Interchange and debate color RI art scene in 1995
Interchange and debate color RI art scene in 1995
By Margaret Agusta
JAKARTA (JP): This past year was a period of flux, conflict
and contrast in Indonesia's art sector, with increasing political
awareness and greater interchange with the outside world being
the only constants.
The first major exhibition of the year, a show of 43 paintings
by Yos Suprapto at Taman Ismail Marzuki art center from Jan. 9 to
15, continued 1994's tendency to establish links between
Indonesia's art circles and those of other nations.
Although born in Indonesia and educated at the ASRI art
academy in Yogyakarta in the early 1970s, Yos Suprapto has lived
in Australia, where he has established himself as a successful
artist and musician, for the last 18 years.
His exhibition in Jakarta in January 1995 was his first in
Indonesia since his student days with artists Semsar Siaahan,
F.X. Harsono and Hardi in Central Java.
Like other artists, curators and critics, such as F.X.
Harsono, Heri Dono, Edi Hara, Sulebar and Jim Supangkat, who
continue to live and work in Indonesia, Yos Suprapto is
interested in " ... introducing a new way of looking at the
problem of art in the Indonesian art scene".
F.X. Harsono and Jim Supangkat, who took part in international
art fora in Japan and Australia this year, have been very
outspoken concerning the role art plays in Indonesia and its
rightful place in the global art scene.
F.X. Harsono, who concentrates on installation art for his
creative expression, feels that the voice of the grassroots
segment of society can be amplified and conveyed most readily
through the medium of visual art. Like Yos Suprapto, Djoko Pekik,
Semsar Siaahan, and to some extent Heri Dono, Edi Hara and Dede
Eri Supria, F.X. Harsono addresses Indonesia's socio-political
problems of corruption, the gap between the rich and the poor,
the exploitation of workers and the destruction of the
environment.
Yos Suprapto, who presented one installation and two
performance pieces along with his paintings in his Jakarta show,
believes that socio-political messages conveyed with imagination
and creativity have long been missing from the Indonesia art
scene, or at least pushed to the fringes through suppression.
"We can't just see fine arts as an entertainment industry," he
wrote in the catalog for his January exhibition. Yos Suprapto
believes the development of Indonesian art and imagination has
been hindered because of the socio-political trauma induced by
the abortive communist coup of 1965 and its immediate aftermath.
He said in an interview with Sarah Murray for The Jakarta Post
that this trauma has yet to be confronted and processed through
creative artwork in Indonesia.
He also bemoaned the fact that "The main aspirations of
Indonesian modern art from Sudjojono and Affandi's era have been
forgotten."
Both Sudjojono and Affandi advocated focusing on the plight of
the grassroots level of society for inspiration for their free
and expressive artwork. And like Djoko Pekik, they came under
heavy fire in the wake of the upheaval of 1965 and 1966 for their
alleged "leftist" leanings and the social themes they insisted on
conveying through their paintings.
Only in the last two or three years have people begun to take
a well deserved closer look at the work of Djoko Pekik. Most
notably, the Norwegian-American art historian Astri Wright had
the professional insight to discuss the impact of Indonesia's
political history on its artists, in particular Djoko Pekik, and
their art in her book Soul, Spirit and Mountain: Preoccupations
of Contemporary Indonesian Painters, published in 1994 and
available throughout this past year in Jakarta bookstores.
Astri Wright, like Jim Supangkat and F.X. Harsono, has
actively striven to draw greater attention to and achieve long
deserved recognition in international fora for Indonesia's modern
and contemporary art.
This has not been an easy task, as could be seen by the
outright rejection by American art galleries and museums of the
exhibition of modern Indonesian art prepared for the 1991
Indonesian Art and Culture Festival in the United States. Up to
now it remains difficult to get the international "mainstream"
art institutions to recognize modern and contemporary Indonesian
art as other than mimicry of existing western styles and "isms".
In 1995, F.X Harsono joined exhibitions and discussions abroad
in Australia and Japan in an effort to expose his work and the
work of other contemporary Indonesian artists in international
fora with the hope of making the world pay attention to what is
going on in the art of Southeast Asia.
Throughout 1995, curator and critic Jim Supangkat also made an
effort to make the voice of Indonesia's artists heard
internationally. He and several artists, critics and curators
from Third World countries brought up the problem of the
domination of Euro-American art theory, in particular avant
gardism, universalism and post modernism, in international fora.
He believes that the art history scenario of the mainstream
falls far short of reflecting what has actually been going on in
art globally. He says that the socio-political development of
countries throughout the world must be taken into consideration
in any evaluation or analysis of art being produced. Jim
Supangkat and an increasing number of artists and art lovers
throughout the world are becoming ever more critical of the
status quo and are demanding that attention be paid to the
"marginalized" art being created in places other than the United
States and European countries.
Foreign artists
Ironically, a similar debate continues in Indonesia itself,
even as its galleries are opening up to more exhibitions of art
by foreign artists and as foreign embassies and cultural centers,
most notably those of the United States, Australia and Japan, are
actively promoting art from their countries in Indonesia. Thus
the international "mainstream" of art is gaining greater access
than ever before to the attention of local art collectors and
artists.
Among the exhibitions of the works of foreign artists held in
Indonesia in 1995 were the Jan. 24 to Feb. 1 show of "mood
paintings" by Yuri Gorbachev of Russia at the Koi Gallery near
Blok M; the exhibition of contemporary art by artists from Non-
Aligned Movement member countries at Wisma Seni Rupa in Gambir,
Central Jakarta, in April, a by-invitation-only showing of modern
art from the United States, including works by Jasper Johns and
Andy Warhol, at the American ambassador's residence shortly
before outgoing ambassador John Barry and his wife left Indonesia
in July; the Classroom Connection 2 show featuring 49 works by
students from 12 schools in Victoria, Australia, at the STEKPI
campus in Kalibata, South Jakarta, in June; the July 24 to Aug.
17 show of works by artists from the Helpmann Academy in
Australia at Dimata Gallery in Yogyakarta; a joint exhibition by
five Dutch artists and five Indonesian artists sponsored by the
Amsterdam-based Gate Foundation and the Cemeti Art Foundation of
Yogyakarta at the Wisma Seni Rupa in Gambir, Central Jakarta, in
August; the display of works by Dutch graphic artists at the
Erasmus Huis cultural center on Jl. Rasuna Said in September, and
the exhibition of lithographs by Canadian artist Ken Pattern,
also at Erasmus Huis, toward the end of the year.
Exhibitions by works of Indonesian artists who have lived and
worked abroad, such as Teguh Ostenrik and Kartika Affandi Koberl,
also colored this year of art with a colorful, expressive view of
life and art.
But perhaps the only large-scale exhibition of Indonesian art
to be shown abroad this year was a collection of children's art
called The Giant Who Swallowed the Moon: Indonesian Children's
Art from Java and Bali. The show was presented in museums and
galleries throughout the United States up to the end of 1995.
Ironically, the idea for the exhibition did not originate with an
Indonesian art institution. It was the brainchild of curator and
critic Joseph Fisher of the United States.
The other sporadic showings of Indonesian art abroad this year
were also mostly organized or sponsored by foreign art
institutions, or initiated by individual Indonesian artists who
wanted to expose their work internationally through the
sponsorship of foreign art bodies.
One of the most important impacts of the greater influx of
international art into Indonesia this year, continuing a trend
starting in 1993 and growing throughout 1994, is that local
artists are enjoying greater first-hand access to art from around
the world. Unlike the Indonesian artists working up through the
1980s, who were able to see art from abroad only in books and
magazines, or in films, or by actually traveling overseas, the
artists of 1995 have been able to look at original works of
foreign art and to gain a greater understanding of the trends and
techniques artists could only read about previously. Hopefully
this will do something to demystify the origins and actual
significance of the various "isms" that have come to dominate a
great deal of the work of Indonesian artists over the years.
Unfortunately, the situation in Indonesia continued to mirror
the overall condition of the international art scene in 1995.
This could be seen clearly in the various "theme exhibitions"
sponsored by Jakarta's galleries, in which the Euro-American
"mainstream" art theories reflected in realism, impressionism and
expressionism and others, including post modernism, continued to
dominate the Indonesian art scene.
One example of this type of show was the Golden Balinese
Barong painting exhibition held at Santi Gallery in September.
The gallery managed to bring together attractive and interesting
paintings of the Balinese mythical creature "barong" by 17
Indonesian artists, including the highly respected Popo Iskandar,
Affandi and Srihadi. Another theme exhibition was seen at the
Wisma Seni Rupa in Gambir in September. This exhibition,
Realistic Image of Indonesia, was sponsored by the Bimantara
Foundation and curated by Jim Supangkat. It featured the works of
painters Dedi Eri Supria, Ivan Sugito and Lucia Hartini, all of
which paint in styles reminiscent of either photo realism or
surrealism. Other theme exhibitions in 1995 either focused on
women, flowers or animals, with the artwork displayed usually
conveniently classified under one "ism" or another.
Jakarta
Most of these shows featured the works of artists who are
either based in Jakarta, or who frequently visit the capital,
reflecting the fact that whether intentional or not, there is a
tendency to overlook the work of artists, particularly those
whose works are not readily classifiable within the context of
international "mainstream" theory, or who live and work in the
provinces, too far from the political and economic center of the
nation.
Fortunately, 1995 saw a slight -- albeit vital -- tendency on
the part of the more far-sighted galleries in Jakarta, Yogyakarta
and Bali to take a closer look at the works of younger, less
established contemporary artists, who are working with
unconventional materials, or in undefinable styles.
This forward looking and egalitarian approach to the
displaying of art deserves praise and support, as in the long run
it will bring to the public view works of art that are of more
than esthetic significance. Works of art that reflect more than
just the taste and thinking of Indonesia's elite.
Although it may well be that works of art by contemporary
artists, many of them taking forms other than the most acceptable
form of paintings of pleasing subjects like landscapes, figures
and still lifes, may not sell well, it would truly be a shame if
sculptures, ceramic works, drawings and installations, or
paintings with heavy socio-political content continued to be
overlooked, or shunned, because they do not fit into the current
gallery-museum scheme of things.
For that reason, a rare exhibition of the sculptures of noted
Balinese artist Nyoman Nuarta from Nov. 28 to Dec. 7 at the Wisma
Seni Rupa in Gambir was exciting and refreshing.
And even more notable were the efforts of institutions outside
of art circles to bring attention to forms of art other than
painting in 1995. Among these exhibitions were the September
showing of ceramic sculptures featuring the traditional hairstyle
called ukelan by F. Widayanto at the Regent Hotel on Jl. Rasuna
Said; the exhibition of unusually innovative and highly
attractive ceramic works by the senior painter Widayat at Bentara
Budaya, also in September, and the October exhibition, also at
Bentara Budaya, of the drawings of six artists, all graduates of
the Bandung Institute of Technology. All of the exhibitions were
sponsored by the Post.