Edhi Sunarso: From a child guerrilla to a sculptor

Singgir Kartana, Contributor, Yogyakarta

For Edhi Sunarso, being either a guerrilla or a sculptor needs a strong spirit. The spirit of nationalism that was forged when he was a guerrilla and the spirit of an artist jointly make him a leading creator of monuments and statues that Indonesia take pride in.

Born in Salatiga, Central Java, on July 2, 1933, Sunarso has an impressive reputation as a sculptor. His works include the Welcome Statue at the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle, the West Irian Liberation Statue, the Aerospace Statue, the Yogya Returns Statue, the National Monument, the Youth Monument in Semarang, the Lubang Buaya Monument, the Bali Puputan Monument, to name but a few. He is a monumental presence in the history of Indonesian sculpture.

He said he was proud of being able to translate other people's ideas into sculpture form.

"Many of the monuments started as ideas suggested by first president Sukarno," he said.

The Welcome Statue was made in 1959 and is now associated with the capital. The sketch of this statue was made by former Jakarta governor, Henk Ngantung, who had done a lot to provide Jakarta with parks.

In 1961, Sunarso was involved in making the West Irian Liberation Statue at Banteng Square, Central Jakarta, and in 1963 he participated in the making of the Aerospace Statue in Pancoran, South Jakarta. In later years, he was always involved in the building of important monuments in Jakarta and elsewhere.

Sunarso's life has been full of struggle. When in elementary school, he lived separately from his parents.

"I even forgot my mother's name," he said.

In 1946, during the revolutionary era, he joined the Children's Troops and served as a guerrilla courier in several places like Subang, Pamanukan, Cimalaya and Purwakarta, supplying ammunition to his seniors. At 12, he was arrested and while in prison he learned art and English.

After leaving prison, he intended to join his former unit, then already moving toward Yogyakarta. He walked there from Bandung but in Yogyakarta he got interested in art and simply abandoned the guerillas, even though he was a sergeant major.

Although he started with painting, he later chose sculpture as his profession. In 1952, when he was at the Indonesian Fine Art Academy (ASRI) in Yogyakarta, he began to study sculpture seriously.

"Thanks to Hendra Gunawan, who was then teaching in ASRI, I was accepted as a listener at the academy," he said.

As he got more and more interested in learning art, he tried many ways to get accepted as an ordinary student and finally was accepted. After completing his studies there with excellent results, he got a scholarship from UNESCO to study sculpture in the Khalibaban faculty of the Kala Bhavana Visna Bharati University, Shantiniketan, India, for three years.

Sunarso made the right choice. In his first solo exhibition in Calcutta, India, in 1956, he was named the best sculptor. A year later, in the All-India Exhibition, he grabbed three gold medals for sculpture, graphic art and as best exhibitor.

As a guerrilla turned sculptor, the spirit of nationalism, consistency and honesty are reflected in his statues. His experiences during the revolutionary years affected his sculpting style: expressive and realistic.

When creating monuments, his revolutionary spirit comes out expressively and realistically without refinement. In his more personal creations, though, he becomes contemplative and makes use of symbols.

A human figure, for example, is depicted as having a small head to stress, he said, that the head is the center of human existence. In his monuments, he expresses the collective spirit of the nation while in his more personal works he deals with humanitarian esthetics that go beyond national borders.

Sunarso also creates deformed statues, for example the sculpture of a hungry person with large legs, eyes open wide and the buttock turned up, an expression of hunger, anger, pain and so forth. He did not realize that this style was part of modern art until his work The Anonymous Political Prisoner won a prize in an international modern sculpture competition in London in 1953. Thanks to this prize, he could travel round Europe.

In 1955, he got married to Kustiyah, a marriage that has produced four children: Rosa, Ira, Satya and Sari. All the children are also engaged in art as interior and visual designers.

Sunarso said the most impressive work for him is the Unknown Fighter Statue in Digul as when making it, he could express his feelings fully.

Besides sculpting, Sunarso also paints. In his house, at Jl. Kaliurang Km 5.5 No. 72, Yogyakarta, dozens of paintings depicting wooden, stone, resin and metal statues are hung in his sitting room. His paintings are also hung at his Hasta Kreativa Studio on Jl. Gajah Road, Umbulharjo.

Compared to other art genres, sculpture enjoys less appreciation in our society. Galleries rarely exhibit sculptures. Sunarso agreed, adding that few critics of sculpture were found in Indonesia. The reason was that it usually took a long time to make sculpture and that the materials were expensive. As a result, few are interested in buying sculptures

"I don't think we've got an established sculpture critic. We have only a few observers. They do not criticize but only describe what sculpting art is all about," he said.

Still, he maintains his optimism that sculpture as art will receive greater attention in the future, especially with the establishment of the Yogyakarta-based Indonesian Association of Sculptors.

"This association is expected to spur sculpture in Indonesia," he said.

Sunarso has several awards to his credit, among others the Art Award from the Indonesian government in 1982, an award from the Calcutta Fine Art Academy and a gold medal from the Indian government in 1957. In 1959 he joined the teaching faculty at ASRI and a year later was asked to head the sculpture department. He retired from ASRI in 1997. Today he manages his sculpture workshop and teaches in the post-graduate program at ISI Yogyakarta.