Works of installation art provoked mixed emotions

Works of installation art provoked mixed emotions

Text and photos by R. Fadjri

YOGYAKARTA (JP): Piles of garbage tied into plastic sacks
lie in the form of a large rectangle. In the middle the plastic
bags are scattered. On the outer side is a row of kerosene lamps
and garbage baskets, in various forms, all lined up close by.

This was not the scene of a garbage dump or one of our docks
blessed with imported waste. It was the work of two artists,
Bonyong Munni Ardhie and FX Harsono, and their "Various Art Forms
1994" (Rupa-rupa Seni Rupa 1994) on display at the Yogyakarta
Cultural Park from Dec.14 to 21.

The art exhibition covered three areas: the National Display
of Outdoor Sculpture, the Fourth Painting Exhibition and the
National Contemporary Arts Exhibition.

No less than 124 artists with 192 artworks participated.
Like the Jakarta Biennial earlier this year, the shows of
installation work and outdoor sculpture were conducted at the
same time.

The response in Yogyakarta was enormous. Reactions ranged
from puzzled feelings toward what the installations meant to
realizations of the fact that the things on display were no
different than everyday objects.

Installation art is relatively new in Indonesia's history of
contemporary art. The spirit of defiance against modern art
concepts underlies its budding growth among artists and the
audience.

Conventional art standards of form, volume, color and
composition are deliberately or unconsciously guided by the
spirit to seek an alternative medium of expression, which tends
to result in experimental works.

This is clear in the works of Bonyong and Harsono. Any
translation may come forth from their works, but what seems most
important to them is the creative process.

"I consider the process of creation as art," said Harsono,
already notable in the new artistic movement here.

Harsono provides an opportunity for people who have not seen
his process by writing notes on how, where and when he obtained
the garbage containers.

A graduate of the Yogyakarta-based Indonesian Academy for
Fine Arts (ASRI), Harsono goes further and does not identify his
work as "installation" or under any name. "Identifying
contemporary art as a form is identical to returning such art to
the modernist view," he says.

Harsono acquired 26 garbage containers from meatball
sellers, satay vendors, a shop on the famed Jl. Malioboro and a
supermarket.

The containers are rusty cans, plastic and torn bamboo-woven
baskets.

Harsono's work could be more interesting if he not only
displayed empty garbage containers but also the garbage they
oncee contained. A woman's garbage could be different from a
man's. Or the waste from a meatball vendor might be interestingly
different from that of a business executive.

But when a garbage can is empty, it doesn't look like much
more than that; despite knowing the owner's identity they all
look similar.

The stronger works of social protest were the ones which
drew more attention from the audience.

"Freezing" by Andar Manik, a graduate from the fine arts
department of the Bandung Technology Institute, featured an open,
white refrigerator elevated slightly above a pool of floating ice
blocks contained by a low wall of river stones. The fridge, which
contained a gas mask and a red light, was contrasted against a
black background.

Andar seems to show us how power manipulates history by
freezing past facts, and then writes a new history in line with
its own interests.

In a clearer mode of expression, Agus Suwage steps forth
with his work entitled "I See, I Hear, I Feel."

Three sheets of canvas are each covered in grayish acrylic,
each featuring a negative photographic image in the form of a
bust. The first depicts a person with his face covered by both
hands. The lower part shows an animal with a human head and its
whole body covered in arrows, and above is written, aku melihat
(I see).

Suwage seems to shout out against a topsy-turvy society
which blinds, silences and deafens humanity against itself.

The second canvas pictures a person with a wide open mouth,
as if screaming. Across the middle, "I feel" is written in Bahasa
Indonesia.

The last one features a person with both hands against his
ears and the words aku mendengar.

The sculptor Anusapati communicates in a more subtle way.

One of his works is titled "Preserve versus Exploit." Here,
nine 4.8-meter-sized boxes covered with bark contain seeds of
hard crop and are supported by a larger, 1.5-meter-high box. On
top glows a light of 5 watts, as Anusapati seems to remind us
quietly to preserve our rich surroundings.

Mostly young artists were featured in this display. The jury
and curators of Jim Supangkat, Soedarso SP, Sudarmaji and Far
Sidik decided on three paintings which received awards: "Brown
Face" by Aming Prayitno, "Clouds like Dirty Goats" (Awan Wedus
Gembel, a local phrase referring to the clouds seen after the
eruptions of Mount Merapi) by Teguh Suwarto and "Latest News" by
Sigit Santoso.

Finally it must be noted that this event reminds us of the
reaction of younger artists to 1992's Biennial III, from which
most were excluded. Participation that year was limited to two-
dimensional works.

This reaction took form in the several "Binal" (wild,
derived from Biennial) displays at Yogyakarta's Seni Sono Art
Gallery, the Tugu train station and the North Park (alun-alun)
next to the homes of several artists.

It is unclear why these critics did not participate in the
recent exhibition. Only two of 24 artists were from Yogyakarta.
The rest were from Solo, Bandung, Jakarta, Medan and Ujung
Pandang.