Children's book illustrations get a thorough view

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