Oscar Motuloh focuses his lens on the art of dying

Oscar Motuloh focuses his lens on the art of dying

Carla Bianpoen, Contributor, Jakarta

Dying is an art like everything else, says noted Indonesian
photographer Oscar Motuloh.

But what kind of art is he actually hinting at in his solo
photo exhibition titled The Art of Dying? The public in the
capital city had a chance to look into his dramatic black-and
white photographic revelations presented (Jan. 16 through Jan.
26) at Bentara Budaya as a photographic concert titled Konser
Fotografi `The Art of Dying'.

The pictures were taken at the Paris Pere Lachaise graveyard,
where the remains of history's cultural greats like Jean Paul
Sartre, Edith Piaf, Beaudelaire, Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco
and others have been laid to rest, and the memorials remind one
of violence and horror plaguing the world. Another part of the
exhibit is inspired by the sculptures of Rodin in the museum at
Rue de Varenne. There are also pictures from the Montparnasse
cemetery.

Accompanied by a new-music form of requiem by master composer
Tony Prabowo and sung by Nyak Ina Raseuki, one might have
expected a sepulchral ambience. But quite remarkably, the
dynamics of life were palpable both in the music as in the
extraordinary display.

Most visitors perceived the exhibition as reflecting on death,
probably instigated by the title. But one may also be inspired to
reflect on the meaning of life as a substantial part on the path
towards one's ultimate destination. Whichever way takes
prominence in one's ponderings, it will not stray too far from
the photographer's own reflections, life and death being of one
and the same cycle and intertwined anyway.

So, while Motuloh ponders the graves at the Pere Lachaise
cemetery in Paris, it is the lives of the buried that take center
stage, questioning their merit in the face of history and truth.
Bringing out their basic virtues as he feels it, Motuloh's
pictorial narrative evokes a sense of the human drama or irony
hidden behind disguising appearances.

Therefore, expect realistic portrayals of the tombs, for the
pictures are the result of Oscar Motuloh's personal responses to
emotions aroused by the object, or the name sculpted on the tomb.
At such moments, flashes of what he once read or had thought
about determine the shot and the angle from which it is taken.

The result is often staggering, as exemplified by the piece
entitled Wheel of Death, Auschwitz III Remembered.

Taken from a certain angle, the sculptures set behind the tomb
evoke the illusion of being the emaciated Jews, symbols of barren
hopes walking between the leafless trees into death in the
notorious Auschwitz Nazi death camp. Equally haunting and
suggestive are the other pictures representing the attempted
genocide of the Jews emphasized by Hitler's judgment as simply
undisguised cowardice.

At a time when photography has proceeded to include the most
sophisticated technology and photographic products tend to be a
result of advanced technological manipulations, it is noteworthy
that Oscar Motuloh uses just a manually operated camera, and his
shots are spontaneous reactions.

The lens of my camera often is my third eye, reveals Motuloh,
adding that a subconscious state of holding the camera often
allows him to see things he would otherwise not have noted.

If it were not for this third eye, for instance, he would have
passed Squire Samuel Chaplain at Pere Lachaise without noticing
the images in the stone wall with the titles Libera Me and
Texture of Sorrow in his pictures.

Indeed, Motuloh's shots are often a result of chance, a
fleeting fraction of recognition which might be intertwined with
personal passions, readings, issues, concerns and the context of
universal truths. Once, when he was coming out of the Rodin
museum, the sun was shining, he said, projecting part of a
sculpture in the garden over the Tomb of Napoleon at the far end.
Michelangelo's Genesis in the Sistine Chapel flashed through his
mind, but the hand of judgment could have been another flash of
thought.

As much as Motuloh relies on spontaneous reactions for his
stirring photographic narratives, he also seems to have a sense
for aiming at the essence of things, as evident in Hands of
Destiny, a partial representation of Rodin's sculpture of the
infamous French martyrs called the Burghers of Calais. Expression
of suspense, anguish and dreadful tension unfolds in the bony
knuckles and rough lines of the hands.

Oscar Motuloh (born in 1959) started as a journalist with the
National news agency Antara, after the thought of the stifling
bureaucracy turned him off of the Department of Foreign Affairs.

As usual for a journalist at the time, he did the reporting
and brought his own camera to freeze events supporting his
reports.

As he proceeded, his horizons widened, with the meaning of
mankind, life and death gradually taking center stage. A
documentary on the people's celebration of death in Tana Toraja,
followed by pictures of the ancient temple of Angkor Wat and the
mass graves in Cambodia, were milestones on the way to the depth
of the current excellence in `The Art of Dying'.

Oscar Motulloh's exhibition was the first major Indonesian
evidence of photography as a medium of art. Credit must be given
to art curator Jim Supangkat for "discovering" Oscar Motuloh and
bringing him to public attention through CP Artspace in
Washington DC in August 2002.

Konser Fotografi 'Art of Dying'; Bentara Budaya, Jalan Palmerah;
January 16-26, 2003.