Astari enters new millennium with recollections

Astari enters new millennium with recollections

By Amir Sidharta

JAKARTA (JP): Java, elements of Javanese culture, 19th century
portrait paintings, 19th century landscape paintings, old
photographs, recent news clippings and other personal images all
become part of Astari Rasjid's Recollections, which she has
composed onto her canvases, currently on show at the Ganesha
Gallery.

The small yet eloquent exhibition, which runs until Jan. 12,
2000 at the Ganesha Gallery, Four Seasons Resort, Jimbaran, Bali,
presents Astari's most recent works, mostly done in the past
three months.

The themes of her paintings range from a broad exploration of
tradition, particularly in terms of Javanese culture, in these
modern times, to more personal introspections about familial
relationships.

In Tension Between Reality and Illusion, an aristocratic
Javanese couple is painted using the conventions of 19th century
portrait painting or old photographs. The use of sepia tones in
rendering the images enhances the effect of antiquity.

Yet, the couple is split, each placed on a side panel of a
triptych flanking a central panel which shows a mountain
landscape. At first glance, the landscape is reminiscent of 19th
century Netherlands Indies landscape paintings, much like the
scenes painted by Dutch artists Jacob Dirk van Herwerden, Frans
Lebret or even works attributed to Javanese painter Raden Saleh.

In the foreground is an idyllic rural landscape, seemingly
composed of elements taken from 19th century paintings, put
together in a manner that is not quite convincing.

Toward the background, within the valley surrounded by the
mountains, a bustling 20th century metropolis is apparent. In the
foreground, an image of a couple, much like the figures in the
Selamat Datang (Welcome) statue which stands so elegantly
towering above the roundabout in front of Jakarta's historic
Hotel Indonesia, starts to emerge.

The unfinished image succeeds in giving a sense of ambiguous
tension between reality and illusion after which the painting is
entitled. Directly above the statue, in the clouds, a Gunungan
Wayang end piece is set in a niche in the canvas, and becomes a
prominent element of the piece. Yet, it is hard to decipher what
the artist is actually trying to express or convey.

The paper clippings used on the background of the two side
panels provide a clue. Among them the most prominent is Krisis
Kebudayaan Jawa (Javanese Culture Crisis), but there are other
reference to our current post-New Order political situation. We
are on a threshold of transition, and the work is Astari's
personal response to this transition.

Astari combines contemporary politics with traditional legends
once again in New Task for Saraswati. In this painting, the
artist herself becomes the main figure. This central figure is
not the conventional Saraswati, the goddess of the arts and
knowledge, as the rebab string musical instrument and the lontar
leaf inscriptions have been shifted to the borders of the
painting. She does not ride a swan, but rather a turtle, symbol
of the cosmos.

In one of her four hands, she holds a Communicator, a
combination of cellular phone and computer produced by one of the
major cell phone companies. On the screen, appears: Abdurr..
Wahid; Mega Oke, clearly in reference to the tense presidential
tally on Oct. 20. It is intended as a pun, as Wahid, the last
name of Indonesia's President, also means top or the best in
Indonesian.

In her other hands, there is a white lotus flower, a set of
scales and an Indonesian red-and-white flag. Clearly, this is a
hope for women to play a central role in advocating nonviolence,
compassion and peace and upholding justice, and by so doing,
finally also unifying the country. In the background, the issues
we are facing are addressed through the use of newspaper and
magazine clippings.

Astari consistently makes use of newspaper clippings as a kind
of documentation of the chain of events that has changed
Indonesia. Unlike some other artists who tend to use clippings
sporadically, Astari chooses the content of clippings very
carefully so as to provide meaning to the image she paints.

They do not become elements of collage but rather a "layer of
meaning" in the artwork. As she treats their application with
care, they also become an aesthetic element. She reworks the
newspaper pictures that she uses so that they no longer are
merely the singular images taken by the media in which they once
appeared and forced into a new context, but become completely new
images composed to strengthen the overall picture she presents.

Astari's own image appears again and again in the paintings in
this exhibition. You would think that it becomes a bit
narcissistic, to say the least, but you have to admit that she is
in a reflective and introspective mode.

Most interesting is a painting of herself with a toddler,
Delicate Configuration. About this work, art entrepreneur Bruce
Carpenter cautiously comments in the exhibition catalog that
"motherhood is examined". His comment that another painting,
Silent Speech, "explores the nature of the eternal relationship
between men and women, here cast in the form of Adam and Eve",
perhaps should be set in a more inquisitive tone. It seems to
question, rather than merely explore, the delicate nature of
relationships.

The couple, painted with a rather awkward sense of anatomy, on
two panels flanking a central panel, is indeed reminiscence of
Adam and Eve, as Carpenter suggests.

The peripheral references to Botticelli's Birth of Venus, such
as the use of conch shells, also contain sexual undertones. The
snake, transformed here into a cut rope, perhaps suggests a
reference to other personal relationships. A heart is
symbolically set in the middle of the central panel.

The most important piece in the exhibition seems to be a
triptych displayed above a pile of old metal suitcases from the
1920s or 1930s, entitled Delayed Recognition, placed centrally
facing visitors as they enter the gallery.

The top suitcase is open. Two separate photographs, one of the
artist during her childhood and another of her mother, are set
into the inner lining of the suitcase. Scanned batik motifs are
laser printed onto special transfer material, pasted on to the
inside of suitcase. The photographs are also done in the same
manner.

"I make use of traditional motifs and old photographs,
applying them using contemporary techniques. This is what makes
my work contemporary," Astari said.

The suitcase's compartment is divided into three sections. In
the left section she placed a konde hairpiece, arranged in a
special style particularly for weddings. In this special gelung
style, the hairpiece is netted in a string of jasmine.

The right section contains a stagen belt cloth, printed with
Javanese inscriptions, and a photograph of the artist's father,
transferred onto the cloth also using the special laser print
technique, but this time the image is ironed on. The middle
compartment is left empty.

The triptych above the suitcases consist of two wooden panels
flanking a canvas panel which contains the image of the Balinese
mother temple Pura Besakih with Mount Agung behind it. Overlaid
on the image of the stairs leading toward the temple is an image
of a flower, imprinted in red paint using a part of the metal cap
print batik stamps, traditionally used in batik making to imprint
the batik motifs onto the cloth using hot wax.

As the title of this work suggests, it is Astari's belated
tribute to her late mother. It seems that far too often children
tend to take for granted the crucial role of the mother. For the
artist, it was during the preparations of this exhibition at this
important juncture of her life, that made her feel the need to
pay her mother the respects which were long overdue.

Through this exhibition, Astari recollected her memories of
her experiences, in preparations for a new era, a new millennium.