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.