Insecure about signifying decorativism?

Insecure about signifying decorativism?

By Amir Sidharta

JAKARTA (JP): Two related exhibitions, Patterning in
Contemporary Art: Layers of Meaning, and Signifying
Decorativeness: Layers of Meaning, were displayed together at the
Exhibition Hall of the Ministry of Education and Culture, Gambir,
Central Jakarta, until Aug. 21.

Patterning featured the works of 11 Australians and artists of
each host country of the event's tour in Asia, whose contemporary
works incorporate patterning as the main element. The exhibit was
curated by Merryn Gates of the Canberra School of Art, Australian
National University.

The Australians, Gates wrote in the catalog, share an interest
in patterning that "would have originally carried cultural
meaning", in traditions referred to as craft.

The curator further explained, "Patterning examines abstract
languages that have a lineage distinct from that of Western
modernism" and that the artists worked in "the relationship
between the decorative, the ritual, and the functional, the
migration of motifs and the possible nexus of patterning in the
fine and applied arts..."

For example, in Indian-born David Sequeria's works, geometric
patterns were formed using threads sown through various surfaces.
In his Creation theory (hand sewn, home grown) the patterns were
sewn onto a surface of dried leaves, overlaying cultural patterns
on to natural patterns.

His interest in "systems of knowledge" was perhaps best
epitomized in his work titled Between the sensory and the
intuitive, in which he sewed patterns through books. Gates wrote,
"Sequeria enjoys the fact that the string could be unthreaded,
and that such a fine thread holds together the weight of
knowledge."

The artist explained that to open a book, which contains
information and ideas, the string that binds it must be cut and
the pattern unraveled. In other words, to access the layer of
meaning beyond the pattern, the pattern's code must be first
broken. This work seemed to provide an appropriate metaphor for
the exhibition itself.

The Patterning exhibit included the works of women artists,
Aborigine artists, as well as artists of non-Western or non-
Australian descent.

It seemed clear that Patterning not only tried to feature a
tendency in art so far marginalized, but to also address issues
of gender and ethnicity marginalization in discourses of modern
art.

The Indonesian counterpart in Patterning's tour in Indonesia
-- the first show was in Bali -- was prepared by two Indonesian
curators, Jim Supangkat and Asmujo Jono Irianto. Signifying
Decorativeness, as the exhibit was called, together with
Patterning, were hoped to be able to generate a discourse
regarding patterning and decorativeness in art.

In the catalog, the curators explained that "in preparing the
curatorial of Patterning, Gates seems to have developed a non-
Western tradition where decorative form is the mainstream".

Jim and Asmujo noted that most Patterning participants were
not born in Australia, and therefore "considered to have
relationships with tradition (especially non-Western tradition),
and most of them are artists who work in the world of craft".

They wrote further that this consideration showed that in
raising problems of decorative form, "Patterning enters the
confrontation of art and craft, an old issue in the discourse of
Western art that is currently reemerging in Australia."

Meanwhile, Signifying does not enter the debate between craft
and art, the curators said.

Instead of attempting to reveal the layers of meaning
represented through the selected art pieces, as Gates did, the
curators seemed to be more in defense of the curatorial issues of
the exhibition itself.

The participants of Signifying, they explained, included
painters, sculptors, textile artists, ceramicists, graphic
artists and installation artists. "The formation shows that
Signifying applies contemporary art conventions but with an
addition that also enters the realm of craft."

Signifying Decorativeness featured, among others, the works of
AD Pirous and Heyi Ma'mun, two graduates of Bandung's Institute
of Technology (ITB) who are known to have been influenced by
painter Achmad Sadali; the high craftsmanship in the textiles of
Nia Fliam and the fiber works of Biranul Anas. Others included
the exploration in ornamentation by Noor Sudiyati and the works
of Widayat and Amrus Natalsya.

Emergence

Decorativeness has actually been a central element in the
discourse of Indonesian art history. In his book Modern
Indonesian Art and Beyond, Jim says the emergence of decorativism
between 1940 and 1950 was important, showing the influence of the
kagunan framework within the development of the Yogya School.

He describes the painting style as characterized by lines,
flat shapes and colors, with each form converted into carefully
organized two dimensional shapes.

Jim wrote that the founder of this style was Kartono
Yudhokusumo, who adopted this mode of painting when he and his
followers worked in Bali in the mid-1940s. "He consciously
adopted this style because in his vision, decorativeness shows
the characteristic of Indonesian visual art, especially its
ornamentation, its craftsmanship and its lyricism."

Then, the painter Widayat became a key figure in the
dissemination of the influence of decorativism in Indonesian art,
and decorativism characterized the Yogya School of art.

Since the 1950s, decorativism has become a central issue in
the heated debates regarding Indonesian art.

In reaction to an exhibition of Bandung painters at Balai
Budaya in 1954, Trisno Sumardjo criticized the Bandung School of
Art, which evolves around the Bandung Institute of Technology, as
being antinationalist.

Observer Helena Spanjaard writes that Trisno divided
Indonesian art into two categories: "the spontaneous art from the
fatherland, born in the 'Indonesian soul' and 'Indonesian
experiences' and the artificial art inside the school buildings
of the 'western laboratory', where the intellectual Western art
climate was slavishly adhered to".

Sumardjo categorized the Bandung School as being such a
"laboratory". Although his criticism did not seem to refer to
decorativism, it was implicit that he preferred this style to its
modern counterpart.

In 1974, a group of artists protested the awarding of the
prizes of the best paintings at the Jakarta Biennial. All
recipients of the awards leaned toward decorativism.

The protesters rejected the judges' tendency favoring this
style, as if they considered the decorativists' works as a valid
representation of the trends of Indonesian art at the time.

The Indonesian New Art Movement that emerged the following
year rejected not only the artistic and creative stagnancy in
decorativism, but also rejected the entire modern tradition as
well. The exhibition titled What Identity? (Identitas Apa?) held
in 1977 questioned the formulation of an Indonesian identity
through the use of ethnic forms and symbols. Jim was an
influential figure in these two exhibitions.

Apart from Kartono Yudhokusumo and Widayat, the works of
Indonesian decorativists, such as Irsam, Suparto, Arief
Sudarsono, Mulyadi W, Mujita, Sarnadi Adam, Batara Lubis, Sri
Yunnah, Nyoman Gunarsa, Edi Sunaryo, Suwadji and Adi Munardi,
have been marginalized by architectural critics such as Jim.

In Indonesian Modern Art and Beyond, he only devotes one
paragraph to some names of those he considers as decorativists.

This exhibition actually offered a wonderful opportunity to
reexplore the works of several artists using the decorativist
approach, who since the late 1980s were marginalized from the
academic discussions of contemporary Indonesian art.

Yet the curators seemed to have opted to look for decorative
tendencies in the works of artists who have already been included
in the academic discourses of Indonesian art history.

To be sure, the exhibition includes the works of Widayat, a
senior artist and "grandfather" of Indonesian "decorativism".
However, the exhibition showed Widayat's late works, which were
clearly more expressive rather than decorativist.

Perhaps Nyoman Erawan's series of works, Citra Bali Kuna
(Ancient Balinese Imagery) which are explorations of Balinese
motifs, fitted the theme of the exhibition perfectly. Yet, the
inclusion of an installation piece by the artist, titled Lingga
Yoni, once again obscured the exhibition's direction.

What was most confusing was perhaps Setiawan Sabana's work in
the show, a series called Energy on Life. This work was certainly
an anomaly in the show. There was little in the mixed media
collage consisting of recycled paper, gauze cloth and found
wooden elements that evidences traces of decorativeness.

The impression was that the selection was based more on
artists' reputation than on their works.

The Signifying exhibition seemed to reveal the curators'
insecurity and reluctance about presenting the crafted
decorativist art pieces as contemporary art pieces per se.

The installations of Heyi Ma'mun and Nyoman Erawan in the
exhibition showed that the curators still deemed it necessary to
offer other elements apart from decorative ones, to be accepted
in the contemporary art scene.

Nonetheless, the exhibition did provide wide opportunities for
other art researchers and curators to revisit decorativism in the
development of art here.

When the time comes, the works of the well-known decorativist
artists mentioned above, and many of their younger counterparts
such as Nisan Kristianto, Idran Yusuf, Gunawan Hanjaya and Y. Eka
Supriyadi, will be given the opportunity to emerge as artists of
national acclaim.

Certainly, that would also mean that it is also time for these
artists to start sharpening their artistic thoughts and ideas,
and not only concentrate on perfecting their visual abilities and
techniques -- a challenge of Indonesian artists, critics and
curators in approaching the next millennium.

The writer is curator of the Museum Universitas Pelita
Harapan, Lippo Karawaci in Tangerang, West Java.