Painter Wagiono puts current affairs into art focus
By Chandra Johan
JAKARTA (JP): Artist Wagiono casts an incisive eye upon contemporary social happenings in an exhibition at the Lontar Gallery in Central Jakarta through Aug. 21.
Take the painting Mega. The work, draped in red and white, at first glance resembles an Indonesian flag. But the red section reveals a portrait of Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana, the daughter of President Soeharto better known as Mbak Tutut, while the white shows Megawati Soekarnoputri, a daughter of the nation's first president Sukarno, who was ousted last year from her position as chairwoman of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI).
Text, seemingly handwritten by Sukarno, reads "Bendera merah putih saya kibarkan" (I hoist a red and white flag) in the background. Above the two portraits are headlines lifted from print media. These include Presiden: Selesaikan Masalah PDI Secara Musyawarah (President: Solve the PDI Problem through Deliberation); and PDI dan Kultur Politik (PDI and Political Culture). The lines are arranged from top to bottom.
This is just one piece in Wagiono's solo exhibition of screen printings, drawings and book arts.
Technique
"The technique of producing screen printings is very easy, and for me the ideas or concepts of creating such works are more important than the technique," Wagiono said at the opening of the exhibition on Monday evening.
Wagiono's screen printings are influenced by diverse current affairs, including manpower, small businesses, health, religion, fluctuating cement prices and politics.
Each picture is adorned with text to provide its context.
"We should load the pictures with certain emotions ... happiness, sadness or fear, for example," Wagiono said.
Wagiono, a graduate of the Bandung Institute of Technology and teacher at the Jakarta Arts Institute, is not a newcomer to the arts scene. He has exhibited in several countries, including Iran and Norway.
His art does not belong to the class of emotional works, to interpretations of realities or transferring realities into pictures. Instead, his are the "realities" of the mass media.
Unjuk Rasa, Marsinah, Tenaga Kerja and Susila are portraits based on reports of mass media publications.
Unjuk Rasa (Demonstration) features journalistic portraits of a group of people demonstrating under several news headlines.
Colors
Colors are not prominent in this and other works, which are often defined by shadings of pencil. They appear like clippings wrapped or polished under new aesthetic principles.
Wagiono sometimes uses cryptic symbols or metaphors difficult to interpret because they are merely from media reports, not based on facts observed directly.
Although Wagiono's output is not artistically similar to Pop Art and Conceptual Art in the United States and Europe, his procedures resemble those of the two 1960s movements. Wagiono lets the texts express themselves.
Unlike his screen printings, Wagiono's drawings with color pencil verge on parody and caricature. Perundingan 3, Pidato, Salaman and Pesta Tulang interpret reality naively through rich fantasy images of human figures and creatures.
Perundingan 3 is populated by several strange and frightening creatures, one of which resembles a human being dressed in a neat jacket and tie. They sit around a table laden with pills, perhaps Ecstasy "monsters" deciding how to divvy up their haul.
Pesta Tulang shows creatures resembling dogs, the biggest among them gnawing the largest bone. A metaphor, perhaps, for the wealthy who are not satisfied with their lot and continually grasp for more.