Finding freedom to express
Javanese artist Jompet Kuswidananto’s hand gets a good work
out in his home town of Yogyakarta.
While walking through a preview of the spectacular Art / Jog
Maritime Culture art exhibition at the city’s Taman Budaya (cultural center) it
seemed that administrators, curators and – most importantly – overseas critics
and buyers - all wanted a piece of the man.
Although the exhibition is supposed to have a marine theme
it’s a mark of Jompet’s importance that organizers included one of his
installations.
I was Hamlet is
based on the ideas of German post-modernist theater director Heiner Muller’s Hamletmachine. It features old and
broken sound systems, symbols of the authoritarian New Order government that dictated
Indonesians’ lives and thoughts for 32 years.
It might have been naughty once, but it’s not nautical.
Successfully jostling for prominence in the crowded art
world doesn’t appear to have infected Jompet with arrogance, the virus of
fickle fame.
“It seems the definition of ‘emerging young talent’ ends
when the artist reaches 35,” he joked, shortly after returning from a residency
in Vietnam.
“I’m almost 37 so that probably rules me out. Being an
installation artist restricts my market, but fortunately my wife Inna Deshitta
is an architect in Bali.
“Having a professional partner allows me time to explore. I’ve
been going alone on my motorbike into quiet places to think. I hate to be in a
routine.
“For the past four years I’ve been working with my ghost
figures. Maybe it’s time for new directions. Sometimes I ask myself whether it’s
all been over-discussed.”
Original talent and an attractive personality aren’t the
only qualities that make the self-taught artist an ideal candidate for overseas
support. He doesn’t present like the stereotyped
Indonesian bohemian, no red headband and dreadlocks, no reeking of kretek smoke.
Then there’s his fluent English and easy access to a lexicon
describing, exploring and covering the canvas of abstract art with ease, making
him a stimulating conversationist.
But the crunch factor is that Jompet used to inhabit the once
dangerous territory of anti -Soeharto social commentary. He’s passed though the rebel stage unscathed
and earned his veteran’s stripes.
Now he faces the curse of being mainstreamed, and the need
to find the next big cause.
There’s no stand-out enemy.
Poverty and corruption, dirty politics and inequality are major foes,
but amorphous. All things perceived to
be wrong once coalesced in a single bogey man - the nation’s second president.
“Are we free now? That’s the big question,” Jompet said.
“It’s something I think about a lot.
“We thought we were after 1998 (the downfall of Soeharto),
and able to reclaim our rights. Now we can all speak but no-one is listening
because it’s so noisy.
“Today the cry is: ‘What is democracy?’ It’s a destination, not a journey. But we
must not let it be defined by others.
“Democracy also provides a place for radicalism, which can
create the downfall of democracy. The
state is now absent from our daily lives.
So we have to learn how to resolve our own problems, see them in different
ways, and be creative.
“My topics are local, but I’m pretty sure they’re also
public issues. Everyone has to question their world view because we’re no
longer taught what to think. Not all are happy with this situation.”
Underlying his point are stickers and T-shirts on sale in
Yogya featuring the face of the smiling general who dominated the Republic’s
politics for 32 years above the caption: Piyo
kabare bro ...? Enak jamanku to .. (How are you, brother? My era was good,
eh…)
The son of a farmer, Jompet grew up in a Yogya kampung, played
protest music on guitar and joined a theater club. At Yogya’s Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) he
studied communications and experimented with music and art, laced with anti-government
action.
“We read underground news from overseas,” he said. “We
already realised something was wrong with the State. I threw stones at the
police, but fortunately wasn’t arrested.”
He read widely and was inspired by the work of the Cypriot-Australian
performance artist Stelarc who famously proclaimed that ‘the human body is
obsolete’ before taking on an academic career.
In 2003 Jompet’s work appeared overseas in a Seoul group
exhibition. It was followed by displays
in Shanghai, Mumbai, Singapore, Hong Kong and South Africa. His first solo show was in Yogya in 2008.
The same year Jompet was noticed when Java’s Machine: Phantasmagoria was shown at the Yokohama Triennale.
It featured images of body-less Yogya kraton guards as the interface of
competing cultures and the ‘war against homogenization.’
For the past five years Jompet has commuted between Yogya
and Bali where his wife was practising, but there are no maidens-in-paddy
influences in his work.
During the last Southern Hemisphere summer his installation The Commoners, along with works by Eko
Nugroho, another Yogya artist, dominated the foyer of the National Gallery of
Victoria in Melbourne.
The catalogue said: ‘As a pairing, they shine light on the
effervescent contemporary Indonesian art scene and present a wide-ranging, yet
precise snapshot of this world’.
Jompet’s major work featured ranks of ‘ghost figures’ made substantial
only by boots, hats and tools.
Occasionally they beat drums and waved flags.
Like his work in Art / Jog, a buyer would need a large and
lofty lounge to accommodate the installation – though Jompet is prepared to
make smaller, more compact versions.
The Melbourne exhibit was acquired by the NGV whose director
Tony Ellwood has been in Yogya with a chequebook. In the past 11 months the gallery has bought
seven contemporary Indonesian pieces to boost its collection of 196 works from
the archipelago, though many are batik and puppets.
“There are now local buyers - not all interest is from
overseas,” said Jompet. “It’s a more critical market. I’m optimistic about the
future of contemporary art in Indonesia.
This exhibition (Art /Jog) proves it.”
First published in The Jakarta Post 13 August 2013
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