Humor in Rastika's Glass Painting

Yusuf Susilo Hartono Contributor Jakarta

After being absent for sometime of solo exhibition area in Jakarta, Rastika, 60-year-old glass painter from Gegesik Kulon, a village in Cirebon, West Java, backs with his latest works.

Though some of his 40 displayed glass painting works still show a repetition of old themes, like calligraphy of Syahadat (the confession of faith, there is no God but Allah and Prophet Muhammad is God's Messenger) in Semar or Paksi Naga Liman creature unique of Cirebon, fresh themes are also found in his works even with a touch of humorous nuances -- like the one where Petruk, a royal servant character in traditional shadow puppet show, sits leisurely with his two hands holding liquor bottles while a pretty woman sits on his lap.

Rastika started his creative process as a glass painter in 1950s. After such quite a long span of time, the former farmer has now come to a significant height of wisdom as shown in a way he uses humor as catharsis, not as a form of escapism.

Although his formal education was confined only to elementary school, Rastika is knowledgeable about the philosophy of life (as reflected in shadow puppet stories). His works clearly show how his knowledge and his experience as a farmer contend to gain more prominence.

Toyda, young painters in Cirebon are generally come with higher educational background than Rastika but know little of the philosophy, like of the shadow puppet stories.

If it is true that Rastika humor is a catharsis, how is the quality of visual language in drunken Petruk painting compared with his usual themes that are usually derived from the shadow puppet stories?

According to a glass painting observer, Eddy Hadi Waluyo, Rastika is capable of depicting flexible and elegant shapes with rich and beautiful details of great complexity. This, he said, must be the outcome of his continuous explorations of the themes from the shadow puppet stories.

Rastika was not alone in creating the exhibited works. Although these works bear his signature, Kusdono (20), his fourth child and a junior high school dropout, played an important role in creating these works.

Kusdono, who is confined to his wheelchair, has, in the past five years, gone through his father's rigorous training in glass painting in a hope that someday, he might take Rastika's place when his father can no longer take up painting.

In the creating process, Kusdono is assigned to color the patterns that his father made. These patterns are in black flexible lines with objects being neatly placed in nice composition. In coloring these patterns, Kusdono has to follow his father's guidelines.

The base, for example, is provided with blue color of duck egg skin to give soft impression then the motifs of stony ground and clouds are layered in monochromatic degradation like blue, green, red, brown. Now, his fanatic collectors find his paintings softer in color than those created five to 10 years back where most of them were in bright colors.

An interesting thing at this ongoing exhibition is that for the first time, Rastika displays reproduction of Barikan from Gegesik, a series of 16 frames. He has reproduced the paintings by Sitisiwan (1865-1948) from Lontar offset reproduction. Lontar itself has reproduced these paintings from the original works and collected by TL Cooper. This painting features Cirebon folklore like Lukas Baurna, putra Jaka Larang (Lukas Baurna, the son of Jaka Larang) and Raja Jin Tanjung Karobak dengan Rara Bulan, putri Laut Selatan (Genie King and Rara Bulan, the South Sea Princess). Such paintings were used to be put up in a house at time when there's wedding party or circumcision ceremony.

This reproduction idea came from Iwan Ramelan of PT Fortune, the exhibition's sponsor. Many have supported this effort since Sitisiwan died over 50 years ago and Rastika has reproduced the painting in his own media and style so he cannot be accused of plagiarism.

Regardless of whether or not this reproduction violates copyright, Rastika's exhibition this time is quite attractive. In early years of the propagation of Islam, glass painting works were used as a means of propagation, but now Rastika uses it as a medium of humor. This is especially interesting to note given that the Indonesians now find it hard to laugh as the prices of daily necessities have risen.

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The exhibition will run through to Jan. 19, 2003 at Candrika Gallery, Pondok Indah Plaza I, South Jakarta (Tel: 75900763-762)