Indonesian artists portray issues of development

Indonesian artists portray issues of development

By R. Fadjri

YOGYAKARTA (JP): Japan and Australia are supportive homes to
the mainstream movement of contemporary art development in the
Asia-Pacific region.

A number of Asian contemporary arts exhibitions have been
organized since the second half of the 1980s in Japan, including
venues in Tokyo, Fukuoka, Osaka and Hiroshima. Asian artists have
also taken part in exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art
in Tokyo, the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art and the
Fukuoka Art Museum.

This tradition continues as five Indonesian artists show their
works alongside 11 artists from Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and
the Philippines in Art in Southeast Asia 1997: Glimpses into the
Future, organized by the Asia Center and the Japan Foundation.
Opening today at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo, the
exhibition runs through June 1.

It will continue at the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary
Art from August 2 to Sept. 15.

The featured Indonesian artists are Dadang Christanto, Semsar
Siahaan, Moelyono, Arahmaiani and Agus Suwage. They are known as
contemporary artists who are inspired by social and political
problems of the surrounding community.

Their selection was in accordance with the exhibition's themes
of ethnic culture, individual identity and social and political
issues. The theme was derived from Southeast Asia's rapid and
far-reaching development in this decade, which has been
accompanied by social upheaval, including the depletion of
agricultural land and destruction of the environment.

Conditions may vary in each country but there are the same
characteristics in the blend of traditional culture, Western
colonial culture and immigrant culture.

The artists in Southeast Asian countries produce extraordinary
pieces of work evincing social and cultural realities in their
search for a form of expression of their own. This is unique
compared to the works of American, European and even Japanese
artists.

In this region, the position of art and artists is apparently
different from that in the West and in Japan. Many Southeast
Asian artists work amidst community life, as a consequence
tending to base their work on morality. At a basic level, this is
reflected in the formal aspect of their works.

The exhibition, according to these themes, comprises three
distinct artistic elements: The art that refers to the uniqueness
of ethnic culture elements translated in their contemporary
meaning, art based on the inner world and individual identity,
and art that is connected with the problems of the realities of
life, including social and political environment.

Grouping

The curator has grouped four Indonesian artists in the theme
of social and political problems, with Agus alone categorized
based on the theme of individual identity. Semsar displays
paintings, while Moelyono and Arahmaiani show installation works.

Dadang Christanto, 40, an installation artist, explores themes
of violence arising from pressures of the social and political
structure. He is inspired by the fate of the common man weakened
and marginalized by the pressures of the system.

Christanto's contribution is an installation piece entitled
They Testify. It consists of 20 statues representing male and
female figures, which are made of a mixture of fiberglass and
terracotta clay. The male figures are 2.5 meters high and the
female ones 1.95 meters. They stand upright with their arms
bearing human figures without heads, arms and legs.

"They are the victims of violence," says the artist, who now
lives in Yogyakarta.

The work appears to be a continuation of Manusia Tanah (Men of
Land), which was exhibited on Jakarta's coast in 1996. In the
earlier work, the naked figures of males and females depicted the
naivety of the lower classes who are objects manipulated by the
system. They look straight ahead, open-mouthed but unable to
speak. In their hands are people lying powerless, the victims of
violence.

For Christanto, the figures testify to the systematic
employment of violence. In his eyes, violence is not just a form
of individual behavior but has become the language of power. The
eviction of slum inhabitants in urban areas, raids against
traders in the informal sector, and random checks on
identification papers in cities have all undermined the
bargaining position of the lower classes, Christanto says.

His installation works usually do not explore complex themes.
For example, his Violence I consists of heads made of terracotta
which are placed on a pyramidal structure. This work was
displayed in New York last year and will be exhibited in the
Vancouver Art Gallery, Canada, from April 26 to July 6.

Christanto also explores aspects of violence in the physical
form through the destruction of human heads shaped from
terracotta. This work was presented in an art performance held at
the Cairns Regional Gallery, Queensland, Australia, in August of
last year.

"The art show is the manifestation of direct physical
violence," says the graduate of the Yogyakarta's Indonesian Arts
Institute. For him, physical violence and structural violence can
be represented through his two artistic expressions.

The simple symbols in Dadang's art apparently represent his
wish to communicate to the society at large. His work is not
merely art dominated by the exploration of artistic elements
only, but display a strong awareness to build communication with
the people. The only drawback is that this approach can easily
descend into the proselytizing zeal associated with messages in
pamphlets and posters.