Semsar back home for exhibition
Tantri Yuliandini, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Semsar is back.
For those unfamiliar with the name, Semsar Siahaan is considered one of today's foremost Indonesian artists. Not only because his work has received numerous awards from the international community, but also because of his consistency in developing humanistic themes throughout the span of his long career.
Semsar's artistic creations unfailingly question people's conscience of what is right and what is humane, even when people do not want to be reminded. For this he was forced to leave the country in 1998 for Canada, as artist in residence.
His last exhibition in Indonesia was the Ecoseed exhibition in March 1998 about environmental awareness.
For five years and three months he lived in Canada, a developed country by international standards, yet with their own problems as Semsar found out.
"A country that has its own conflicts of humanity, which it wraps carefully in a cloth that is adorned by the beautiful ornaments of 'multi-culturalism', 'civil rights', and 'freedom of speech'," he wrote in the catalog of his latest exhibition, The Shade of the Northern Lights, to be held on Aug. 15 to Aug. 30 at Galeri Nasional.
People from developed countries often cringed when they looked at human rights violations in Indonesia, when in fact these violations were not much different from some of the problems in their own countries, Semsar said in an interview recently.
The Shade of the Northern Lights, he explained, dealt with the shadow that covers the beauty of the aurora borealis, or Northern Light, a natural phenomenon that can only be seen in the northern-most part of the earth.
More than 60 works will be exhibited, all created during his stay in Canada, and based on Semsar's everyday experiences and keen observances of what was going on around him there.
Whether on used corrugated cardboard such as his G-8 Pizza, on shoe boxes like his Study of the Falling Man, or simply black ink on paper, Semsar's art has the clarity to make people stop and wonder.
Topics including the homeless, gun violence, marginalized indigenous people and the wickedness brought about through capitalism, are all presented here in true Semsar style: With honesty.
"These are all experiences in Canada, but the theme is universal ... all the world is filled with violence," he said.
This plainsaying may not please everyone, but this time Semsar is here to stay.
The Shade of the Northern Lights exhibition opens Aug. 15 to Aug. 30, 2004, at Galeri Nasional, Jl. Medan Merdeka Timur 14, Gambir, Central Jakarta.