Sculptor explores the spirit of emancipation

By Asip A. Hasani

YOGYAKARTA (JP): People everywhere in the world possess the spirit to fight against oppression. The spirit is a dynamic energy that does not fade easily. In a way, the spirit is the fuel for social change.

Veteran sculptor Max Lyle from Australia explores the fighting energy through his bamboo installation, taking the energy of social change as its theme. His works are exhibited at painter Joko Pekik's studio until Aug. 16.

In the exhibition, Max is joined by local artist AB Dwiantoro, from the Indonesia Arts Institute (ISI) in Yogyakarta, to share his ideas.

His work, using bamboo as the main element, comprises four parts linked as a unity.

The first part consists of bamboo poles, with lengths ranging from half a meter to one meter, vertically planted in the earth.

Three other groups of bamboo, placed two meters away from the first group, consist of numerous bamboo spears with lengths ranging from five to seven meters. They are all tied with ropes, also made out of bamboo, and project on different angles.

The use of bamboo in the installation is inspired by the history of the nation's fight for freedom from Dutch colonialism. The fight reached its peak in the revolution of the 1940s, a climax of the demand for social change that later brought about the country's independence.

Max said he was impressed by the country's fight for freedom, in which Indonesians used various weapons, including bamboo spears.

For him, the three parts in the bamboo installation did not only express the dynamic and strong energy of Indonesians striving for independence, but also were a replica of bamboo spears.

"The different angles just mean the dynamism of the energy, it seems to me that energy as a phenomenon has to do with something that comes from the ground out," Max told The Jakarta Post.

"The bamboo was the same kind of bamboo which was used by Indonesian people in the freedom fight against the colonial government."

And the energy will get stronger if each individual within the community unites against the oppression.

Max praised the country's first president Sukarno for his success in enforcing the use of the Indonesian language as the national language to unite all.

He featured unity in his first installation, using bamboo planted in perfect order in the earth.

"The installation was placed in the earth like the people of Indonesia have a very great dignity to the earth. Many, many Indonesian people use the earth to earn their living, to grow their food."

From a certain angle, the installation gives the impression of a powerful force spreading in all directions, seen in the three groups of spears, and the power originates from the community that is depicted in the first group of standing bamboo.

Art critic Dwi Maryanto, who has organized the exhibition, said the collaborative works have a strong and clear visual rhythm, and praised Max's success in creating the visual balance.

"The visual rhythm of the installation work is the most seen aspect," he told the Post.

According to Dwi, the use of bamboo in installation works by contemporary artists like Max and Dwiantoro is rare.

But when the wet bamboo, which is still green, is planted in open space surrounded by plants of the same color, it manages to attract the viewers attention with its contrasting element, he added.

Although the grand design for the exhibition came from Max, Maryanto noticed that Dwiantoro's participation enriched the expression of the people's freedom fight by leaving small branches of bamboo in the installation.

He said that no matter how big the oppression felt by people, they would somehow resist it just like the bamboo's branches.

Maryanto also considered the long bamboo used in the installation work to be a "freedom monument" of Australian sculpting.

Besides sculpting specializing in metal and bronze casting, Max, former head of the South Australian School of Art, is now researching new materials used in bronze casting.

Max says he has enough knowledge about Indonesia's social history and gets a strong impression of Indonesians' spirit to fight.

The spirit that Indonesians have shown in the past is universal in nature, and can be found anywhere, including in Australia, he said.

He cited the fight of southern Australia's gold miners against oppression by their British rulers in Ballarat, Victoria, during the gold rush era in 1850s. The miners even created their own flag, the Eureka flag, as a symbol of their resistance.

In his exhibition, Max flies the Eureka flag on the same bamboo column with Indonesia's red-and-white flag.

"The sculpture is about the celebration of the energy of freedom fighting, and also about the energy to fight for justice, as well as the energy of social change," said Max.

He said that the installation's theme was relevant for Indonesians and Australians. For him, Indonesian people's demand for reform reflects the energy felt by most Australians.

"We in Australia hope Australia will become an independent nation as a republic. There is a similar feeling between the two."