Nasirun leaves much room for interpretation

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.