Boar's trilogy reflects people's aspirations

By Amir Sidharta

JAKARTA (JP): The Trilogi Celeng (Trilogy of the Wild Boar) exhibition, which features painter Djoko Pekik's works at the Galeri Nasional, Nov. 5-12, is likely astonish most viewers, if not due to the subject matter of the works, then certainly due to the size and number that are displayed.

The exhibition boldly presents to the public three large canvases: Susu Raja Celeng, 1996, measuring 150 x 180 cm, Indonesia 1998 Berburu Celeng, 1998, measuring 300 x 500 cm, and Tanpa Bunga dan Telegram Duka, 1999, measuring 250 x 450 cm. The three canvases have a common subject matter, the wild boar.

"The boar symbolizes angkara murka, anger, hatred, evil, and greed!" exclaimed Pekik. The exhibition presents a trilogy of the wild boar.

The trilogy was initiated in 1996, when Yogyakarta celebrated the eighth anniversary of Tahta untuk Rakyat (The Throne for the People), when the current Sultan of Yogyakarta pledged to continue to provide democratic rule over the people of Yogyakarta when he took the throne replacing his father, Hamengkubuwono IX, who passed away in 1988. In commemoration of this pledge, artists in Yogyakarta held the Gelar Budaya Rakyat, (People's Cultural Presentation).

"The Sultan envisioned an event that would assert the democracy and humanity reflected upon the inner heart of the people. Therefore, each and every participant had the liberty of presenting whatever he wanted to show, including critiques against the Sultan himself," explained painter Hendro Suseno, who was one of the event's organizers.

The event inspired Djoko Pekik to paint Susu Raja Celeng (The Milk of the Wild Boar King).

"If the Throne is indeed for the people, then the ruler certainly should not act like the Wild Boar King. Indeed milk symbolizes welfare, and here the boar provides milk, but will he offer it to just anyone? Naturally, he would provide it for his children," Pekik said.

The painting itself, depicts a angry large black boar, ready to attack anyone who dares to come close. The painter equipped the beast with pronounced teats.

In the background, hundreds or perhaps even thousands of figures, gather under what evidently appears to be a Jakarta toll road. Encircling the boar from a distance, they cautiously wait for the beast's next move.

Pekik considered 1996 as the height of the government's tyranny. On July 27 that year the headquarters of the Indonesian Democratic Party was attacked by a mysterious group of men, believed to be government-sponsored, in a move to finalize the ousting of Megawati Soekarnoputri from the party's leadership. Until now, the case remains unclear. Although he did not mention this incident when explaining the work, Pekik later acknowledged that it may well have influenced his painting.

Since then, the artist knew that the Wild Boar King would experience a humiliating defeat. Boars are often hunted, and the Wild Boar King would definitely be hunted down. Pekik saw the May 1998 riots and what happened thereafter as a kind of boar hunt. After Soeharto stepped down, it was taken for granted that exhibitions would no longer require permits. In June that year, Yogyakarta artists celebrated their newly acquired freedom of expression by staging a "public action" around the city. This event was not limited to artists from Yogyakarta, but they also invited artists from other cities and regions to participate in the event.

Pekik initially wanted to paint a simple poster, to be placed on the billboard site of the old Sonoharsono movie theater, near the alun-alun square, which was no longer used. However, he heard that an artist had already expressed interest in buying whatever he produced, even if it were merely a poster. Pekik thought that if the piece would end up as a capitalist commodity in the end, it would be a pity to just make a simple poster. Perhaps he thought that he might as well do it seriously, using good materials on a proper canvas, and putting an appropriate price tag on the piece. Hence, it took longer to paint, and the initial idea of exhibiting it in the open was scrapped.

The painting came close to being completed in time for the Independence Day celebrations that year. Pekik looked for a place to exhibit the work, but it was such short notice that no venue seemed to be available. Luckily, Yogyakarta's Bentara Budaya traditionally did not plan any exhibitions from Aug. 16-17, in honor of the celebrations, and welcomed Pekik to exhibit there on those two days. On the night of Aug. 16, Pekik exhibited his second work of the trilogy, Indonesia 1998 Berburu Celeng (Indonesia 1998 Hunts Wild Boar). The one-day exhibition, showing one single painting was well attended.

It shows the captured wild boar being hoisted upside down with its four feet and his mouth tied onto a large bamboo stick. Various characters perform traditional folk dances rejoicing the capture in front of thousands of onlookers. In the background once again the image of a Jakarta toll road appears, painted in black, and beyond it, a skyline is filled with numerous tall buildings. Pekik mentioned that Father Sindhunata asked him what would happen next. The artist quoted the writer and journalist as having said, "the boar has been captured, so what should be done now. The story of the boar has to be ended."

Thinking that the People's Consultative Assembly would meet to elect the country's new leaders beginning on Nov. 1, 1999, Pekik planned to come to Jakarta a couple of days prior to this date, as a bonek (avid fan) and join the other supporters of the events and at the same time exhibit his third and final work of the trilogy in support of the events. However, the sessions were moved to earlier dates, and so it became clear that Pekik could not finish the painting in time for the elections.

He completed the piece on the day Abdurrahman Wahid, popularly known as Gus Dur, was elected President, and the exhibition, organized by Tempo magazine, Galeri Lontar and the Utan Kayu Community, was scheduled to be opened on Nov. 5. Pekik realized that he would be a supporter kesiangan, or a supporter who arrived too late. He emphasized that the competition was between the reformists and the status quo and that his was clearly a non- partisan support for the reformists Tanpa Bunga dan Telegram Duka (Without Flowers or Condolence Telegrams), shows the boar lying pathetically in an arid ground in the middle of a burnt forest, its face black and blue. Green flies and three black crows feed on his back, cutting its body open and exposing its ribs. In this piece, distinct from the other two, there is not a single person. As the meat of the boar is considered haram (forbidden by Islam), the carcass is thrown in the middle of the burnt forest. The cadaver is left alone, alienated and humiliated. In the background, the image of Jakarta appears once again, this time showing the Semanggi cloverleaf interchange, the National Monument and Merdeka Palace in the far distance. The placement of the palace on an axis but far removed from the boar is the artist's clear statement of the boar's significance in the nation's political history.

"The boar has sucked up all the resources of the land, and destroyed the nature" he said. Therefore, for the opening ceremony of the exhibition, Pekik has made a terracotta boar and filled it with various small and miniature objects, including oranges, cloves, rice, Timor cars and airplanes, to be smashed open by the guest-of-honor, so that the public will know exactly what evil the boar has done.

A similar boar was scheduled to be smashed by the Sultan of Yogyakarta in the opening ceremony of the Pekik's Independence Day exhibition, but the Sultan could not be present due to another ceremony in the Kraton. Therefore, the contents of the terracotta boar remain hidden since the receptacle is now hanging in Pekik's studio. Coincidentally, the case of former President Soeharto has also remained in the dark until now. Certainly, people enthusiastically await the shattering of the terracotta boar just as they await the reopening of the Soeharto case.

Pekik said that the death of the boar indicated the death of angkara murka, but angkara murka will never completely disappear from the face of the earth.

"We have to continue to fight against it," reminded the artist. Perhaps the very reason that it will remain, is so that we will always fight for the truth, and not take the truth for granted.

The artist, born in 1938, was a member of the Bumi Tarung studio, affiliated with the Lekra People's Cultural Institution of the Indonesian Communist Party, and was interned as a political prisoner. His socialist thoughts continue to guide him to express the voice of the people, in search of the ultimate truth. "In their acts, people should remain like a black stone in the middle of a river, which remains constantly unmoved whether the river dries up in the dry season or becomes filled up again with water in the rainy season," he said.

Pekik has certainly remained consistent in his efforts, even though capitalism has attempted to capture his art. It is no longer a secret that he has offered Berburu Celeng for Rp 1 billion, but it seems that the price has been set so high in order to drive speculators away. Indeed, the three paintings of the Boar trilogy deserve to remain in the realm of the people, from which the images have emerged.