Recent art from Indonesia
Visit Indonesia Years, by Tisna Sanjaya, is a large banner painting surrounded by party lights. It depicts the artist (doubled) as APRI volunteer and as Golkar party supporter waving to the viewer. Behind, he is seen again, this time in his role as teacher/government worker with his happy, healthy family. Behind them is a serene landscape, showing workers harvesting fertile fields. Hanging underneath the painting is a row of souvenir T-shirts, some white, some with camouflage patterns, screen-printed with Mooie lndie (or Beautiful lndies) landscape scenes. They are also printed with the names of various provinces-Aceh, Ambon, Timor, etcetera. Flanking this are two partly-burnt, woven cane screens which also are printed. One reads TOILETS FOR ABRI and lists prices in rupiahs-R200, R150, R225, to shit, piss and masturbate respectively. The other screen reads TOILETS FOR INTERFET and also lists prices, this time in dollars-$200, $150, $250, $100- for the same facilities with the added extra for the westerners-to vomit.
AWAS! is an exhibition responding to the social, political and economic changes in Indonesia since the resignation of Soeharto in May 1988. It was curated by Mella Jaarsma, Director of Cementi Art House in Yogyakarta, M. Dwi Marianto, Curator at lntitut Seni Indonesia, Yogyakarta, Damon Moon, Australian artist and curator and Alexandra Kuss, art historian at Cologne University, Germany. It shows the work of fourteen artists, some living and working in Indonesia and others who are expatriate or working in international contexts. An extensive catalogue outlining the background to the contemporary art environment in Indonesia accompanies the exhibition.
All of the work in AWAS! is highly figurative, much of it drawing on comic-strip forms and cartoon and... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline