If you have a penchant for nudes, still life or harmonious watercolor paintings, Muhamad Yusuf’s solo exhibition “Aku dan You” might not be your cup of tea.
In his latest works displayed at the Tembi Contemporary art gallery in Yogyakarta, Yusuf, a 45-year-old visual artist who graduated from the Indonesian Institute of Arts (ISI) in Yogyakarta, explored humanity and injustices with an ideological commitment to ordinary people’s struggles.
“My work is the Zeitgeist of my age, which I hope will inspire others to achieve positive change,” he wrote on the gallery’s website.
The artist, also called Ucup, explained he drew inspiration from the years he spent with the Taring Padi art movement, a group of artists and activists from Yogyakarta known for their political posters representing the voices of the disenfranchised.
Environmental degradation was a recurrent theme in most of his 2010 works, alongside prostitution, and the abuse of power, visible in 43 small-sized paintings and drawings.
Trees are sources of life for the people, says Ucup. In Absolute Nuclear, an acrylic on canvas, he depicted horrible forms trees would have taken in a post-nuclear world, and Adam and Eve as two monsters standing under a tree whose trunk and leaves consist of human skulls.
This exhibition, which ended on Tuesday, was definitely not for the faint hearted.
In his work titled Dedicated to the Billion Trees, Ucup illustrated how large trees ended up as a plate on a table, by drawing the shape of a tree on a menu.
Kamar 3x3, by Ucup.Ucup also featured his friends climbing on his favorite shady star fruit tree in Home Ground, an acrylic on canvas.
He recalled the days he and his friends used to find peace climbing trees, and picking up fruits, in his hometown, Lumajang, in East Java.
Nowadays, however, he can’t seem to find any of the trees he grew up with in his village, including in the suburbs of Bantul, Yogyakarta, where he currently lives and where housing projects keep encroaching on farming land.
As an activist who has been engaged in fighting for the marginalized, Ucup treats rice farmers
and laborers as his heroes, inserting the two characters in most of his works. “Farmers are supposed to be more respected as they feed all of us”, he said.
and laborers as his heroes, inserting the two characters in most of his works. “Farmers are supposed to be more respected as they feed all of us”, he said.
Water pollution also featured strongly in this collection, with images of dying fish lying next to branded beverage bottles — an allusion to blast fishing practices decimating the water population.
His most intriguing elucidation was his “national food” series, in which Ucup presented satirical images
of 10 branded noodle products the majority of Indonesians rely on. He then changed the names on the products, for example from curry to kere (tramps).
of 10 branded noodle products the majority of Indonesians rely on. He then changed the names on the products, for example from curry to kere (tramps).
To address poverty issues, Ucup created Kamar 3x3, depicting a poor family scrambled in a dirty tiny room measuring 3 by 3 square meters.
The mother rests on a bed with her four children while the father tries to sleep on the floor.
The government’s gas conversion policy came under scrutiny too, in his work Next Wall, depicting
a wall of green-colored LPG canisters with a human skull among the canisters.
a wall of green-colored LPG canisters with a human skull among the canisters.
And so did prostitutes. He used a portrait of himself clad in a sexy mini-skirt to criticize prostitution. Other self-portraits depicted him pretending to be former president Sukarno, holding rocks instead of the proclamation of independence; Prince Diponegoro riding a horse while holding a brush, instead of a weapon; and a Muslim cleric chasing envelopes in Ganti Profesi (Changing Profession). By using his own image, he feels comfortable criticizing anybody.
Ucup’s works overall felt like simple pictures peppered with overwhelming detail, highlighting the hard work he put into his works and clarifying his messages to the average person.
“By creating works of art, I want to show people what is going on around us today.”
— Photos Courtesy of Muhamad Yusuf
Munarsih Sahana, Contributor, Yogyakarta | Thu, 09/16/2010 9:33 AM | Art and Design
0 comments:
Post a Comment