Indonesia's longest sketch at the National Gallery

By Amir Sidharta

JAKARTA (JP): Forty-six scenes drawn with black markers on a giant scroll made of denim has been stretched out elegantly on a continuous frame, ready for public viewing.

Each scene measures 140 by 300 centimeters and the total length measures approximately 137 meters, making it the longest sketch in Indonesia.

This work is part of the solo exhibition, Pameraya 2000 by H. Widayat at the National Gallery, Central Jakarta, to be held between March 9 and March 31, 2000, which at the same time commemorates Widayat's 81st birthday.

Returning home after receiving the ASEAN Art Award in Brunei Darussalam on Oct. 9 1993, the artist noticed that there was a problem with his eye. He sought help from doctors in Indonesia, and even consulted a shaman healer, without much luck.

Then, acting on the suggestion of a friend, Widayat underwent an operation in Singapore.

While recovering from the successful surgery, he got the idea of painting the longest sketch ever. After two months of complete rest, the doctor allowed him to continue his regular activities.

Initially, he looked for denim that was 500 meters long. However, continuous fabric of such length was not available.

His son found a roll of denim that measured about 160 centimeters in height by 140 meters in length, for a price of Rp 7.750 per meter. Widayat divided the fabric into 46 sections, each three meters in length. The denim would be turned into a scroll, a kind of modern wayang beber.

Traditionally, this kind of wayang depicted fragments of scenes on a continuous scroll. It would be stretched to display each screen, and the dalang, puppet master, would convey the story of each scene. The modern version would document Widayat's life chronicles.

The scroll starts off with the origins of the sketch, starting with Widayat's trip to Brunei and his eye operation in Singapore.

The first sketch in the series was done in early 1994. It continues with scenes from a trip to Japan and his stay there in 1962. Among these sketches are two nudes, and a comical sketch of a striptease show.

The scroll continues with images from Java, including an eruption of Mount Merapi. Another scene portrays the funerary ceremonies of Suwarni, the artist's first wife, a couple of days after Idul Fitri 1996, and of Madame Tien Soeharto, on Idul Adha 1996. "In this scene, you can see people of various religions paying their respect to the former First Lady," commented Widayat.

"This work was done in a little less than four years. Of course, during that time I did not work exclusively on this scroll. It was one of the many works I did," he said.

The scroll shows the artist's diverse interests and concerns. It includes three scenes depicting Golkar, PPP and PDI's political campaigns in 1997.

In the depiction of the PDI campaign two bulls, one male and the other female, fight against each other. It is a clear representation of the two factions of PDI at the time, one Suryadi's and the other Megawati's.

Even Lady Di (the late Princess Diana) is honored in the scroll. One scene is dedicated to her goodwill to humanity. Another includes a sketch of the wreckage of the car in which she was riding and a chronicle detailing the fatal crash that killed her, quoted from the Kedaulatan Rakyat daily.

Other themes that appear in the scroll include fantastic scenes of land and sea flora and fauna, jungle scenes, as well as social issues, artistic and cultural events, and scenes from the artist's personal life.

Some of the scenes are simple single line sketches, while others are extraordinarily meticulous. Groups of simple sketches and detailed scenes appear at irregular intervals, apparently depending on the artist's mood.

Towards the end of the scroll is a sketch depicting of a first encounter in a love affair. In the second scene, one year later, the wedding follows. A depiction of family of two parents and five children going on a picnic is the subject of the third scene, 10 years later. It is entitled Keluarga Piknik (KB yang gagal), Family Picnic (A Lost Case of Family Planning), The Family Planning board campaigns for a family with two children as the ideal.

In the past, scenes from the scroll have been displayed sequentially using a device that rolls the fabric between two iron poles placed a little over three meters apart.

Now, for the first time people are able to view the scroll in its entirety, stretched out meandering through the National Gallery. This new way of viewing certainly departs from the presentation of the traditional wayang beber. Yet, it presents a much more impressive effect, and in many ways, it is much more satisfying to be able to view the entire scroll.

The scroll will also receive a certificate of recognition from the Museum Rekor Indonesia (Indonesian Records Museum) as the longest sketch in Indonesia.

The certificate will be handed to Widayat at the opening of the Pameraya H. Widayat exhibition tonight.