Children's book illustrations get a thorough view
Yusuf Susilo Hartono, Contributor, Jakarta
Every nation has its own typical characteristics. The same is true of Indonesian children's book illustrations, which differ from those of other countries, as displayed in the International Exhibition of Children's Book Illustrations at Gallery 678 in Kemang, South Jakarta.
The event, jointly organized by the Embassy of Slovakia, the Society for the Advancement of Children's Literature and the Children's Book Lovers Group under Dr. Murti Bunanta, presents 189 works from 27 countries including Slovakia, Japan, Holland, Russia, Italy, Canada and host Indonesia.
Suyadi, a story teller and illustrator better known as Pak Raden, applies legend and wayang (shadow puppet) idioms to the illustration of his book, Gerhana (eclipse). Hardiyono also uses the same style for Murti Bunanta's Legenda Putri Bunga (Putri Bunga's legend), exceptionally combined with spreads of astronomical black dots produced by pen tips.
GM Sudarta, famous for his Om Pasikom cartoons in the Kompas daily newspaper, adopts the representation of a poor village girl for Swidak Loro (Sixty-two), whereas I Ketut Nama illustrates Made Karo's Bawang dan Kesuma (Garlic and Flower) by means of the fairly intricate idioms of Balinese traditional painting.
Works of foreign illustrators in the display, with their diverse idioms, techniques and approaches, are winners of the Biennial Illustrations Bratislava (BIB) book illustration competition. BIB has held 18 contests in 33 years, each presenting five Golden Apples, five Plaques, an Honorable Mention for a publisher and a Grand Prix BIB Award. Forty thousand works from 4,487 illustrators from 90 countries, including Indonesia, have been collected.
Golden Apple 1999 winner Peter Uchnar of Slovakia has the largest number of works on exhibit, mostly exploring European myths in the form of delicate paintings and graphics. Yet the works, composed in great detail and with accuracy, appear without titles. One of them, depicting a dead greedy man being tied on the ground from head to toe, gives an air of euphoria and revenge akin to the atmosphere of reform in Indonesia when president Soeharto was brought down.
Jan Jutte of the Netherlands, winner of a BIB Plaque in 1999, flaunts his humorous elephant lying and being teased by two boys in the sun, which is quite communicative. Italy's Roberto Imnocuti with his Rose Blance, a Golden Apple entry in 1985, shows a child with a flower in his hand standing between damaged barbed wire fences and armed troops in a representation of the cruelty of war.
Yessy Gusman, Indonesia's teenage star of the 1970s and now a painting enthusiast, visited the exhibition with a group of children to watch and practice illustrating. While Yessy claimed to be attracted by the typical features of all the drawings, Sisca, a fifth-grade elementary school student, chose Sudarta's lice-hunting picture as her favorite.
In Suyadi's view, the esthetic value of children's book illustrations is important, but their communicative value is no less significant. American illustrations are particularly communicative so that their message is well conveyed, while those of Europe are less so.
The exhibition is like a cool breeze from Slovakia that should prompt us to wake up to the reality of Indonesian children's book illustrations. As a provisional note, bilingual -- Indonesian and English -- story books worth Rp 1 million a set have beautiful pictures, while by contrast, books for lower middle class people carry inferior illustrations. This is a home work for illustrators and publishers in the country. I-BOX: International Children's Book Illustrations runs until Sept. 11 Galeri 678, Jl. Kemang Raya, No. 32 South Jakarta tel. (021) 71792164-7196007, or galeri678@yahoo.com