Impressions of Australia through Indonesian eyes

By Parvathi Nayar Narayan

JAKARTA (JP): One of the most interesting aspects of Jerry T.'s exhibition of sketches and paintings is that it brings together two cultures in a way that's slightly different than what we're familiar with here -- a foreign country through the eyes of an Indonesian artist rather than the reverse.

Jerry T. was born in Bogor, West Java, and began his art studies at the Jakarta Art Institute (IKJ) in 1984. This latest exhibition, his second solo show, arose out of a month spent traveling in Western Australia, from Perth down to Albany. The reason for picking Australia was as simple as the fact that it's his wife's home country, but sketching as he travels is something that Jerry does as a matter of course.

The exhibition has a slightly odd balance in that 61 of the works are sketches and only four are paintings -- a pity since the latter are some of the most appealing. For the first time, Jerry says, color via the application of paint makes its appearance in his work -- the color otherwise being provided by the carefully layered sheets of rice paper over the base black drawing on white. In the Australian paintings there are traces of blue and a soupcon of orange-yellow delicately applied. The touches of gold leaf (obtained from a Chinese medicine shop in Glodok (downtown Jakarta) are not new, but part of his ouevre.

The forms used are abstract if organic, but some recognizable images -- aboriginal symbols like the rainbow serpent or stylized representations of cloud patterns -- do appear. In the two Images Of Australia paintings, the strong geometric forms of rectangle and square create the background matrix against which the layers of the painting are anchored. The paintings do not make bold statements; it would seem their intention is not to force themselves upon us, but rather offer an almost meditative point of view with their stillness and symmetry.

The sketches are end products in themselves, not preparatory studies for the artist's studio paintings. Still they did indirectly help in the creation of the latter, acting as a visual record of the artist's memories, experiences and impressions of Australia. It is important to exhibit sketches because they are "...more spontaneous and honest, " explains Jerry. "It's done on the spot, you can't 'fix' them. If it's wrong, it's wrong."

The black and whites evoke a feeling of Chinese brush painting and calligraphy in their delicate treatment of line and values.

The artist admits to a brief brush with calligraphy when he tried to teach himself, but grew more interested in absorbing and transferring to his paintings "the expression of calligraphy and the power of the line".

Though he has never studied Chinese brush painting, he is nonetheless very familiar with it. He studied Taoism and Taoist influenced Chinese painting extensively for his thesis at art school. Other influences he cites are those of the Indonesian artists Srihadi, Nashar, A.D Pirous, Amang Rachman and Popo Iskandar.

Jerry's animal sketches are very easy to connect with. One of the best in terms of economy and sureness of line is Lappy, Stan's Cat. In The Crow, by contrast, the image is saturated with black but retains an innate simplicity of form and conception. There are numerous versions of the alpaca, in which he explores the facial characteristics and expressions of the animals. One is tempted to look at them as character studies or portraiture. Even so, Jerry is an artist who prefers drawing nature and so far has had no interest in drawing human beings. In his less successful sketches, however, the lines seem to lack clarity and sureness, of which the demanding nature of the black and white technique tends to be rather unforgiving.

Jerry T. is the first Indonesian artist to hold a solo at the Australian Embassy. Lee Choon Siauw, the embassy's cultural counselor, explains it as the result of the coming together of many factors. Jerry is an Indonesian with a relationship with Australia and his sketches of Australia showed a sensitivity for the country. And, at an average of 18 X 25 cm, his works were even the right size for the embassy's small gallery!

It was also very interesting, said Lee Choon Siauw, "to see what he was interested in, in Australia. For instance, he draws landscapes with no people. One can travel for days in Australia without seeing anyone." Equally interesting was the fact that he was attracted to simple, everyday objects that were quintessentially Australian: the hills hoist, the pot belly stove or the telephone poles that stretch across the landscape. In some sketches he has used collage on the bark of the paper bark tree, again a very Australian substance, sometimes used in aboriginal painting.

The hills hoist, of which Jerry has sketched three versions, is a large contraption that moves in the wind and is used to dry clothes. The artist saw it in his mother-in-law's backyard, and it seemed to symbolize the vastness of Australia, since a considerable amount of space is needed to put one up. However, an Australian viewing the exhibition remarked that a hills hoist is not just a familiar sight in Australia, but has come to symbolize an anti-cultural statement -- a fascinating insight into the potency of images and their meanings, which change constantly with context.