JP/20/DJOKO

JP/20/DJOKO

Billionaire painter with a trauma

Tarko Sudiarno
The Jakarta Post/Yogyakarta

"Do you think straight? How can Jakarta people forget our
history, September 30?" queried Djoko Pekik, one of Indonesia's
best-known painters, when asked by a Jakarta journalist about his
luxury residence in Yogyakarta.

It was only proper for the artist, frequently dubbed the
billion-rupiah painter, to express his irritation and agony on
that day, which reminded him of his traumatic experience in what
is called the G30S/PKI incident (Sept. 30, 1965, Indonesian
Communist Party movement).

As the political atmosphere in Indonesia was heating up in
those days, climaxing in the incident, a number of well-known
artists in Yogyakarta were accused of being affiliated with the
party and were later jailed without trial by president Soeharto's
New Order regime.

One of the artists was Djoko Pekik, who was charged with
joining the People's Art Institute, or Lekra, an organization
under the umbrella of the PKI. Held in Yogya's military detention
camp from 1965 to 1972, the ex-student of the Indonesian Fine
Arts Academy witnessed the atrocities and arrogance of soldiers.

A lot of innocent people were imprisoned and separated from
their families. "Quite a number of fellow artists were sent to
Buru island, only to suffer and lead a hard life even after their
release. I was lucky to be jailed in my own city," recalled the
painter.

It was the trauma of the September 30 incident that offended
him when on that same date last month he was asked about his
affluence rather than that murky bit of history, which has
remained a mystery.

"The editor should have assigned you to question the incident
and its consequences," said the painter of the monumental
Indonesia 1998, Boar Hunting.

Despite the denial that his works always contain political or
moral weight, his Hunting, created at the outset of the reform
era in 1998, will trigger the imagination of those who feast
their eyes on it.

But Djoko Pekik maintains that paintings have to convey themes
of some depth. "If possible, they should have lofty meaning and
broad nuances." His major works, though visually presenting
ordinary people like ledhek (traditional dancers) or pedicab
drivers, have profound ideas to communicate.

Among his canvases are My Train Stops for a Moment, Factory
Workers, Nini Thowong (coconut-shell female figure made as a
children's toy), Female Migrant Workers Take Leave and the Boar
Trilogy, which has been the subject of analyses both at home and
abroad.

His latest painting, 5-M-Star Hotel, exhibited at the end of
September 2004 at the Bentara Budaya art center in Yogyakarta,
depicts a star-rated hotel with ordinary people looking in from
the outside, with no way of entering and enjoying its luxury
rooms.

"5-M" is a shortened form of the Javanese words mo limo, which
in Javanese ethics mean the five prohibited acts of madhon
(promiscuity), madat (drug addiction), maling (theft), mabuk
(getting drunk) and main (gambling).

Such misdeeds, which can occur in the privacy of hotel rooms,
are visible in his work from behind transparent panes.

The social conditions of members of the upper and lower
classes, morally right and corrupt people, as well as disparities
and injustice in society, are among the phenomena Djoko Pekik has
always examined in his work.

Injustice and arbitrariness, which have plagued him with
life-long trauma, are not only portrayed in his pictures but also
affect his daily life.

The killings he saw in the mid-'60s have continued to haunt
him, making him averse to the sight of any act that deprives
people of life.

"Human lives are not something to play with," are his words
every time he watches crime reports and police shootings on TV.

So, in his harmoniously designed residence on the banks of the
Bedhok River in Sambungan village, Bantul, Yogyakarta, he detests
seeing the slaughter of animals.

Hundreds of free-range chickens are left to live and die
naturally on his three-hectare estate, virtually a haven for the
poultry where nobody can expect to savor its meat. "I don't have
the heart to eat chicken," said Djoko Pekik.

When one of his cocks suffered a punctured neck after
fighting, the severely injured bird was taken to a veterinarian
for a throat operation.

Although the cost of the surgery was more than the price of
even the best cock, Djoko had the satisfaction of watching the
bird recover.

He did the same for a small village dog that broke its leg,
despite the cost of the surgery. And for the sake of such tiny
souls, he has put up a warning sign on the entry gate of his
property with red letters reading "Small Animals".

To him, lives are the most valuable possession and nobody can
eliminate them, except the Creator, so that if any slaughter
happens like that in the post-1965 period, it is an inhuman
action and violates basic human rights.

Therefore, according to him, the transition from the Old Order
to the New Order that claimed countless lives should be made
transparent, so as to reveal the truth of G30S/PKI.

"The masterminds of the incident must be found out, yet the
incident has remained obscure," says Djoko every time he
recollects the Sept. 30 episode.