In any period of time, there have been people who were curious and critical, and others who just went with the flow and took things for granted.
Jim Allen Abel, Jimbo for short, who was born in Luwu, the cradle of the Bugis creation, epos, Sureq Galigo, initially did not belong to either group of people.
But as he grew up, he began to question the role of a teacher in shaping the mind of students; with his father being a history teacher, he understood that a teacher in the service of an institution like the government cannot express personal visions.
His solo exhibition, “Uniform_code”, currently on view at D’gallery in South Jakarta, tackles the interesting theme of the uniform.
But the photographic images would fail to have significant meaning without background stories to place them within their specific social situations.
Once revealed, the perfect photographs become a fascinating visual documentation of the spirit of our time.
As the “building” of identity became a national pursuit with the founding of this repubic, ironically, the creation of a national identity as well as the ensuing formation of uniforms as a part of institutional identity now tend to erase the individual — the personal — as visualised in the photographic images of hooded figures clad in their professional uniforms.
Jimbo revealed that the idea for this project began after his conversations with his late father some time ago.
The uniform that Jimbo has seen his father put on day in, day out, became a representation of the very issue it triggered.
He became aware that uniforms were in fact everywere: not only were they worn by those in the military or the police, but also civil servants, shop attendants, school children, boy scouts, or anyone working for a company.
And he noted how, in fact, the personal identity of all the members belonging to these groups vanished into the various uniforms.
“Uniform_code”, as the show is titled, focuses on social groups — police, civil servant, military, security guards, street sweepers and medical staff — in which Jimbo himself poses as the model. All of the heads are covered with whatever he finds suitable to the profession.
In Polisi (police), Jimbo put on a complete police uniform, disguised his entire head with roses, set the timer on his camera and printed the image as a digital C print Fuji platinum on Diasec.
Why roses?
Jimbo explained that police are supposed to be nice and wonderful, but in many cases they are threatening. Roses, he says, are usually fragrant, but beware of the thorns.
The street sweeper’s head is covered with cigarette butts, reflecting the many butts found in the street trash, while the civil servant is hooded with the leaves of pare, a bitter vegetable used in Indonesian dishes, because Jimbo’s father’s meager civil servant salary only allowed for that vegetable to be included in the family’s daily menu.
In his creation, head of the satpam (security guards) is concealed under a heap of instant noodle, the only dish he would have on daily basis.
Interestingly, Jimbo elaborates his passport-like images with that of the hooded parking boy jumping against the background of a wall scratched with street art.
Jimbo explains that unlike his other images, which are made to reveal the loss of the personal in the “system”, the parking boy takes advantage of a messy system of parking and does quite well: his hood is made of Rp 1,000 bills.
Jimbo visualizes his father’s unsuccessful efforts to counter the system with action photograpy, featuring a civil servant (Korpri), enacted by himself, in Tut Wuri Handayani. Swinging his axe, he falters as the table on which he stands is wobbly, and he will soon fall down.
As he further ponders about the power of the army, he decides to form the Army of Me, consisting of one hundred images in rear-view mirrors, occurring particularly on the motorbikes that have become people’s main transporattion in Yogyakarta.
For the work, he had to gather 100 people to wear military uniforms and hold toy guns. For that, he tirelessly visited train stations and university campuses, and approached random people in the street.
The installation of these 100 images, however, would have a much more powerful impact had they been put on a few motorcyles, instead of what is a fairly boring arrangement on a rack.
Jimbo (b.1975) is a graduate of the Interior Design program at Yogyakarta’s Modern School of Design and the Indonesia Institute of Art, also in Yogyakarta, where he studied photography.
He has been awarded residencies in Ruang Mess56, Yogyakarta and in Seoksu Art Project Anyang in South Korea.
He has also been selected to participate in the third edition of Photoquai – Biennial of World Images 2011, which will be held from Sept. 13 until Dec. 4, 2011 in Paris. This event, directed by acclaimed French photographer Françoise Huguier, is dedicated to non-western photography, and is organized by the Musée du Quai Branly.
Uniform_code
A solo exhhibition
by JimAllen Abel
Until Aug. 15, 2011
D’gallery
Jl. Barito No. 3, Kebayoran Baru
South Jakarta
Ph +62 21 7399378/9
source
Uniform, The marking or dissolving of identity?
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