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.