Indonesian art and politics on show in Australia

Indonesian art and politics on show in Australia

By Dewi Anggraeni

MELBOURNE (JP): Seeing the exhibition of Indonesian
contemporary art in the Australian center for contemporary art
building in Melbourne is like entering a microcosm of today's
political situation in Indonesia, protected by the wide arm of
Mother Nature, simultaneously personal and impersonal. The
building, unpretentious and reassuringly friendly, is right in
the midst of Melbourne's Botanical Gardens.

The Australian Center for Contemporary Art, with the
cooperation of Asialink and Indonesian Arts Society, and funding
assistance from the Australia Indonesia Institute, has made this
experience possible. The works of 14 artists in AWAS! Recent Art
from Indonesia are the source of fascination to Australian art
lovers in Melbourne, for their political content and diversity of
style, medium and message.

As one of the curators, Damon Moon, commented, too often
Indonesia has been seen in a simplistic way in Australia. And
Indonesian politics, put in a reductionist context by many
Australians, has been equated with the conflict in East Timor.

Art is an ideal way of telling the inside story, especially to
those who do not have the time or inclination to read lengthy
articles and theses about the political situation in a country.
And the works in AWAS! are so powerful they hit the viewer in the
face.

Australian art lovers are more familiar with the self-
indulgent style of contemporary art in this country, where the
artists may be telling something, but not necessarily beckon for
you to listen. In contrast, the works in this exhibition reach
out and grab the viewer, recounting loudly their stories. In
some, the viewer even has to step back and ponder the message, so
loud is the voice that it sounds incoherent.

The president of the Indonesian Arts Society, Hugh O'Neill,
believes that many of the eerie images of disembodied heads seen
throughout the exhibition may have been the subconscious
manifestation of collective anguish, which is so powerfully
present in many parts of Indonesia at the moment.

Observers who came to see beauty in the conventional sense
might have to look hard, but they certainly would not walk
lightly past each item. They would stop to ponder over Hanura
Hosea's series of paintings for instance, in which they would see
dark layers of human psyche.

Most powerfully ambiguous is the poster of "Visit Indonesia
Years" where the character representing Indonesia has two
personae: one wearing civilian clothes with a happy family scene
behind him, and another in military clothes, in front of images
of pain and fear.

In Agus Suwage's Pressure and Pleasure (Visit Indonesia,
Lovely Country), the viewer is likely to be puzzled when he finds
himself in a military tent, where the walls and the ceiling are
covered with images of the artist in poses similar to figures on
advertising posters for Indonesian soft porn films.

One work with a powerful message without blinding the viewer
first is Heri Dono's sculpture-cum-installation, Operation of
Thought Control. Yet the clarity of the message can be chilling:
the image of a master in plain human form controlling a number of
small puppets in vague and comical forms.

All the works exhibited scream out their symbols, which in
themselves are wrapped in layers of social political issues. The
artists come across as extremely aware of what is happening to
them and around them.

They even indulge in self-mockery. In Souvenirs a la Third
World Agung Kurniawan highlights the fate of many artists in
Indonesia. They are driven to sell their works as commodities to
foreign buyers.

As art writer Rizki A. Zaelani observes, Indonesian
contemporary art is now mostly marketed through international
curators.

While in reality only a small proportion of Indonesia's
contemporary art is unambiguously politically weighted, it
appears that the curators of this exhibition deliberately
selected these works to show to the Australian public.

The staging of AWAS! Recent Art from Indonesia, which is on
show in Australia until June 11, 2000, involved a great deal of
detailed planning. From Melbourne, AWAS! will head for Canberra,
to be hosted by the Canberra Contemporary Art Space, until March
11. Then from March 23 till April 22, Ivan Dougherty Gallery will
the host in Sydney. And its last call is Cairns Regional Gallery
in Cairns, Queensland, until June 11, 2000.

For those art lovers who seek further information and
explanation of what they see and experience, the Indonesian Art
Society has produced a 108-page catalog, which is an accomplished
volume in itself. Edited by O'Neill and Timothy Lindsey, the book
offers erudite essays by recognized experts such as Arief
Budiman, M. Dwi Marianto, Astri Wright, Alexandra Kuss and Rizki
A. Zaelani. It explains the immediate significance of the works
exhibited, as well as their backgrounds and impact in the wider
historical, social and political contexts.

Curators Moon, Mella Jaarsma, Alexandra Kus and M. Dwi
Marianto deserve congratulations for the perfect timing of the
exhibition. Indonesia has been under the limelight lately,
unfortunately in a one-dimensional way. It is often projected as
a nation who cannot take criticism, whose people are blind
followers of the authorities, having had all their abilities to
express themselves effectively suppressed.

AWAS! will hopefully reveal that there is indeed a well of
creativity, manifested in a wide diversity of styles and forms.
The self-perceptive artists are also able to entertain in their
self-deprecating mode, and provoke different emotions as well,
all the while putting on a brave face.