Artist Dadang speaks about the oppressed

Artist Dadang speaks about the oppressed

By R. Fadjri

YOGYAKARTA (JP): Not many artists use esthetic elements as a means to express their concern about the surrounding realities. Esthetic elements are only a style to convey their views toward social phenomena in their environment. In modern fine arts this kind of art finds its expression in sculpture, graphic arts, and painting which treat populist themes, making use of any medium. The artists do not want to be called sculptors, graphic artists or painters, but choose to be referred to as artists.

One of the artists involved in contemporary fine arts is Dadang Christanto, who treats fine arts in his own specific way. For Dadang, a graduate of the School of Fine Arts and Design of the Indonesian Fine Arts Institute in Yogyakarta, fine arts is not only individual works containing individual problems, it also speaks of social matters.

"Art must also function for the society," says Dadang, a native of Tegal, Central Java, where he was born 39 years ago.

This kind of art, says Dadang, implies a struggle to humanize men. He adds, "It is still very relevant if contemporary art addresses poverty, injustice and oppression."

Look at his work titled 1001 Earth Men, on exhibit on the shores of Ancol, North Jakarta, until the end of this month. Dadang installed 1,000 statues made of fiberglass covered with terra-cota powder, in similar shapes. According to Dadang, his installation work describes groups of people with weak political, social, economic and cultural links. They depict losers and the helpless against the forces of science, technology, economy, arms and information. They signify the group in the community that is marginalized systemically by those forces, resulting in oppression.

With this work, Dadang wishes to speak out about the fate of the agrarian community that is being pushed aside by interests which are said to be bigger and the existence of which is "for the sake of national interest".

Dadang adheres to this kind of art ideology: art that takes sides. For Dadang Christanto, art is not the mere enjoyment of beauty. Art must also have an educational function in the framework of encouraging people's awareness; it must also function as an instrument of power control. He says, "I hope that when people look at my work they will be stimulated to think critically about the environment."

Indeed, adds Dadang, a change is not brought about by a work of art only, but at least art work can contribute to a community's awareness.

Dadang feels he cannot ignore the urge of incorporating a social content to his work. Because, he says, his position and circle of friends involves him in matters relating to problems being faced by our people. Continuously seeing people suffer, or people being arbitrarily treated, unsettles him. "I want to be a witness of such situations," he says.

Dadang first was attracted to contemporary fine arts expression when he was a student at the Fine Arts High School in Yogyakarta in the mid 1970s. He was much impressed by Indonesian Fine Arts Academy, Yogyakarta, students involved in the "Black December" action in 1975 which was a reaction against the vested interest of modernism in Indonesian fine arts. The action resulted in the birth of the New Fine Arts movement which did not take sides with the forms of expression based on conventional fine arts categories.

Having finished his art education in painting at the Indonesian Fine Arts Academy, Dadang disappeared from the world of fine arts. He joined an audiovisual education institute/production house in Yogyakarta for four years where he was involved in a number of projects, only to prove that he could find work. Actually he was far from sure about working full time as an artist. After four years in the institute he received an invitation to display his installation work at what would be his first single exhibition in 1991 through the Contemporary Indonesian Artist at the University of Australia's Art Museum in Adelaide. These were decisive moments for his career as an artist.

Success

Unexpectedly, the exhibition was a success with the Australian public. The mass media printed reviews, and the art magazine Art Link wrote extensively about the exhibition.

"The reception of my exhibition strongly encouraged me to start a career as an artist," he says. His two works titled Golf Ball and Bureaucracy were later purchased by the Fokuoka Art Museum when these two works were exhibited in Osaka, Japan, through the joint exhibition of New Art from Southeast Asia 1992.

Back from Australia, Dadang and other young artists launched a protest against the vested interest of modernism in fine arts as represented by the activities of the Yogyakarta Painting Art Biennial in 1992, through an exhibition named Binal. The Binal exhibition was a form of protest by young Yogyakartan artists who expressed themselves through non-conventional fine arts, which was not accepted at the official exhibition in Yogyakarta. The exhibition which took place at various sites like Tugu railway station, the Seni Sono building, the northern square of the Yogyakarta Kraton, on Gadjah Mada University campus, and in artists' homes, showed clearly its contemporary character.

The appearance of Dadang on the fine arts scene is quite recent, but nonetheless he has received the highest number of invitations to hold exhibitions abroad. He participated in the New Art from Southeast Asia 1992 in Osaka, Japan, the Museum City Project 92 in Fukuoka, Japan, The First Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art in 1993 in Melbourne, Australia, and in 1994 he joined an exhibition in Havana, Cuba, at the Quinta Bienal de la Habana. All the invitations to hold exhibitions abroad were mainly due to his very specific work not found in other artists' creations.

For the Art Peace and the War and the Art in Asia 95 Dadang was chosen to represent Indonesia. Other representatives came from the Philippines, Singapore, China, Korea and Japan. The exhibition was held by the Peace Museum Center in Osaka, Japan, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II.

Dadang is used to creating with material available in his environment. He used bamboo for his installation work For Those Who Were Killed exhibited in Brisbane, Australia, and for his work titled Threat to Our Conscience displayed at the Museum City Project 92 in Fukuoka, Japan.

"I make use of local material because my works will have more local color," he says.

The greater part of his art expression consists of installation work, although he still does paint. According to Dadang, the strength of installation art is its capacity to come into physical, direct contact with the public, and viewers can become part of the work. What is clear, he says, is that elements in the installation medium offer extensive possibilities.

"It is a great pleasure to explore esthetics through the installation medium because there are many possibilities of exploration," says Dadang.

Nevertheless, the satisfaction obtained from installation work is not commensurate with the financial compensation received from his works. Because, until today installation work has not been fully accepted by the fine arts public, only one or two collectors desire to acquire it. Even abroad, only museums are willing to buy installation work. Dadang admits that he does not often make long-term plans. As long as his wife and he agree that their economical needs are not urgent, he wants to make good use of the opportunity to work on the installation art. If some time in the future he is in a financially difficult situation, he will not do installation work.

"At the least I will first restrain myself," says Dadang.

This suggests what problems are faced by installation artists. He once suggested that viewers pay for visiting his exhibition. An idea that was difficult to realize at a time when the greater part of the public was not familiar with contemporary works of art. So far his economic needs have been met by the balance of travel allowances paid by sponsors when he received invitations to exhibit abroad.

"It would be hard to rely only on the works sold," he said.

In his opinion, one of the solutions to the problem is governmental aid through an art museum. It would create possibilities for collecting installation works of art.