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.