Long trail of Indonesia's terra-cotta

By Ipong Purnama Sidhi

JAKARTA (JP): Historically speaking, Indonesia's terra-cotta is some 3,000 years old, a long span of time beginning when human beings no longer lived as nomads, who gathered food, but dwelt in one place as producers of foods. To support their lives, they began to till the soil and plant rice.

They needed some appliance to cook their food. Understandably, they turned to a natural resource close to their lives and abundantly available: clay.

They began to make simple vessels for keeping water and other containers to be used in their daily lives. Later, people made not only containers but also non-container paraphernalia to be used in rites or in construction.

This paraphernalia took different forms: a large jar for burying the dead, a temple relief, figurines created for play, and roof ornaments on houses in many northern coastal areas.

These invaluable items are now on display at the National Museum in Jakarta, Jl. Medan Merdeka Barat, Jakarta in an exhibition which will run through Jan. 23, 2001.

In this exhibition, some 300 terra-cotta pieces from the pre- historic era, the classical era, the Islamic era, the ethnographic era and the contemporary era. Called Exhibition of 3000 Years of Indonesia's Terracotta: Traces of Soil and Fire., the exhibition displays objects dating as far back as the time when humans decided to live in one place and stop being hunter gatherers.

Most of the items on display come from the collection of the National Museum, the Historical and Archaeological Relics Preservation Centers (SPSP) of the provinces of Jambi, South Sumatra, Bengkulu, the State Museum of Trowulan, the State Museum of Lambung Mangkurat, South Kalimantan, the South Kalimantan Archaeological Center, the SPSP of Serang and the Center for Archaeology in the capital city of Jakarta.

Items which are rarely shown and historically valuable, have been brought to Jakarta to be put on display,

The exhibition occupies space in the exhibition room on the first floor, an area newly renovated and yet to be inaugurated. The exhibition, prepared by Hendrawan Riyanto, a curator and lecturer on the art of ceramics at the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), focuses on the functions of these early terra-cotta artifacts.

The items are divided into two major groups --- containers and non-containers -- and then sub-divided into smaller groups labeled "buildings", "figurines", "items for rites" and "contemporary" (featuring the works of young and gifted potters from Jakarta, Bandung and Yogyakarta).

Terracotta is made in a simple process of burning clay at 700- 900 degrees Celsius. Usually, the product is not glazed and is highly porous. Interestingly, despite the industrialization process, made possible with the discovery of iron and steel, man continues to create terra-cotta.

Endang Sri Hardiati, director of the National Museum and one of the board of curators, said that the creation of terra-cotta continues because humans consider soil, which they tread on, most intimate to them. That soil can be made functional thanks to the firing technique that has been handed down for many generations.

At the front of the exhibition is a small, spoutless, light brown kendi, an earthenware flask from Melolo, Sumba. This kendi, which is unique as it has a short neck with a chipped edge at the top and a round body, is estimated to date back to 2000 b.c.

Despite a variety of shapes, terra-cotta from pre-historic times were essentially functional in nature as terra-cotta items were used in daily activities. Terracotta was made in a simple and similar way in all regions.

In the exhibition, visitors can see a large water jar used as a burial crypt, including fossilized remains of a skeleton and items included in the burial.

This jar was discovered in Muara Betung, Ulu Musi sub- district, Lahat regency, South Sumatra province. Because this jar is very fragile, it has been placed in a larger jar for protection.

Not less interesting is a slightly-large-sized terra-cotta piece in the form of a priest and made of massive cavity-less clay hailing from Temple 3, Tanahabang, Muaraenim, Jambi. This terra-cotta piece, which could have come from the Classical (Hindu-Buddhist) era, has been broken into several pieces.

The main indication of the origins of this classical piece lies in the decoration and the statue found at the temple site dating back to the Singasari and Majapahit period in Padang Lawas, Muara Takus, Muara Jambi and Palembang in South Sumatra, or Trowulan in East Java.

It is quite interesting to watch the changes in style in statuettes, many of which have been discovered at the Trowulan site. While the terra-cotta statues in Sumatra are generally large, most statutes in Trowulan are small and appear to depict human comedies manifested in a realistic expressionist style.

On display are statuettes in the shape of a pig, a sheep, a turtle and an elephant used as piggy banks. Also displayed is a terra-cotta piece believed to have been used as a piggy bank during the period of Majapahit. The late Mohammad Yamin believed that this piece bore the face of the Gajah Mada chief minister.

While terra-cotta was initially only functional and utilitarian in nature, today it has become a medium of personal expression and with a personal value.

Some potters from Bandung, Jakarta and Yogyakarta have submitted expressive ceramics for exhibition.

Bandung is represented by a terra-cotta piece by Wulandari, a fine arts student at ITB, titled Mock Marriage, using a mixed medium. Besides clay, she combines cloth, loro blonyo dolls, photographs, glaze and so forth. She has created the torso of a woman with hollowed breast and stomach, giving an attractive impression. In shaping this mixed medium piece, she often used her own body as the model.

There is a complicated terra-cotta piece by Darsjah Alam that is a funny narrative carrying messages from Bung Karno or Gus Dur, all engraved into the clay. He was not happy with just a statue he has also drawn a picture on the surface of the clay.

In addition, Tari of ISI (Indonesian Institute of the Arts) Yogyakarta also presents her abstract statues in the semblance of two phallus-like objects that stand erect with the texture of the entire body of the objects being made through deep etching. Then there is also the work of Noor Sudiyati, a lecturer on the art of ceramics at ISI Yogyakarta, titled Signal II with terra-cotta as the medium completed with the glaze giving the impression of clay peeling off.

This ongoing terra-cotta exhibition is very important because it not only allows an observation of the growth and development of the traditional ceramic art since the pre-historic era, reflecting the great variety of Indonesia's cultural identities, but also places the all-inferior terra-cotta art in a position from which it may regain its vitality and shocking power to respond to today's reality. It must be borne in mind that terra-cotta is the "mother" of the ceramic art (earthenware, stoneware and porcelain) created by human beings thousands of years ago.

The writer is an art curator at the Bentara Budaya Jakarta