Text by Bambang Asrini Widjanarko
Contemporary art, with its tremendous variety of forms and expressions, is the destiny of Indonesia's artistic heritage, as proven in this exhibition.
Perkampungan Dadu by Miswar.Once upon a time, a western scholar came to Indonesia. Claire Holt was her name; she was a researcher from Cornell University. She became renowned for her book Art in Indonesia: Continuities and Change (1967, Ithaca, New York), which is an interesting reference because it is considered a seminal text in the study of modern art (and explored the emergence of "contemporary art") in Indonesia.
Holt concluded that in its essence, modern Indonesian art reflects the creativity and exploration of the artists, who are open to absorbing the aesthetic influences of the past while still inspired by the spirit of the present.
Indonesian art is a "mosaic" of what has become our "local visual artistic treasury" over hundreds of years, combined with an exploration of the artistic values of world art (particularly from the west) that it encountered during a "short period" in the 19th and 20th centuries as part of the process of awakening of national, anticolonial awareness. India, China and the Middle East were among the sources that provided the earlier background to our visual arts.
"Indonesia Today", an exhibition of works by 25 Indonesian artists with Galeri Linda as the host, is taking place in January and February 2009 at the Eunos Technolink complex (Kaki Bukit Road) and on Dempsey Road, Singapore.
The show seeks to provide an overview of the latest developments in contemporary Indonesian art. The theme "Indonesia Today" is chosen to give a glimpse of just some of what is happening now, as our art world nowadays is far richer than in the past. Artists are free to present their individual visual languages, which approach various aspects of public space, such as politics and sociocultural issues, while also entering very private spaces as well, in the most internal, exclusive aspects of their own selves.
The Chaos Pleasure Of Power by Fransisca.The artists include painters, graphic designers, illustrators and even fashion designers, giving us a varied, inclusive and egalitarian mosaic of forms and styles. Some represent the spirit of artists of the past who held that one's personal language is highly subjective; other, mostly younger artists exemplify the search for the inevitable presence of the latest visual technology, with their work informed by the influence of pop subcultures such as comics, illustration and animation. Consider, for example, the works of Baskoro Latu, Budi Hardyantoni, Didik Nurhadi, and Irwantho Lentho.
Political events and the issues of "power" in the public realm can be seen in the works of Tisna Sanjaya and Dede Wahyudin, while issues of the body and how we use our senses and our conceptions about the body are represented by Bambang Pramudiyanto, Jumaldi Alfi or Oky Arfie, or Herianto Maidil, Sp Hidayat, Saepul Bahri and Sudigdo. They agree that the problems of the body are complex, involving it as a symbol of humanity (the self), the environment, and possibly even God.
In other works we encounter unusual media as means of artistic expression: the digital printing medium used by Magdalena Pardede, with her collages of daily objects, or Tisna Sanjaya's shovel attached to a canvas.
A bright, optimistic world of youth and an urban lifestyle inspires the pop-oriented works represented by Vonny Ratna Indah or Sugihartono, who mock the crowded of urban spaces or, alternatively, present us with a comfortable, livable city full of bright colors. The sculptor Inge Rijanto seems closer to night life: the bars and cafés of big cities. She makes some unique sculptures: alcoholic beverages with giant bottles. Meanwhile, the sculptures of Agapetus contain a paradoxical narrative; statues of cattle representing the islands of Indonesia, like cash cows ready to be milked and drained dry.
Silent On The City by Sugihartono.On the other hand, the show allows us to see the expressive styles of Magdalena Pardede's digital paintings and the childish-looking paintings and street graffiti of Fransisca.
Realistic, photographic paintings by Tarman, or other paintings laden with symbols such as those of Edi Kukken and Bambang Pramudiyanto, make light of popular icons or address more serious concepts such as religiosity. The abstract style is represented by Ve Mestoria, who tells tales using wooden branches, dark hues, and rhythmic shapes.
We can see a spirit of picture making through illustration techniques, portraying the deeper inner world of women, in the works of Roeayyah Diana Capung, Sudigdo or Vonny Ratna Indah. They flexibly exercise their right to take any phenomena whatsoever as their inspiration, using special approaches from various artistic genres of the past and present. This show is an excellent demonstration of the spirit of diversity in contemporary Indonesian art.
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