Roedjito, drawings from God

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."