A portrait of Javanese values

Love, harmony and serenity are among the values taught for people to live by.  Based on some Javanese values, the “Java Dwipantara” art exhibition features some realism paintings that are as striking as their inspirations. 

The Javanese word sumeleh refers to a pure and peaceful state of mind without greed or any need to be restless. Achieving this would be valued as a perfect life. Perhaps our inability to reach this is the cause of our troubled world.  

Using Javanese values, contemporary artist Yuli Kodo translates today’s social and political conditions into striking artworks currently on display at Hadiprana Gallery in South Jakarta.

Curated by Aa Nurjaman, “Java Dwipantara” is Yuli’s first solo exhibition.

In this collection of more than 25 paintings, Yuli brings us through a passage into philosophical Javanese lives.

He reflects implicit messages of Javanese literature into an art form with a culturally bounded atmosphere. His style can be categorized as “realism” painting, putting together symbolic elements represented in today’s context.

“I based this collection on a Javanese song that represents the 11 stages in life from birth to death,” Yuli said when met during the exhibition’s opening ceremony on July 18.

The song he was referring to is “Tembang Mocopat”, 11 steps in life from Maskumambang (embryo) to Pucung (burial), which is a philosophical guide for an ideal life.

Yuli’s Javanese intellectuality is derived from his background. Born and raised in the vicinity of the Yogyakarta royal palace, Yuli lived by the Javanese belief of Kejawen. A particular atmosphere that he projects in this collection is the appreciation of life led by the element of balance. 

The values of “Tembang Mocopat” are translated into symbols. This collection can be generally categorized into three themes. The first pictures the philosophical lives of Javanese men and women, the second presents traditional children’s games, while the third is dedicated to the palace. 

White painted faces dominate most of his subjects. This signature element is meant as a mask, which symbolizes people’s masked characters. “People go out with their masks; we may never know what’s inside them,” he explained. 

Bapa Angkasa Ibu Pertiwi is an example of the first theme, picturing how the roles of men and women complete life in the universe. He explains that in Javanese philosophy men guide life, while women are the key to prosperity.

This is followed by Mimi lan Mintuno, in which a woman kneels with a pot of water while her man stands tall with a stick to protect them. Through these elements he emphasizes balance in life.

Yuli praises women as the source of our existence. The painting Perempuan pictures a woman dressed in batik standing among tulips on water with her arms out. 

On her head is the moon, her chest the sun and between her legs is the earth, a representation of a complete life. The sun being the heart illuminates the mind and the womb, which is the birth of life.  

The painter also uses many Javanese idioms to represent the context of political and social realities.

As an Indonesian, it would be easier to take in the meaning of the symbols as they are bound to Javanese cultural values. 

He implies that this collection may just look like a photograph, but with a thorough look you’ll see that they don’t stray far from today’s context.

One painting titled Ing Ngarso Sung Tulodho, Ing Madyo Mangun Karso, Tut Wuri Handayani portrays six children standing behind one another with the leader confronted by another boy with a stick.

Taken from a Javanese idiom, it’s a reminder to (political) leaders that they are responsible and while the people behind them will always follow those in front, they have a right to remind their leaders when taking the wrong way.

Panglima (commander) is part of the third theme, portraying a palace commander escorted by palace guards. His firm figure represents Ningrat, with Ning meaning tranquility and rat meaning the universe.

This describes the spiritual condition within a nobleman (priyayi). As such, Ningrat can be achieved by anyone able to overcome one’s own body and soul and hence be worthy a leader.  

“Java Dwipantara” presents a look into the roots of Javanese culture embodied by the various symbols of its philosophies. Yuli Kodo’s works show that cultural values still concur with today’s realities.


Java Dwipantara

July 11-27, 2011
Hadiprana Gallery
Jl. Kemang Raya No. 30, South Jakarta

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Uniform, The marking or dissolving of identity?

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.

Tut Wuri Handayani (2011). Digital C Print Fuji Platinum on Diasec.In a cynical reference to the police, the image of a police officer which is usually associated with regulating the traffic is now set on the beach “playing” circus.

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

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Reconsidering Earth

The exhibition of 35 artists from various countries at North Art Space in Ancol, Jakarta, comes amidst celebrations of the city’s 484th anniversary, and is a timely reminder of the environmental mishaps plaguing the city.

With the hustle and bustle of everyday life, it is easy to forget that we all live on a planet called Earth. And, what seems like a large place for humankind to live on forever in reality needs us to change the way we live if we expect our planet and our city to survive.

The show was a collaborative effort between North Art Space and the Olympia Fine Art Association (OFAA).

As the works in the exhibition reveal, many of the concerns of the participating artists from 22 countries refer to the consequences of the Earth’s destruction to both the physical and mental state of human beings and the living environment.

Reconsidering Nature Religion (Rockwell Lecture)

Indonesian Neneng Ferrier’s work titled Mayday, Mayday features the Earth as hollowed on one side, with the appearance of a cave offering a horrible view of what looks like debris and lava streaming down after the eruption of a volcano while figures desperately try to save themselves. Red lines run over the upper part of the destructed earthball like brains made visible.

The Rupture series of paintings by Babita Das from India show deformed faces that could be caused by chemical or environmental disasters.

The haunting image that Cristina Gori from Italy presents in digital print, the digital painting and inkjet print on canvas by Paul Tiilila from Finland featuring desolate dead wood, the dramatic Passions Trail in acrylic by Riyu Il-seon from Korea, the barren tree by Alessandro Cardinale from Italy — they all make visible the impact of a
destructed Earth.

Sometimes the actual situation appears too hopeless, it can lead a person to indulge in reverie, imagining the good old times when nature and man were in complete harmony.

This is evident in paintings that highlight the beauty of flowers, such as the fresh yellow anemones painted by Lena Kelekian from Lebanon, or Riyu Ilji from Korea who dreams of fresh roses and finds them not in the garden but within the self.

Others like Mohamad Ibrahim Elmasry from Egypt invent plants and flowers in abstract paintings of the most unusual colors.

Innes Indreswari Soekanto from Indonesia perceives the Earth as feminine, a vision revealed with her installation of five traditional Javanese hair buns made of bronze titled Mother Earth.

But more than that, she perceives it as being the land where she was born and raised (Java) as well as the place where she feels at home (Japan). This dualism is evident in her installation of three simple houses titled Furusato (Japanese for homeland), for which each doorlock represents her feelings. On the left is a lock featuring Mount Kanagawa, famous from a woodblock print by the Japanese artist Hokusai in the early 1930s, but getting new relevance with the catastrophic tsunami striking Japan earlier this year.

Another house has a lock featuring Srikandi, the woman of wayang stories, who was born a woman but raised a man.

Srikandi is a figure that Innes herself associates with, as her parents raised her as if she were a man to provide protection to the family. And, there is the lock featuring the Gunungan — essential for every wayang performance — indicating the beginning and end of the performance.

Placed between Mount Kanagawa and Srikandi, the Gunungan appears as the balance between the artist’s past in Java and Japan (the land where she lives and will soon take up a teaching position at the Tokyo University of the Arts).

Like Innes, Argentinian-born US citizen Marisa Caichiolo urges one to reconsider Earth in a way that recognizes the feminine at its most basic and cosmic in nature. She believes women have a special responsibility.

“We must reconnect with the Earth, practice again the female rituals, use our hands and our bodies to reconnect, not through the virtual world of the Internet, but in the real world, with kin, kinship, friends.” But, what she sees as the most important thing is to get rid of the negative in our body.

The Sacred Dresses are works of redemption, referring to the cosmic nature of mankind. Based on philosophies that nurture the mind and body in various cultures and religions of the world, the exhibition shows, among others, one of the two dresses in the show that are based on Buddhist philosophy.

Made of leather and canvas and printed with symbols of peace, added with mixed media on the front that represents the negative that has come out of the body, it is an inspiring piece of work.

Marisa, who is still adding to the 25 such dresses she has already made, will have a solo exhibition in Mexico next year.

Reconsidering Earth

July 8Aug. 7, 2011
North Art Space
Pasar Seni Ancol
Jl. Lodan Timur No. 7
Jakarta Utara, 14430

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Visual art inspired by words

This concept is explored by the daily newspaper Kompas in its Sunday edition, in which it regularly publishes a short story accompanied by an illustration. Thus, the weekly edition presented a short story (cerpen) plus an illustration.

Many of those beautiful illustrations are displayed in an exhibition at Bentara Budaya in Jakarta. Being the 8th annual exhibition of these works, it displays all of the short stories published in 2010.


In a separate room, published short stories with illustrations are on display. This original layout of the text and illustration is displayed in frames and ordered according to the date of publication, from January to December of 2010.

Since its first exhibition in 2003, Kompas’ involvement in contemporary art can be hailed as a success in introducing literature of a more profound dimension.

“The illustrations stand independently, not just to support the text but to give a deeper meaning to it,” Bentara Budaya executive director Efix Mulyadi told the Post at the exhibition hall.

Efix recalls that the idea to feature illustrations with accompanying short stories came to him in about 2002. At that time, Kompas had been publishing short stories in its art column. However, they were only laid out with simple illustrations.

Then, a notion came to put together literature and illustrations through art forms. “Illustrations don’t always have to be like that [simple pictures based on the short story]. They can stand with literature as equals, not as an integral part of it,” Efix emphasized.

A team at Kompas then worked extensively with contemporary artists and writers and started publishing the new illustrated short stories in the same year. Since then, about 50 illustrated short stories have decorated the newspaper’s Sunday column every year (52 stories in a year).
Lelaki yang Membelah Bulan (left) and Kenangan Perkawinan. JP/Wibisono Notodirdjo
This move has been hailed as a success in bringing an integration of art and literature to readers.

The images portrayed here may seem rather abstract. This might be because the pictures don’t pick out every element in the text of the story and literally portray them that way. The narration is translated into shapes, colors and/or tones, using symbols to convey the same message as a whole.

“By making the illustration stand independently as a form of literature, not as a part of a story, it gives a whole new meaning to both the narration and the picture,” he added.

Readers react, he continued, to the soul of a story and this emotion is relayed to the lines and colors of the illustration, hence it becomes a place that’s free for the reader’s interpretations.

Since they can now exist on the same level, the narration does not dictate the illustration, but guides one another for any form of understanding.

More than a hundred of Indonesia’s finest names in art and literature – including artists, poets and writers – have submitted their works since 2003.

Although many of the illustrations seem abstract, they are founded in the short stories.

Artists interpret the plots, messages and motives into the strokes of their brushes or the composition of photographs. Most of them only have five days from the time the short story narration is handed to them to create an illustration.

Despite the short time they have, they manage to create art that perfectly illustrates the profound short stories.

Since they first began being published, the people that brought the illustrated short stories have wanted to bring these works to the public with the intention of promoting literary art.

This has been followed up by annual illustrated short story exhibitions since 2003, in which most of the original artworks have been displayed.

This year’s exhibition was held at Bentara Budaya in Jakarta, Bali, Yogyakarta and Solo (Central Java). Kompas also published a book compiling 18 of the best short stories of 2010.

A short story titled Dodolitdodolitdodolibret by Seno Gumira Ajidarma published on Sept. 26, 2010 was hailed the year’s best short story.

The illustrated short story succeeded in enriching literature with visual art. Now it has become a significant place to promote and develop the best of Indonesian art and literature.

Bentara Budaya jakarta
Jl. Palmerah Selatan No.17, Jakarta.

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New Ruling Accords Balinese Women Rights to Inheritance

Denpasar. The century-old patriarchal traditions that govern Balinese family life were on Wednesday amended to finally grant women the right to inherit assets from their parents.

The High Council of Customary Villages (MUDP), the highest authority on Balinese traditional regulations, issued the ruling.

“This is a significant development in the 110 years [since traditional values were formally regulated] during which Balinese women were not entitled to a single rupiah of inheritance,” said Wayan Windia, head of research and development at the council.

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‘Ethnicity Now’: much wishful thinking

Expectations were set high for the exhibition “Ethnicity Now”, currently on show at the National Gallery — particularly because of the tagline below the title linking Ethnicity to Indonesian Contemporary Art.

But sadly, the show turned out to be a disappointment.

It seems the organizers and the show’s curator were carried away by an increasingly strong vision in the art world that acknowledges the cultural and the local in contemporary art.

For me, the local, traditional or ethnic for that matter, must challenge the creative, innovative, imaginative and artistic forces of an artist to create fascinating forms and shapes that, while breathing a touch or trace of its original heritage, are basically new, d

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