By Tri Hafiningsih
Cartoons give people both pleasure and deeper insights
JAKARTA (JP): "Take time to think, smile and laugh," Indonesian cartoonist Dwi Koendoro says in the introduction of his book Plucky Koming, the English version of his comic series featuring primary character, Panji Koming.
Dwi hopes that through his comics, readers will not only be amused by the humorous drawings and text, but also gain far greater insights.
Visitors to the Asean Cartoon Exhibition, being held at the main exhibition hall of Taman Ismail Marzuki Art Center, Central Jakarta, have been able to do just that.
At least 100 cartoons on display until May 29 have been successful in holding the visitors' attention. Forgetting the time, they spend hours trying to deduce their meanings.
Ismail, a visitor, planned to drop by for a glimpse of the popular art before having lunch. He ended up spending his lunch hour thinking, smiling and laughing at the cartoons.
"I haven't had my lunch and I'm late for work," said the employee of the state-owned National Shipping Line (PELNI). He laughed and added that despite an empty stomach, the hour he spent at the exhibition was refreshing after his tense hours at work.
For 63-year-old Yusuf Wiran, another visitor, spending a couple of hours observing cartoons was an enjoyable break from his daily life.
"The cartoons amuse you. They also remind you of more serious things, though the messages in many of them are not very clear to me," he said.
The exhibition is being sponsored by the Asean Cultural Center, an organization established in 1990 by the Japan Foundation to promote South East Asia cultures. It features the works of noted cartoonists from five Asean countries, Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.
Tarcisius Sutanto and Priyanto Sunarto represent Indonesia in the ongoing exhibition entitled "Humorous Messages for the World on Changing ASEAN."
This is a "homecoming exhibition" of two programs (in 1992 and 1993) promoting the works of Asean cartoonists throughout Japan. The foundation has organized four consecutive exhibitions since 1990, in which four cartoonists -- GM Sudarta, Pramono Pramoedjo, T. Sutanto and Priyanto Sunarto -- have represented Indonesia.
Tarcisius Sutanto, better known by his initials, TS, pictures the never-ending battle between two extremes -- the helpless, the poor, or in his own term arus bawah (the undercurrent), and the powerful, or the very rich. His cartoons appear regularly in The Jakarta Post and a Bandung-based daily, Pikiran Rakyat.
Among his works on display is The Selfish Rich, which pictures a man's upper body clad in a suit, his head a bundle of notes and his tie strangling the helpless poor.
Priyanto Sunarto, or Pris, is well-known for his wide-eyed, dumbfounded characters appearing regularly in TEMPO newsweekly magazine. His works feature social rather than political phenomena, such as Gullit in Jakarta picturing a local soccer player who is so amazed at the Afro-braided hair of AC Milan star Ruud Gullit that he forgets how to play football.
Condomization of Hotels features a little boy telling his parents of a "funny-looking balloon" he found in one of the bedside drawers. Pris, sneering but crisp, addresses one possible complication of providing condoms in hotel rooms to promote safe sex and AIDS prevention, leaving the parents with the task of explaining the "balloon" to their son.
Themes
Some of the cartoons on display have strikingly similar themes, although every cartoonist has a unique approach to the issues. Problems of living in high-rise apartments, AIDS and waste are some of the issues addressed by many cartoonists.
Lim Yu Cheng of Singapore features the consistently selfish snob, "Mr. Kiasu," a man who fits perfectly in bustling city life. Mr. Kiasu shops for cheap goods and sale items, eats free samples in supermarkets, but drives an expensive red car and carries a hand phone he uses in public phone booths to avoid noise.
Khunpol Prompaet of Thailand portrays irony in his cartoons about high-rise condominiums. I Thought Condominiums Are Safe pictures a man jumping from his old one-story house up to a condominium where the top levels are on fire and the ground levels are flooding.
AIDS, which has become an international concern, is given local colors by the cartoonists. In his cartoon AIDS, Pris pictures a western tourist worrying he might catch a number of diseases due to the poor hygiene in the region, while the local prostitute sitting on the other end of the bed worries that her client may be carrying AIDS.
TS and Romeo "Boy" Togonon of the Philippines chose contrasting angles concerning unwanted waste. TS's cartoon The Shameful Modern Commodity, criticizes developed countries for dumping toxic wastes in developing countries. His aim to warn the international community contrasts with Togonon's cartoon which criticizes the lack of self-awareness on environment preservation among indigenous people.
Among the outstanding works on display is Singapore - The Land of A Thousand Nos by Reggie Lee of Malaysia. He pictures a taxi full of stickers saying "no smoking, no drinking, no drugs, no chewing gum, no littering, no spitting, no food," while the driver, who looks very much like Singapore's Prime Minister Goh Cok Tong, is asking for tips.
How Much Can I Make Today by Togonon is about a traffic policeman hiding behind the "One-Way" and "Do Not Enter" signs expecting somebody to make a wrong turn.
Communication
Pris said in his introductory text that cartoons have become a popular and effective means of communication, especially in Japan.
"People of all ages and levels of society like cartoons."
He said that all fields of knowledge -- from entertainment and education to the sciences and management -- can be communicated effectively through cartoons.
Pramono Pamoedjo, popularly known as Pram, has had his cartoons regularly published in the Suara Pembaruan afternoon daily. Pram, who is also the chairman of the Indonesian Cartoonist Association Pakarti, said at a press conference before the exhibition's official opening on May 20, that Indonesia still does not take cartoons seriously.
"One of the reasons is many people still think that working as a cartoonist is a leisure part of the more serious profession of journalism."
"Some people even believe that cartoonists have fun on the jobs all the time," he said.
In response to this, Pris said that creating cartoons is very serious work.
"You must cope with a lot of stress too," he said.
"My deadline for TEMPO is Friday, so after every deadline, I simply avoid reading or listening to any news, just to give myself a break," he explained.
Besides being cartoonists, Pris and TS are also lecturers of graphic design in the Fine Arts Department of the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB).
Pris is a well-known graphics designer who worked as a graphics coordinator at the Pavilion Indonesia in EXPO '85 in Tsukuba, Japan, and EXPO '86 in Vancouver, Canada.
Besides teaching at his alma mater, TS has also participated in international exhibitions including the International Cartoon Festival of Belgium in 1979. He has received several awards for his works, including one from the Ministry of Information and Tourism of Turkey.