A provocative artistic ride from Zagreb to East Timor
By Sori Siregar
JAKARTA (JP): Many poets and authors have searched their souls about the tragedy of the devastating civil war in the former Yugoslavia.
Poems from a 1992 collection, Bosnia Kita (Our Bosnia), were read by their authors in the event Bosnia Solidarity Poetry Reading on June 26-June 27.
Contributors include Afrizal Malna, A. Mustofa Bisri, Gus Tf Sakai, Ikranagara, Hamid Jabbar, Mansur Samin, Sutardji Calzoum Bachri and Taufiq Ismail.
Another poetry book on the same theme will be published soon containing the works of another well-known poet, Goenawan Mohamad.
Two of them, Misalkan Kita di Sarajewo (If we were in Sarajevo) and Zagreb -- both written in 1994 -- have appeared in the collection Takbir Para Penyair (The Poets' Chants) published by the Committee of the Second Istiqlal Festival in 1995.
But it seems the artist who prepared illustrations for Goenawan's new book, Tisna Sanjaya, was impatient to show his works, and decided to display them for the public while waiting for the book to appear.
The graphic artist is a lecturer at the Bandung Institute of Technology. His exhibition at the Lontar Gallery, Jl. Utan Kayu, East Jakarta, runs to July 19.
The illustrations -- there are about 10 -- are a successful interpretation of the substance of the poems. All the illustrations are crowded with events.
The poster-like illustrations, about 70 cm x 70 cm in size, are effective in exposing the brutal atmosphere of the civil war, without the need for lines from Zagreb printed on them.
One striking installation by Tisna is comprised of graphic arts, some bookstands and old books badly gnawed by termites and placed in plastic bags.
It is titled Zagreb untuk Xanana Gusmao dari puisi Goenawan Mohamad (Zagreb for [East Timor's jailed freedom fighter] Xanana Gusmao from Goenawan Mohamad's poem). It is clearly a free adoption of Goenawan's poem, as it shows little relation to his lines:
That woman came, carrying a package, from distant Zagreb/That woman came... with a head inside/and said to the immigration officer...: "This is my son". "Seven soldiers pulled him out of his hospital bed/seven soldiers took him to the forest's edge and slaughtered him/seven enemies killed the head which rolled and floundered and finally stopped/quiet, after the bleeding mouth bit the sand among the weeds. "That pain is wrapped up here, in this remnant of shroud/He was only 21...
The 40-year-old artist who has trained in Germany also surprised observers with his 1997 work, Dari Emun-emunan Anakku Tumbuh Pohon Pisang (From my child's forehead a banana tree grows). It is an etching using the aquatint technique also inspired by Zagreb.
Other works are Tisna's images of the present situation here; one is provocatively titled Jika Kekerasan, Perkosaan tak ada hentinya... cetak etsamu dengan darah dan sperma (If violence, rape have no ending, print your etchings in blood and sperm).
Another piece which confounds people is his Air Kaki (Water of Feet), consisting of bottled water which the artist claims was really used to wash feet, although the water looks too clean.
Tisna said earlier that he washed the feet of his friends and placed the water in a bowl after the riots in Tasikmalaya, West Java, in 1997. He may have decided his symbolic hope to cleanse violence remained relevant now in this exhibit.
If the poet Goenawan likes Tisna works because of the artist's expressed political commitment, others may just like them for their wild, provoking images.