Nasirun leaves much room for interpretation

By Amir Sidharta

JAKARTA (JP): It would seem inevitable that the New Order regime exerted a tremendous effect on Nasirun.

The painter was born in Cilacap, Central Java, on Oct. 1, 1965, the very day that Soeharto supposedly crushed an abortive communist coup. Practically all of his life has been subject to what the New Order has molded him to be.

Fortunately, Nasirun has not become merely a child of the New Order's dictates. His work tends to question New Order politics, including the dominance of Golkar and the military, although he does it in a subtle manner. It is evident in the works he is exhibiting together with Pupuk Daru Purnomo at the Galeri Santi in South Jakarta.

Among the most impressive of the works is a large painting titled Angon-angon Cucu. He described it as a rendition of a ceremony that was once considered very important in the area of Bondowoso, East Java. In this procession, grandparents would take their grandchildren around the village and then buy presents for them at the shops they passed. The ceremony meant a lot to Nasirun, especially because he never had grandparents who would buy him anything.

"Today, whenever I am able to buy something, I always consider it to be a present from my grandparents."

Although Nasirun claims the painting merely depicts a ceremony that is now becoming extinct, there are hints that Angon-angon Cucu portrays something else.

To the right on the canvas, a tall figure, dressed in a black suit and sarong, stands dominating the painting. A kopiah cap hides the prominent figure's white hair, while he walks aided by a walking cane embellished with a serpentine ornament. Both elements -- the white hair and the walking stick -- conjure up both the old man's dignity and his frailty. Depicted in three- quarter view typically used in the portrayal of wayang kulit figures, this grandfather wears white shoes much like Dutch clompen. In the wayang pantheon, figures depicted wearing the shoes are associated with divinity.

"My works are indeed influenced by the Javanese wayang," the painter explained. It is almost certain that the figure is meant to represent a specific individual in mind, and not just any old grandfather figure.

To the left of the figure, families march in the procession. Some seem to be common villagers, but others are raksasa (giant) figures derived from characters in shadow puppet plays.

In the background toward the upper part of the picture, something rather strange is happening. It does seem to be part of the Angon-angon Cucu procession, but there are a number of symbols that hint at a chaotic and riotous situation.

The most prominent symbol is placed right in the middle of the scene. Depicted in a rather eerie fashion, the elongated female figure is dressed in black and seems to be floating in space. To the right of the floating figure, there is another female figure who seems to be assaulted by a dark colored figure. To the central figure's left, there are three black figures who appear to be attempting to assault the central figure.

Above this scene, further chaos is apparent. These seem to be references to the May riots. If this is the case, the scene suggests the riotous situation in the background is part of the Angon-angon Cucu procession depicted in the foreground.

Nasirun offers no comment regarding any other reading about the painting than the depiction of the scene itself, but he does not deny the possibility of other interpretations. His paintings leave much room for various interpretation by viewers.

Whatever the interpretation of the viewer may be, Nasirun firmly states that he has no intention to demean anyone.

"I don't like condemning people! I am just presenting a situation which I think is interesting and relevant to our life today."

In this exhibition, Nasirun does not only present works that have social or political content, but he also deals with things that are more personal and metaphysical.

In Gagat Esuk, the painter explores his perception, both metaphysically and emotionally, about the meaning of the period around dawn, the time between night and morning.

It is handled rather differently from the others. While in Angon-angon Cucu, he has a rather clear idea about the composition, in Gagat Esuk Nasirun he apparently did not have a clear conception of how the painting would evolve.

Instead, he emerges as he paints the picture. The work shows tremendous spontaneity and a kind of otomatism of the subconscious seems to be working in the painting.

"I think that there is a distinct period of time between the first crow of the rooster before dawn, and the second crow that happens at dawn", said the painter, "I believe that this is the time when the spirits return to the underworld."

Through the execution of the painting, he also explores this mysterious period of time.

The composition of Gagat Esuk is almost as chaotic as it is spontaneous. There is no clear focus, nor is the starting point of the scene clear.

"I have even forgotten where I started on the canvas!" Nasirun claimed.

In the lower middle of the canvas, there is a figure, depicted in yellow and red, acting as a kind of focal point. It apparently represents the sun or dawn. To the right of the figure, the yellow, orange and red colors of day start to confront the blues and greens of night.

As the colors and what they symbolize interact, forms start to emerge. The forms metamorphosize into the spirits and creatures of the underworld.

There is a kind of centrifugal energy that is creating movement in the canvas, rotating away from the figure representing day toward the upper part of the painting. As the energy moves upward, more spirits and creatures are shown.

The upper part of the painting is dominated by a reclining female figure depicted in red. Below this figure is another female figure, this time partially winged. The two figures turn the upward movement back down toward the bottom left corner of the canvas.

In addition, there is also an imaginary line moving dynamically in a diagonal, starting from around the head of the red figurine in the upper right corner of the canvas toward the lower left corner of the picture or vice versa.

Toward the lower half of the painting, a dark blue streak either emerges from or disappears into a small terra-cotta martavan. A human-headed stylized eagle descends towards the vessel, supporting the suggestion that the blue streak of the night is returning into the earth to make way for day to emerge.

Nasirun leaves much room for viewers to continue their exploration of the scenes depicted on the canvas and discover perhaps even more meanings than the painter actually intended.

Frankly speaking, the two paintings are perhaps the best of Nasirun's work in the show. While certainly there are also other works of his that are quite good, there are a couple of his other works that have parts that somehow remain unresolved. Nasirun is not reticent to admit that many of his works are filled with experimentation.

Nasirun's persistent search for new ways of expression in painting, by experimentation, will ensure his artistic advancement. He is an artist to watch for in the years to come.

The writer is the curator of the Museum Universitas Pelita Harapan at Lippo Karawaci.