Roedjito, drawings from God

Yusuf Susilo Hartono, Contributor, Jakarta

At home and internationally, Roedjito is famous as an art director for both the stage and film. His direction has set the scene for dramatic performances by Rendra, the late Teguh Karya, N. Riantiarno, the late Arifin C. Noer and Putu Wijaya and dance performances by Sardono W Kusumo, Retno Maruti and Farida Oetoyo. He has designed the artistic element of the films of Garin Nugroho, Marseli and Asrul Sani.

Roedjito has also worked with fledging dramatists. To those struggling to shape a career, the experience of collaborating with such a skilled and seasoned art director is a privilege. He has been working as art director since the establishment of the Ismail Marzuki Park (TIM) in 1968 but few at TIM know that he began as a fine artist because Roedjito has rarely displayed his works.

"Early in the 1970s I took part in a joint exhibition at TIM and displayed drawings I had made between 1957 and 1967. After that I was absent from the gallery scene for a long time because I was too busy with the performing arts," he said.

Roedjito teaches scenography at the school of performing arts at the Jakarta Institute of the Arts (IKJ). He founded the fine art department of the Jakarta Arts Educational Institution (LPKJ) (now IKJ) together with the late Oesman Effendi (OE) and the late Nashar. At one time he was also a member of the fine art committee of the Jakarta Arts Council.

Born in Purworedjo in Central Java 71 years ago, Roedjito completed his elementary schooling in the neighboring town of Gombong.

He went to high school in Bandung between 1949 and 1951 and studied at the school of law and social sciences at the University of Indonesia between 1954 and 1957. In 1970 he studied at the East West Center in Hawaii, USA.

His educational background indicates that art was a subject that he became interested in on a personal level and that he was self taught rather than nurtured by an institution. He also has a deep passion for the philosophy of Java (his birthplace) and the Sufism of Islam, his religion.

Artists of Rendra's age call him Mas (Elder Brother)and younger artists Mbah (Grandfather). Few people address him with the more formal Bapak (Mister). Choreographer Boy G Sakti of West Sumatra, who runs a dance workshop in Depok, usually calls him Pak De (Elder Uncle).

"I don't care what they call me -- that is unimportant," Roedjito said.

Although Roedjito is famous he retains a lifestyle with modest trappings. He likes to travel by bajaj (a motorized three- wheeler) from his house in Jl. Cilosari No. 14, Central Jakarta, to IKJ at the TIM complex. Last year, when the TIM management prohibited the bajaj he was riding in from entering the park, with its disruptive noise and trail of thick black smoke, Roedjito was furious.

"That is a bad policy," he said angrily.

But fortunately for Roedjito, maintaining this mode of transport is not a problem as the policy was later scrapped.

In 1995 Roedjito received an art prize from the ministry of education and culture and in 1996 he received the Bushiri Gatra Award.

Rudjito said his haj pilgrimage to Mecca in 2000 had not only improved his devotion to religious duties but made his creativity more powerful.

" I've come to the belief that creating something of real value is to celebrate beauty, love and passion, with a view to glorifying God. We should not create something merely because of its intrinsic value."

He said that after his return from Mecca he had a spiritual experience that prompted him to take up painting again, an activity that he had abandoned for many years.

"About two months after returning from the haj pilgrimage I suddenly had an urge to draw. I found a pen and a small piece of paper and after a short time I had finished a drawing," he said.

Roedjito calls this phenomenon tan kinira, a Javanese phrase meaning the sudden outburst of ideas. He relied on his instinct to guide the drawing and after the first was completed he had the desire to make another and another. In the period of 2000 to 2003 he had made 3,000 drawings. All the drawings were black and white, ink, and ranged from a tiny matchbox sized work to the size of a note pad.

Roedjito never recorded the date, the year or the title of his drawings. Most unusually he didn't sign them either. The drawings are his spiritual language just as they were the result of his spiritual exploration.

About 600 of the drawings from this period were displayed at Galeri Cipta last month. They were exhibited for the contemplation and enjoyment of visitors to the gallery and not for sale.

"I don't even want to use the word 'exhibition' as it makes me feel like I am showing off or arrogant," he said.

The exhibition was organized by his close friends, some of whom contributed to the exhibition's catalog. Those involved included artists and writers, such as Emha Ainun Nadjib, Rendra, Danarto, Putu Wijaya, Goenawan Mohamad, Sapardi Djoko Damono, Sardono W. Kusumo, Sutardji Calzoum Bachri, Garin Nugroho, Merwan Yusuf, Ratna Sarumpaet, Yani Sastranegara, Marselli Sumarno and Butet Kertaredjasa. "Mbah Roedjito is free from space and time," wrote Emha Ainun Nadjib in a book of prints of Roedjito's drawings.

Film maker Marselli Sumarno described Roedjito as a "diligent scavenger of beauty." "His spirit is connected with discovering something but not searching for it."

Rendra said, "Mas Roedjito kneels to God and becomes like a drawn line. A line that dances and turns in space. The space is bright and colorful. He kneels and he becomes free in space and time."