Humor in Rastika's Glass Painting

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.

I-BOX:

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