Artist Diah Yulianti can hear ghost crying and talking

Artist Diah Yulianti can hear ghost crying and talking

By Susi Andrini

YOGYAKARTA (JP): When one dies, it is generally believed,
one's ghost will leap out of the body and join the community of
spirits in the afterlife. The living cannot see the ghost but the
ghost can see the dead body.

So when can one see ghosts? If you want to see their pictures,
make the trip to the French Cultural Center in Jakarta next
month. There you can see pictures of homeless, badly wounded and
tearful ghosts between March 2 and March 27. The ghosts get
together, cry and talk.

They live in trees, stick to the bark or hover around with
their hair loose. But do not be afraid of these "ghosts". They
are there to invite you to contemplate tragedies befalling
Indonesia.

The ghosts are an artistic expression of painter Diah
Yulianti, 25, on canvas. She is making history in painting with
ghosts as her main symbol. The solo exhibition will be her third
and is titled Menjaring Roh Bukit (Wooing Bukit Ghosts Back).

All of her works are about her grave concern at the loss of
the Kalimantan forests. Her first exhibition was titled Roh Bukit
Kehilangan Bukit (Bukit Ghosts Lose Hill).

The artworks represent the 1997 forest fires which destroyed
several hundred thousand hectares of tropical forest in
Kalimantan, where Diah was born and grew up.

The fire has not only destroyed habitat but also burned out
peace in the community of ghosts of the Bukit tribals' ancestors
believed to live in large, shady trees.

Her second solo exhibition she called Menjaring Roh Bukit
Lewat Kayu (Wooing Bukit Ghosts with Trees), was about her hope
to call back the ghosts which were lost after the conflagration.

The Bukit tribals in Kalimantan believe that their ancestors'
ghosts live in a mystic community they call patilarahan.

One of the works to be exhibited, Dialog Roh-Roh Tentang
Negeri Ini (Ghosts Talk about This Country) illustrates her
concern about the situation in Indonesia.

"People are no longer trustworthy. They fight with and kill
one another. They are greedy, logging and burning forests without
thinking of others," Diah said.

"Do they care about us, about the ghosts who reside in big
trees? People are suffering and so are the ghosts."

Her choice of ghosts as a representation of her concern was
made after a long imaginative journey. Before that, the graduate
of the Indonesian Arts Institute (ISI), Yogyakarta, did not have
a particular style although she had won prizes in drawing
competitions during her childhood. When she walked along Jl.
Malioboro here, she would draw what she saw, like pedicabs, cars
or the market, and so forth.

She chose ghosts after she had a spiritual experience in 1992
when she was only in her fourth semester in college.

Then on Jan. 20, 1996, when she took part in an exhibition in
Ubud, Bali, she was told to go home right away without reason.
Later she learned that it was because her father in Kalimantan
had died.

When she reached home in Kalimantan, her father had been
buried. The death of her father, who was a talented painter and
her early teacher, was too unbelievable for her to accept.

Devastated, she began a journey to the Kalimantan hinterland
where she spent four months with the indigenous Bukit Loksada
tribals in Sungai Danau district, learning their culture and way
of life.

Diah recalled how she endured life without her beloved father.
She wanted to die so that she could reunite with her father. When
she felt homesick, she would go home for a brief visit.

Her mother, Mumah, could do nothing but pray for Diah's
safety. After a few months with the Bukit tribal community, she
realized she that she, too, had a family that loved her and God
that controls the universe. Diah was embarrassed to realize that
the "primitive" Bukit tribe had better religious awareness than
she did.

She began to believe that it was the "civilized" people in the
cities who were in fact "primitive" and narrow-minded and do not
believe in God. She felt some spiritual power was in her. She
believes she saw her father's spirit telling her to be strong and
accept his death.

She could sense the presence of her father's spirit and other
spirits that live on in the Kalimantan jungle. All gave her a
spectacular strength to paint.

It was eight months following her father's death that she
could resume work and go back to college. All the experiences
made her feel born again.

"In suffering, one can find meanings in life," he said. In her
profession, this means that she has a strong impulse to create
artistic works.

Her days with the Bukit tribe, especially their religious
rituals, were a great experience that helped her understand
mysteries in life and shape her painting style.

"I try to understand the metaphysical side of every reality,"
said Diah whose works were among those selected for the recent
Biennale exhibition in Yogyakarta.

Her stroke on the canvas is truly magical. Beside canvas, she
also uses wood and tree bark as media to symbolize her unity with
nature.

One of the approximately 40 pieces of her work to be displayed
in the upcoming exhibition will be put up at a slant in allusion
to the madness of people nowadays.