Contemporary RI art shown in Madrid

Contemporary RI art shown in Madrid

By Carla Bianpoen

MADRID (JP): At a time when the language of words tends to
destroy instead of construct, artworks increasingly take
prominence in conveying messages with genuine meaning.

This is well understood by the Yayasan Seni Rupa Indonesia
(YSRI), or The Indonesian Fine Arts Foundation. Encouraged by its
successful venture at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art last
October, YSRI continues in what it sees as its calling: to help
bolster Indonesia's image abroad through the works of a new
generation of artists.

In cooperation with the Indonesian Embassy in Madrid and six
contemporary Indonesian artists, YSRI brought 40 paintings to
Spain for an exhibition called A Look from Within, Indonesian
Contemporary Art Exhibition.

Held at the Gallery of the Casa de Cantabria, the exhibition
which opened on Sept. 12 and runs until the end of this month is
the first of its kind in Madrid, and is considered a step in
further bolstering Indonesian-Spanish ties.

The works in A Look from Within are a direct response by the
artists to a society where terror, violence and gender inequality
have taken their toll. Highlighted by a rich plurality of
cultural backgrounds that makes for the unusual variety of
styles, the exhibition has attracted the attention of the Spanish
and the international community in Madrid.

The paintings of Entang Wiharso, born in Central Java (1957),
which often focus on the issue of power and its repercussions on
the human mind and behavior, are not only stirred by the impact
of sociopolitical turmoil in his country, but also by his
struggle in coming to terms with the unexpected realities of a
foreign country like the U.S., where he lived for some time.

Distorted figures, disembodied heads and caricatures of his
personal as well as social realities in suggestive colors fill
his canvases in the mode of the macabre, reminding of the old
Buddhist legend about the carnal world represented on the
Borobudur Temple in Central Java.

The works of Tisna Sanjaya, a graphic artist by training who
was born in West Java (1958), describe the same turmoil, but use
the absurd to reflect a world upside down.

Four of the six participating artists are women.
Traditionally, the art world consistently has seemed to favor the
creative efforts of men, so this appears as recognition on the
part of curators Ritzki A. Zaelani and Suwarno Wisetotromo of
women's parity.

In a conspicuous departure from the usual Balinese traditions
and value system of her society, I GAK Muniati (b. 1966) explores
the interplay between the sensuous imagery of the vital organs
and the veilings and concealment of art. Hovering between reality
and fantasy, her Munch-like images send out signals of personal
discontent, sometimes comical in appearance, but with a
distinctly deeper meaning than would be expected.

Sekar Jatiningrum was born in Yogyakarta (1969), a center of
art in Central Java. Sekar's pencil drawing in this exhibition
reveals how she enjoys doing the things she wants, just like a
child playing in a safe place. But her oil painting, Bleeding,
Ha, reveals a sense of despair, pain and suffering.

Diah Yulianti was born and brought up in the cultural
environment of South Kalimantan (1973), where a syncretic
religion believes in a world above and a world below which is
connected by a spiritual aura. This may explain the mystique in
her abstractions of images linking modern reality to the symbols
and myths of women's history of the ancient cultural tradition.

Astari Rasjid is an artist who has openly and daringly opposed
the values of her Javanese tradition, which tends to give
priority to men over women. But her critique is as subtle as the
Javanese culture she was born into. Valuing the aesthetic in a
fashion that hovers between Western classicism and traditional
Javanese, and weaving her personal story into the chronicles of
the nation's tremors, she gives substance to efforts at
developing a personalized style.

As YSRI director Susrinah Sanyoto Sastrowardoyo steers the
foundation into foreign waters, more Indonesian ambassadors can
be expected to take to contemporary art to represent the
potentials of their country.