Nindityo showcases critical hairpieces

Nindityo showcases critical hairpieces

Carla Bianpoen, Contributor, Jakarta

Nindityo Aripurnomo's solo exhibition opening on March 3 at the Bentara Budaya Jakarta shows the konde, or traditional Javanese hair bun, in various styles and fashioned from a range of materials.

But this is no fashion show. Rather, it is the work of an artist who was born and raised in the Javanese culture, and who witnessed through his formative years his mother's and grandmother's elaborate hairdos. He also collected strands of their hair that had fallen out to make a switch. This would be used to fill in a chignon, creating the desired volume of hair.

Evidently, it is this sense of intimacy and of mystery about the actual contents of the bun that made an enduring impression on Nindityo. His work is concerned with all facets of the bun, which becomes a means of discussing contemporary issues. In fact, Nindityo is mostly concerned with gender issues.

Much of a woman's beautification is for the male gaze, and it's also the man that decides on what is fashionable, says Nindityo.

In the current exhibition, this is demonstrated through 32 drawings and oil paintings, as well as three installations. In a twist of the male gaze, Nindityo places a konde covering a man's face and titles it Portrait of a Javanese man (2000).

In fact the chignon here is a symbol of imprisonment, of intolerance and the absence of communication. In the same series is an abstract oil painting on canvas, in which the contours of an elongated konde and a fraction of the Javanese gunungan (puppet play character symbolizing the universe) bring together the mythical and the traditional elements of a woman's reality.

Taking the shape of a rocket-shaped bun, the installation titled Target is filled with empty shampoo bottles. The huge rattan bun titled Target2 highlights the same concerns, with shampoo bottles "breaking through" the rattan screen.

"When I watch TV, it's the ads for shampoo that bother me the most, particularly as they are all targeted at women," he says. In a third installation, the public is invited to step on the work.

When Nindityo started using the bun as a symbol, he decided to wear a bun too. Growing his hair, he twisted it into a bun, albeit much smaller than the traditional Javanese ones. Yet, as small as it was, he noticed how it warmed his head and the back of his neck. Like his mother and his grandmother, he combed his hair day after day, collecting the hair that came loose.

He went a step further by collecting his body hair. In that way, the daily habit became a ritual. And it dawned on him that the ritual was mostly performed by women in private for the sake of their appearance before the male gaze.

Changing times and changing needs have not much changed basic attitudes. One continues to spend time on one's appearance, if not for the male gaze, then still for the gaze of others. And, the konde industry has flourished accordingly.

This is revealed in several of Nindityo's hair pieces made of rattan between 1997 and 1998. In Hiding Ritual of My Own Hairpiece, his hairpiece was "covered" with wires shaping the outer konde, decorated with flowers, while the Hiding Rituals of the Mass Production (1999-2001) presented a gigantic hairpiece made of rattan, with his body hair wrapped in little packages hung on some rattan frays.

The large konde is primarily rooted in the Javanese tradition and became part of the national dress code for woman following national unification efforts.

In this sense, it was seen as a symbol of repression as were many elements of the Javanese culture and traditions that are considered to be fertile ground for the repressive strategies of the past.

In Nindityo's art works, the konde has become a metaphor both for man's domination and for the fallacies found in the Javanese tradition.

He has worked on the theme since the early 1990s: from small buns to voluptuous ones, from the ordinary to the sensual, working with various materials.

Nindityo was born in 1961 in the Central Java capital of Semarang. He is a graduate of the Yogyakarta-based Art Institute of Indonesia. Together with his wife, Mella Jaarsma, he established Cemeti Art House in 1988. The art gallery is considered to have been instrumental in the development of contemporary art in Yogyakarta.

Macho WWW, solo exhibition by Nindityo Adipurnomo, Bentara Budaya Jakarta, Jl. Palmerah 22, Jakarta, March 3 until March 13.