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Indonesian Installation Art

This is a report by AIAA Member Sue Ingham on a paper given by Julie Ewington at the Art Gallery of NSW October 24 2000 for The Asian Arts Society of Australia (TAASA). Although Julie spoke of art from the Philippines, Thailand and elsewhere, the references here are only to examples from Indonesia.

Julie Ewington chose to focus on Installation Art in Contemporary South East Asian art. She defined Installation Art as:
· Using a number of elements in its construction
· Being non - portable and reconstructed on each site
· Being sensitive to a particular site and
· Having a variety of senses involved in its function and perception, such as, sight, hearing, performance and dance
Installation Art has a special place in the traditional arts of the area and has interesting antecedents but it also has had a significant role in Western, Euro-American art in the last 20 years where it challenged the dominance of painting in the power structures. The question then becomes whether S.E. Asian artists "hijacked" this Western art form. In fact its use allowed a connection with a pre painting, pre Western art form, for few S.E. Asian cultures had more than a limited wall painting tradition. Versions of installation art were an intrinsic part of their culture. An installation work allows for community and collaboration, a core value of the culture rather than individualism, and is very important in allowing the artist to submerge him/herself in the whole process.

The term "installation" itself probably originated in museums where such works used to be called "environments", but by the mid 1970s this term had been taken over by the Environmental Movement. Installation art in the West is an art of the late 20th century and as a movement was available just when Asian artists were emerging after being trained in Modernist art schools post World War II. (This generalisation does not include Japan, as Japan's history of modernisation is different from the rest of Asia).

The two most interesting developments in contemporary art are contemporary Asian art and digital art, which emerged without an appropriate forum for the work. The Venice Biennale has traditionally been Eurocentric and Asian art came from a different set of social constructs. The Sydney Biennale though, has been showing the work of Asian artists for about ten to fourteen years.

Modernity and cultural dependence on Western sources are at issue here, and the danger is that this art is condemned as a local version of something else, a question that resonates within Australia as well. But what in fact happens is that the local artists adapt and indigenise the import by appealing to their own background. Whether installation art is the quintessential art of S.E. Asia is debated and not universally accepted.

There is a large element of performance in installation art in Indonesia, such as poetry performance in Bandung or references to the Wayang puppet tradition being used to make indirect criticism of the Suharto regime by relating Suharto to the Dalang or puppet master.

Dadang Christanto:
· Bureaucracy, 1991, synthetic polymer paint on plywood

Heri Dono:
· The Chair, 1993, mixed media and performance
· Hoping to hear from you soon, 1992, oil on canvas, video projector

These works reference the Wayang puppet theatre tradition and the Warung, the roadside eating stalls. The chair recurs as a symbol of power and authority in S.E. Asia, for example, the Sultan of Yogyakarta sits on a chair/throne while everyone else is below him seated on the floor.
The works are ephemeral and the artists are aware of the significance of this, in that they are the opposite of the marketable works of art.

Heri Dono: · Gamelan of Rumour, 1993, mixed media
This work involved a series of musical boxes wired to make a cacophony of noise, which was actually one Western tune, "Home on the Range". Percussion was being adapted to a very new form and as such it spoke to the modern world.

F. X. Harsano:
· Power and Oppression, 1992, ARX, mixed media
In 1992 Harsano was not keen to specify the exact meaning of the work for it was open to savage interpretations not familiar in Australia.

Dadang Christanto:
· Golf ball, 1991, oil, plywood, canvas (Now in the Fukuoka Museum collection)
The work referred to the resumption of land from the peasants by the wealthy, the land then being turned into golf courses. Now, since Reformasi, the Asian "meltdown", and the riots, the golf courses are probably going to seed.

Albertina Viegas and Dona Veronica Periera Meia: · Tuba Rai Metin, (Gripping the Earth Firmly), 1996, wood textiles, lead, rice, straw, mixed media
This was part of a Timorese memorial piece, an East Timorese spirit house erected outside the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney. Dona Veronica is a highly respected senior member of her society. Even though illiterate in her own language, she wove the names of those who had been killed in the Santa Cruz cemetery in a long ikat-style scarf as their memorial. Rarely are the social and political powers directly challenged but the anger is worked through the art.

Heri Dono: · Wild Horse Ritual, 1992
Heri Dono performed this work in the markets with the help of becak drivers as well as other artists. He used a hobbyhorse which referred both to very ancient shamanistic traditions as well as to pollution in the streets.

Dadang Christanto performed a hybrid ritual in Brisbane that referred to the dictatorship of Suharto but attempted to resolve secular modernity with traditional ritual sources. When asked the meaning of the work by the Indonesian ambassador, he said he performed for all who suffered, and as it was at the time of the collapse of Yugoslavia, people left notes beside the work in response.

Moleyono attempted to hold an exhibition in Surabaya commemorating a defining scandal of the Suharto years where the local female union leader, Marsina, was raped and murdered. The exhibition was banned and has not subsequently been shown. He used concrete tiles with the word, iye, or "yes" in Javanese written on them as a criticism of subservience to authority. He is part of a distinctive group of young men called Klompok Moleyono.

In conclusion:
There are challenges to modern culture from these installations. The pre modern and the modern exist together with local artists working to revive traditions so that there are an exchange of ideas at all sorts of borders in the past, present and future.

Sue Ingham
November 9 2000

30 Mary St
Longueville NSW 2066
Ph: (02) 9427 5115
Fax: (02) 9418 8919
e-mail: ingham@rivernet.com.au