JP/7/Amir

JP/7/Amir

Women artists challenge limitations in Kartini spirit

By Amir Sidharta

JAKARTA (JP): The current Indonesian Women Artists Exhibition
at the Taman Mini Indonesia Indah, held until Sunday, and the
Group Nine art exhibition opening next Tuesday, show the current
developments in art by Indonesian women.

The exhibitions feature many women who are challenging their
sociocultural limitations as artists, and also as women, in the
spirit of the heroine of emancipation, R.A. Kartini.

Erica Hestu Wahyuni and Astari Rasjid courageously express a
fresh, unrestricted spontaneity in their work. While Erica's
energy is personified through the characters in her cartoon-like
pieces, Astari's breakthrough is evident in the development of
her abstract art.

Erica Wahyuni's style, on display in her works at the Taman
Mini, is reminiscent of the idiom used by other Yogyakarta
artists such as Heri Dono, A. Wulandari, M. Faisal and Titi Sari
Daru Jati.

The placement of the two main figures, one on each side of the
canvas, in Spirit of a Painter is also typical of Heri Dono's New
Wayang Yogya composition, derived from the dualistic arrangement
of a wayang kulit shadow puppet performance, in which two main
figures positioned on the sides of the work are in
confrontational opposition to each other.

Indeed, Erica's piece bursts with the explosive energy and
spirit of the painter. It is animated with a playful and free
vitality, much like Mat Groenig's Bart Simpson.

Unlike the mythological characters in Heri Dono's work,
Erica's subject matter seems to be much more familiar and
intimate, seeming to flow directly from her own personal life.

Symbolic

Nexus, Astari Rasjid's piece at the Taman Mini, epitomizes her
departure from her previous figurative depictions. Rather than
descriptive or narrative, here her expression becomes deeply
symbolic.

The piece consists of two canvases. On the left is a blue
phallic form, while on the right is a purple circle in front of
which is placed a thin white tubular form.

A triangle, divided into two parts of the canvas, is painted
between the two major elements. A piece of wood connects the
triangle and the two canvases together.

The connection between the two pieces also manifests itself
through a sense of balance or equilibrium that is portrayed in
the painting.

The painting, consisting of two distinct and detached
elements, has the potential of existing separately. However, the
two parts of the piece maintain common elements which unite them.

Astari seems to be much freer in her exploration of artistic
expression. She seems to be enthusiastic about using symbolic
elements enabling her to express her inner self, "without having
to use any lines to portray clear figures."

In preparation for the Group 9 exhibition, the artist is
investigating new brush strokes and other techniques in addition
to the use of symbols. It seems that we can expect more abstract
work from her in the future.

Three other artists, Rahmayani, Marintan Sirait, and Dolorosa
Sinaga use the physical elements of confinement to represent
their attempt at challenging limits. While Rahmayani uses the
chest as a metaphor for constraints, the door and the threshold
appear in Sirait and Sinaga's works.

Three renderings of chests on exhibit at the Taman Mini
express Rahmayani's solemn introspection. According to the
artist, an individual is but a match within a box of matches.

The box, in turn, represents confinement. Hence, the box
symbolizes life, full of constraints.

The artist ponders upon traditional rites of passage through
the cycle of life. In an attempt to free herself from those
constraints, she devised a ritual of her own, a ritual of
painting.

Rahmayani maintains that elements of tradition need not be
dismissed or rejected in modern expression. Rather, the
constraints of tradition provide guidance through which she as a
modern artist can excel. While the idiom of her expression
appears modern, the conceptual content is rooted in tradition.

In Red Chest, Golden Chest and Yellow Chest,
representing the spectrum of the variables that effect her as a
woman in the arts, Rahmayani seems to be testing her own
limitations.

Secretive liaison

Marintan Sirait's untitled piece, also at the Taman Mini,
consists of a wooden door with a chain and padlock, on which are
pasted three photographs portraying part of a mannequin's back in
the midst of a field of grass and shrubbery.

The flat photographic representation is as important as the
real three dimensional elements, such as the door which frames
it. It may symbolize the union of the feminine body with nature.

The shrubbery suggests a secretive sexual liaison. The use of
a severed body part placed in the shrubbery reminds one of David
Lynch's sexually perverted imagery, in particular the discovery
of an ear in the bushes in his Blue Velvet.

The frame of the piece is no longer a mere border. It has
become an integral part of the whole art work. The use of the
locked door as a frame introduces elements of both privacy and
constraint. On one hand, the old door, which shares the character
of the shrubbery, enhances the notion of secrecy. On the other
hand the fact that it is locked represents Indonesian sexual
taboos.

An untitled piece by Dolorosa Sinaga, to be exhibited at the
Group Nine exhibition, shows a figure standing at the threshold
of a door, pondering on which direction she should take. Here the
door does not become an element of constraint but rather a
passage through which one can advance.

"Now we are at the threshold of a new dawn, a dawn that will
enlighten the entire Nusantara," claimed Kartini. At the
transitory space of the threshold, the figure becomes cautious.

The prominent frame of the threshold, which the figure holds,
suggests the artist's need for a strong frame of reference in
order to progress. As in Rahmayani's work, this frame of
reference may well be tradition.

The works of the five artists on show at the two exhibitions
provide evidence of the new direction some women have chosen to
follow to deal with the social and cultural limitations of
Indonesian art. In their own ways, they have attempted to
challenge those boundaries.

The Group 9 art exhibition will open next Tuesday at the
Sudirman Tower.

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