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EDDIE HARA - Travelling Between Worlds

by Cynthia Webb, Yogyakarta

Artist, Eddie Hara is a man with his own unique view of the world. His ninth solo exhibition can be viewed at Galeri Semarang, from 3rd to `6th August, 2002. Visitors to the exhibition in the Central Javanese city, Hara's hometown, will travel into his strange dimension between the worlds. It is a place inhabited by eerie metamorphosed creatures, neither human nor animal, which escape from Eddie's imagination. "They emerge from various domains with elusive mongrel identities", says curator, Hendro Wiyanto.

The title of the exhibition is "Sweet Beasts" which is a reference to the paradoxical values and characteristics all around us and within us. We cannot take things at face value any more and the message of Eddie's work is that often things are not what they seem. The opposites of good and evil are often simultaneously present. Eddie says, "A nice looking person might actually be a bandit, while there are a lot of ugly people with bad attitude, who turn out to be noble. For me, it's very hard to draw a line between good and bad nowadays."

Eddie Hara's own life is somewhat unusual too. As an Indonesian now permanently living in Basel, Switzerland, he is a man between two worlds. He can observe the difference in peoples' ways of approaching life from his position in the middle. He travels back and forth several times a year, for professional reasons.

The free lifestyle of Europe suits him and he particularly enjoys seeing the varied and wild expression of personal identity and social attitudes, adopted by certain groups of young Europeans. They flaunt their opinions and allegiances through their clothing, their hairstyles and body decoration. He is fascinated by the surreal and weird new left wing group, "Oi Punk", who are a sort of scary looking oppositon to the fascist "Skinheads". They are similar in appear ance at first glance, but socially responsible and listen to music with lyrics about making a better world. Eddy and his wife are both in sympathy with the social democratic ideals of the left-wing group. However, that kind of wild looking image would be rare and frowned upon in traditional Java, where Eddy sees most people as ultra conservative in outward appearance, not daring to stand out in this way. For Eddy the homogenous dress code of Java is boring.

Just as the punks and skinheads are weird and wonderful, so are the eccentrics, clowns, monsters, robots, cyborgs, snakes, birds and beasts on wheels, which populate Eddie's paintings. Where do they come from, what are they bringing us, and where do they go? They are smiling and yet sometimes appear sneering, angry or menacing, as though they know something dark that we don't yet know. They seem to come from a twilight carnival world, bringing to mind the Ray Bradbury short story, "Something Wicked This Way Comes", or perhaps from a cyber netherworld where such mutant beings are born. Eddie enjoys cartoons and comic books and these have influenced his vision.

Forty-five year old Eddie was born in Semarang and began drawing at about eight years of age. At that time he liked to watch the "spaghetti westerns" on T.V., so his first subjects were cowboys, Indians and Mexican bandits. He worked with colour pencils. His father was a military man and disapproved of Eddie's art activity. However, his mother was always supportive.

At around fourteen years old, Eddie's desire for wider experience of the world caused him to want to become a sailor, because he had a cousin who told stories of traveling the world . At the time, it seemed the only possible way to travel. He also corresponded with a pen friend in Holland who tantalized him with postcards of art by Van Gogh and the Dutch old masters. He also had his first chance to use oil paints in extra curricular art classes at his school, and sold his first painting. He says it was "a very kitsch image" of a Balinese temple in silhouette with a full moon in the sky.

On completing high school, Eddie desperately wished to study at Institute Seni Indonesia, Yogyakarta, however there was violent opposition because of this father's negative mental image of artists being wild, unreliable, often drunk, smoking too much and sleeping too little. There was to be no financial support forthcoming so Eddie spent a frustrating year at home, before finally surrendering and enrolling in I.K.I.P. for teacher training, specializing in English language.

Eddie stayed there for two years but the longing was still there, so he went to Yogyakarta to do the entrance test for I.S.I. and was accepted. "But, how to tell father?" Eddie remembers his nervous hesitation. After more family conflict, Eddie's girlfriend's mother contributed the money necessary to enable him to commence his artist studies. Three months later his father died of cancer, and in his last days seemed to have accepted the inevitable fact that his son would be an artist.

Eddie so loved the life at I.S.I. that he studied there for nine years. In 1983 he had a studio in Kampung Sudagaran and he soon attracted the interest of the local children. He gave them art materials and was fascinated to watch their creativity come out under his encouragement. There was a two way exchange as he became inspired by the spontaneity and imagination in their drawing, and this has influenced his own style ever since.

In 1984 Eddie went to Switzerland for the first time, stayed three months and was very inspired by his first sight of the famous European art works in museums. He was particularly attracted to the work of Paul Klee and Miro. Then in 1989 he went to Holland intending to write a study of Lucebert, one of the COBRA group of artists. However Eddie became more interested in studying at a Dutch art academy and never did meet Lucebert.

During these years he had two serious relationships with Javanese women, both of which ended because of the tight controls of the traditional society values. When he formed a friendship with a woman from the U.S.A., a free and independent woman, marriage followed in 1994. Later the couple moved to Los Angeles, however after six months they returned to Yogyakarta. Eddie found it extremely difficult to get a foot in the door of the highly competitive art scene. This marriage ended in 1997 due to differing personal and family aspirations.

Now Eddie is happily married to Catherine, a Swiss woman whom he first met in 1985 when she traveled alone to South East Asia, carrying a gift for Eddie from a mutual friend. Many years later their continuing friendship deepened into love, then marriage and the birth of their three year old son Mimo. Mimo already likes to draw and is showing a high-class musical taste, loving choir music and hating the heavy rock that his father sometimes listens to.

The family has chosen to live in Switzerland since 1997. This was a difficult decision to make at the time, as Eddie's career in Indonesia was strong. However he was not a stranger in Basel, having already had two shows there, a six months Artist in Residence visit, and had formed a good friendship network. "It was like coming back to a second home", he says.

Catherine is a librarian who enjoys her work very much, and like modern couples all over the world, they share the tasks of homemaker and childcare. Eddie has two studios nearby his home and balances his artistic work with the roles of husband and father.

Eighty percent of his work is sold in Indonesia where demand is strong because he is better known. In Europe he has relationships with contemporary art galleries including the Pruess and Ochs Gallery in Berlin, who are specializing in work by big name Asian artists. There is a growing interest in the exotic styles. He also receives commissions for his work and has designed book covers, and a poster for a French rock music festival.

Eddie now talks about experiencing "culture shock" when he comes back to Indonesia. The duality in his life affects him and he notices himself changing the way he interacts with people when he arrives at Jakarta's airport. He must remind himself about the Javanese way of not talk ing straight, and not showing the true feelings, not speaking directly about one's needs or problems, but instead demonstrating a tendency to talk "behind your back". Eddie prefers the straight-talking Western approach he has learned in Switzerland. He says that his situation as a man of two worlds makes him stronger, but yet sometimes makes him confused about how to behave now that he has choice.

Eddie Hara's childhood wish to travel the world has been fulfilled through his life as an artist. He also travels in a world that he creates in his symbolic imagination, but always finds his way home to his happy family.