Even the most superficial survey of contemporary Indonesian art will reveal a schism between artists who produce beautiful images that can vary from the trite to the sublime, and those who dwell in the darker regions of human nature and sexuality. Visitors to the current solo exhibition of the Sundanese artist, Tisna Sanjaya, at Kendra Gallery will have no trouble identifying the artist’s allegiance. These paintings and mixed media works are not for the faint of heart. It is also unlikely that you will see many of them hanging on the walls of Bali’s ‘happy’ villas any time soon.
“When I was a boy, Cengondewah was an idyllic country paradise where I played barefoot in the rice paddies”, the artist laments. Today the area is a bitter example of the fruits of progress – in this case the growth of Bandung’s textile industry. Chaotic, dirty and polluted, in Sanjaya’s eyes, its once happy villagers have been reduced to victims eking out subsistence living in a cultureless wasteland. For those who have visited the ramshackle backstreets of Denpasar, the lesson in hopelessness is not lost.
Sanjaya’s lost world of innocence and youth is symbolized in the only idyllic painting in the show, that of the artist riding upon the back of a water buffalo playing a flute like a latter day Pied Piper of Hamlin. The image is also a tongue in cheek reference to colonial nostalgia - photos and paintings of buffalo riders were very popular among the colonial elite and epitomized their stereotypes of happy natives. The rebellion of Indonesian artists against pretty pictures can be traced to the struggle for Indonesian independence and the founding of the island nation’s first modern art school, Persagi, in 1938. Later egalitarian principles and revolutionary ideals would also lead to the rise of a school that believed that a fundamental purpose of art was to denounce injustice. This would all end after the alleged Communist coup attempt in 1965 when Suharto’s New Order government ushered in a return to saccharin and vacuity.
The private war of Tisna Sanjaya and his minion was only made possible by the fall of Suharto. In its aftermath 30 years of pent up frustrations, political and private, exploded once again on the art scene. As one of Indonesia’s most talented graphic artists, Sanjaya understood well the ancient connection between this medium and mass communication. The new freedom gave him the chance to produce a series of compelling but challenging images such as “Nie Wiederkrieg” (Never Again War) painted with asphalt. Unlike those who prefer only to blame others, Sanjaya sought to better the lives of the people of Cengondewah by buying a small plot and building a small cultural centre to enrich their lives.
While angry at the failures of capitalism, Sanjaya can also display a self-effacing humour, seen in the image of him buried beneath a pile of canvasses with his head resting on a soccer ball with a man hiking into the distance. The exhibition also includes what appears to be a series of contorted self-portraits and body prints from his Amnesia Cultura series. In “Pulang Kandung” (return to the stable) we see a tree inside a balloon shaped head with a large black bird on top surrounded by the iron bars of a cage. Surrealistic, the asymmetric imagery is reminiscent of the best of Marc Chagall.
“Perhaps I can effect change, and perhaps I cannot”, he murmurs, “but it is better to try than surrender to what is wrong, especially when those behind it tell you you should be happy with progress.” Ironically those who buy the most vapid pretty pictures often vilify such artistic idealism. It remains to be seen if their makers are cynics or not. As for Sanjaya, although some might feel his pictures remind them of Hell, his soul is that of a saint. Coincidentally his Sanskrit based name, Sanjaya, translates to ‘Ever Victorious’. Asmudjo J. Irianto, the talented curator of the show deserves special mention for his hard work.
Kendra Gallery, Uma Sapna Villa Seminyak
T: 0361 736 628
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