Darvies paints bleak pictures of cultural decline
By Susi Andrini
YOGYAKARTA (JP): Onde-onde lalanuk sanjo (Gee, sunset has past). The lyric of a Minang song features in one of Darvies Rasjidin's paintings, which laments the local cultural decadence that prevails in his homeland due to the irresistible spread of global civilization.
Rasjidin, a Minang native and has only one arm, presents 32 paintings in an exhibition at the Fort of Vredeburg that will last until Jan. 28. Minang culture is the main theme of all his artworks on display.
The oil on canvas paintings, all measuring over 100 cm in length and width, tell about human arrogance, greed and helplessness. The Minang values are portrayed from the positive and negative angles.
Split faces, arms, feet and shirts are painted with bright colors with stylistic surrealism and deep philosophical interpretation. His brush strokes are very fine and imaginative.
Born in Solok, West Sumatra, on Oct. 15, 1948, Darvies says that, like many other Minang natives, he can't differentiate between history and the legend and myths that abound in his homeland. These are his main sources of inspiration and explain the difficulty in understanding the culture as he portrays it in Satu Sudut '98 (One Corner '98). It features an uncle (mamak) in his best attire standing in a withering frame while his nieces are neglected.
He says, "in Minangkabau's matrimonial tradition, the fortune is passed from the uncle to the niece. But in the course of time, family fortune is no longer everything. The tradition is history now."
In Minangku, 1987 (My Minang, 1987), Darvies depicts the Minang culture under threat. In other works like Perjalanan si Binuang, 87 (Binuang's Story), he portrays Minang women as a generation that adores physical beauty but turns its back on ancestral values.
In his cynical work, Minang women have beautiful faces heavily made up with cosmetics, which he says is a mask to hide their ugly spiritual shallowness.
Darvies also addresses the tragedy in Aceh in DOM, 1999 (Military Operation Area 1999), Senandung Negeriku (Song of My Country) and Setangkai Mawar dari Aceh (A Rose from Aceh).
Aceh is portrayed as a land torn apart by widespread violence and human rights abuses which take their toll on children and women. The Aceh affliction mirrors the Dutch colonialists' "divide and control" tactic.
Darvies' style, characterized by split images, is unique. No other artists have done it so consistently well as he does.
This is his second solo exhibition. His first was in West Sumatra Cultural Center in Padang in 1979. Painting since childhood, Darvies studied arts in Padang School of Arts and Yogyakarta's Indonesian Academy of Arts (ASRI). He has taken part in various exhibitions since 1977.
He dropped out of ASRI in 1973 from financial problems and returned to West Sumatra at his parents request. There he joined a theater group, Wisran Hadi, that performed in many cities until 1980. Meanwhile, he continued painting.
Next he became a radio broadcaster in Padang. He recalled that he spent his salary on art supplies to paint the girl with whom he had fallen in love for the first time.
"I was so love sick I would sing Scorpion's Still Loving You, constantly. Then I bought a blank cassette just to record myself singing Michael Jackson's One Day in My Life," he related.
At that time he only painted beautiful women and nothing else, earning him the nickname "porn painter." A cubism drawing Bulannya Merah, 1984 (The Moon is Red 1984) was his most favorite piece.
He decided to become a professional painter in 1987 upon his return from Malaysia where he had taught batik painting -- a job which he had found boring.
In 1999 he moved to Yogyakarta, where he spent the whole night through learning and making sketches on the famed Malioboro Street. He plans to hold his next exhibitions in Bandung, Jakarta and Bali.