Art is a form of expression, a form of release for the artist. What the artist is expressing, however, is a topic that is constantly questioned. The modernist view that the purpose behind art is an expression of the artist’s feelings as an individual, seems directly applicable to Indonesian artist Wedhar Riyadi’s artwork titled Keributan Dari Negara Subur (2011).This work is made of three large paintings copied from sepia-toned photographs of historical figures, which have been over-painted directly with bright oil paints, giving the images grotesque, cartoonish features, as if they have been vandalized. These artworks feel confrontational, the warped and exaggerated features leaving the viewer with a sense of unease, and a sense of the deeper meaning that they are attempting to convey.
This painting can be seen as an expression of emotion by the artist towards the Indonesian killings which occurred between 1965 and 1966. These killings were attempts to uproot any communists that were in the country, and their sympathisers. They were demonised; the hype was stoked by the Army leadership, until it finally came to a boil in the form of a coup in the October of 1965. The army began to slaughter anyone who had any ties to the communist movement and their supporters, civilians joining the witch-hunt. People were gunned down in the streets, some beheaded and dumped into the river, to the point where it became clogged with a growing number of bodies. Anyone could be a communist, nobody could be trusted.
This fear of anyone is what Riyadi shows in his paintings. Average-looking people twisted and deformed by imagination into twisted creatures, monstrous and inhuman. Normal photos of people, with painted and... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline
Wedhar Riyadi, Noise from the fertile land (Keributan dari negara subur) no. 1, 2011. Oil on canvas, 250 x 180cm. Purchased 2011. Queensland Art Gallery Foundation. Collection: Queensland Art Gallery.
