way of thinking.

The works of the three artists convey messages through compositions of symbolic visual and textual elements. Although it is clear that they are still struggling to fully master these elements, their compositions indicate tremendous spontaneity and present powerful expressions.

Jaarsma traces the incorporation of text in their canvases to the incorporation of writing in the works of Sudjojono (1913- 1986), the pioneer of modern Indonesian art.

However, while Sudjojono's texts are usually narrative, poetic and philosophical, and provided as a means of further explaining the depiction, the text used by the three young artists often have no association with the painted images, but is included to add another dimension to the content of their paintings, often in a rather bombastic way. Nonetheless, in both cases the text leads the viewer to think beyond the image and even question its validity. Even though the works by the three young artists may not always be communicative, at the very least they are thought- provoking.

Although Yustoni, Teddy and Hafiz have used a new language or dialect in their artistic expression, it is certain that the language is still developing and still needs to develop. None of the artists have quite mastered the semiotics of their vocabulary and the semantics of their grammar. As a result, the audience they address also finds it difficult to comprehend their works.

On one hand, there is no doubt that the development is necessary and will happen. Yet on the other hand, there is also concern that it will diminish the spontaneous energy and ambiguity in their current works. Should people be able to understand what they are trying to say? Do they want people to understand what they want to convey?

Prokem was developed as an esoteric coded language in the underworld of Jakarta. Once the code was understood, it became a language with a widespread popularity among Jakarta's young. However, it never developed any further than becoming an alternative language for regular conversation, and hence became merely a short-lived fad.

The new artistic language which has been used by Yustoni, Teddy and Hafiz, will also become widespread among the young generation of contemporary Indonesian artists. Taking into account the development of their prokem, it will be crucial for artists continue to be innovative and creative in the use of their new artistic language.