Para Sekutu yang Tidak Bisa Berkata Tidak: An Exhibition Review
- Shu Khurniawan
- Feb 26, 2022
- 9 min read
After years of (regrettably) skipping many compelling exhibitions due to pandemic, yesterday I finally managed to squeeze my schedule to visit a temporary exhibition at Galeri Nasional Indonesia, Jakarta (insert dance here) entitled "Para Sekutu yang Tidak Bisa Berkata Tidak" (The Acquiescent Allies).
To prepare for your visit...
Some regulations are adjusted to accomodate safety measures during the pandemic. First, registration is mandatory (you can find the link here), with maximum capacity of 50 participants per session (55 minutes). However, considering relatively tight space, the full capacity would be pretty crowded. Then, we will receive an email with QR-code upon the registration. Unfortunately I didn't receive any, but they could still accomodate by listing our name down manually in the guest book. You will be given colored stickers with the session number to put on your right sleeve. Should you haven't finished in a session, you can still request for the next one simply by queueing in the registration desk, with note that the quota has not met.
Para Sekutu
The exhibition itself departs from previous exhibitions "Paris-Jakarta 1950-1960" (1992) and "Contemporary Art of the Non-Aligned Countries" (1995). Under the tagline (main project) of Collecting Entanglements and Embodied Histories, it revisits arts in the early postmodern time and political turmoil in the Cold War. The non-aligned movement is a collective of developing countries who are not willing to align themselves into the communist Russia, nor capitalist USA; most of them are ex-colonized nations who are still building self-identity after the long-term conflicts, repressions, and aggressions. And the theme resonates this voices throughout the flow. The show not only features Indonesian artists, but also ASEAN, European, and South American counterparts. It is always good to see diverse voices presented side-by-side, as to dig out any analogous and contrasting view towards power and politics that emerged in each continent.
Curators: Grace Samboh, Anna-Catharina Gebbers, Gridthiya Gaweewong, and June Yap.
The first space welcomes us with a living room setting, with TV, chairs, and painting on the wall. You can opt to carry a guidebook provided at the front (unfortunately in Indonesian only). In a corner is a showcase of artistic publications, critics, manifesto document, and newspaper cuts from various countries, serving as the image of the exhibition. I am particularly interested in a book called "Surrealim Against the Current: Tracts and Declarations" (2001) that highlights the discussions/debates on positioning Surrealism in a political and ethical contexts contemporaneously.
The focal point is the video installation by Wong Hoy Cheong entitled "RE: looking" (2002-03), containing a (fictional) documentary highlighting the influence of Malaysian royalty in the postcolonial Austria. The video started with a serious manner, as such to convince the audiences of the true nature of it, but later develops into something contradicting, parodical, and awkward. It is intended as a warning to acting more cautiously towards any kind of information in this post-truth era, particularly those presented under authoritative manners.
Two paintings by Indonesian artists Emiria Sunassa's "Pengantin Dayak" (1941-46) and Rustamadji's "Pohon Nangka" (1985) accompany on the left wall. The first one presents a colourful painting of Dayak women in a marriage setting, as a reproduction of black-and-white photographs normally taken during the colonial period. The second one features jackfruit trees with mouth-watering ripe fruits that looks realistic.
What is for me, more attention-catching in the first room are the paintings by Käthe Kollwitz accompanied with the framed photos of a new year party in Jalan Cendana, Menteng (taken in 1946-47) next to the other one picturing the meeting of Indonesian founding fathers (1946): Soekarno, Hatta, Soedirman. These photos were taken during a tense period in the so-called Indonesia Independence War, while the paintings of adjoined hands by Kollwitz is an embodiement of hope for a reconciliation and peace-making.
The paintings, installation, and photos all accentuate the domesticity in the first room, highlighting that the familiar, homy feelings might as well contain things that are critical, painful, and full of resisting ideas. We are then welcomed with another interesting installation, "Unsubtitled" (2010-13) by Nguyễn Trinh Thi, who made cutout boards with videos projections of people eating, and facing backward afterwards. This is a brilliant critics towards the government who always kept people under surveillance, as if eating, a very mundane and harmless activity, need to be controlled. By making us moving around the artwork, the artist turns the table, positioning us as the controllers instead of mere viewers. This work resembles a resistance towards the government who forcefully shut down Nha Sha studio in Hanoi after a photo of an artistic nude performance circulated in the public. The people featured in this work are associated with Nha Sha.
The next room features art from more diverse countries. Among them is arguably the most iconic piece by S. Teddy D. "Paduan Suara yang Tidak Bisa Berkata Tidak" (1997) from which the exhibition title was inspired. Rows of floating logs, on top are resin casts of chicken head with open mouth, collectively crowing as a choir. This is a mocking piece towards the dictatorial leadership of President Soeharto (reign 1968-1998), who controlled the whole nation though his influential party Golkar; note the yellow heads resemble the members of them, who blindfully 'amen' the dictator's words.
What caught my attention is collograph by Belkis Ayón Manso entitled "La Cena" (1991) put side-by-side with Tisna Sanjaya's "Teater 5 Agustus" (1994) who both borrowed da Vinci's Last Supper as a composition of their own. In La Cena, the main figure depicts Sikán, a woman central to the religio-tradition Abakuá in Cuba, surrounded by ambiguos figures in intimidating/oppressing gestures. Contrastly, Sanjaya replaced Christ with a central figure surrounded by chaotic panorama, while enjoying the meal happily. This is a critic towards the omission coming from the powerful ones after the 5 August incident, when ITB Bandung students were captured in protest towards a high-rank general who came to establish a brain-washing and government-oriented curriculum during the New Order era.
Ho Tzu Nyen in "The Critical Dictionary of Southeast Asia: F for Fold" (2021) also received a lot of admiration. He created long, continuous pages of alphabetic items, each describing a selected object, concept, or subject, deeming of importance in uniting the highly diverse SEA countries from the colonial times to the present day. For example, G for Ghost, a widely believed entity from arrays of histories and legend across the region. U for Utama, taking the legendary figure of Singapore's founder, Sang Nila Utama. The gold, streamy illustrations on the back side enrich the golden histories of the discussed areas.
The famous Dolorosa Sinaga's "Solidaritas" (2000) is also very much favored, representing the unity power of women who keep standing still and strong during the oppressive times. Note the far left with clenching hand and the third from left with pregnant belly. A more subtle but not less powerful is "The Revolution Must Be a School of Unfettered Thoughts" (2014) by Maria Berrios & Jakob Jakobsen. Through photos taken from films, comic books, neon lights, protests diorama, and exhibitions, they contemplate on the Havana Cultural Congress (1968) as departing point, in fighting the imperialism and accelerating decolonization, which deeply impacted the South Americans. The booklet provided nearby may be taken home by the audiences, as to mimic the revolution participation in picking up propaganda leaflets. Unfortunately, the instruction is not clear, as they are left untouched by most of the audiences (Indonesians, sadly, have always been doctrined to leave anything in the gallery/museum untouched).
In the next section, we are welcomed by Ary 'Jimged' Sendy's "Traces of Home" (2010) who printed photos on lightbox, depicting traces of evicted houses to accomodate the anti-flood project in Jakarta. With these installations, we are invited to ponder the relationship between human-nature and imposing coercing methods in the name sake of solving problems.
A corner is dedicated to the development of arts, especially paintings of/in Bali. It compares, for example, I Gusti Nyoman Lempad with those by Walter Spies. They are accompanied by some treatises, books, catalogues of Bali arts, with concern on the pre-war transition period (pre-1940s) in Indonesia.
The mood in the adjoining division is more somber, as it introduces us to the theme of family and self-discovery in the society. For me, the most outstanding piece is "The Relevancy of Restricted Things" by Nge Lay (1979). The artist embodies her yearning for her father who was long dead. In a series of photographs, she presented herself with her father's clothes, as a masked figure, among the family members. This gives impression of ghostly figure; even as a ghost, he is present in the family. This one is indeed an extremely powerful work!
With similar departing point, Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook "The Parting Untitled" and "The Parting II" (1990-91) also reflected on her relationship with her family, which seem so distant, cold, and unresponsive. They are presented in blurry, imagined figures.
Another ghostly figures also becomes the characters in Nuriya Waji's "Fade Away" (2016). She displays a fading woman/women floating in contrast with the background. With the calming yet bitter atmosphere, we are invited to feel her pain in finding her identity, as a Muslim, in a majority Buddhist Thailand. Who am I? What is belonging? How a minority find their place in the dominating culture?
The neighboring section presents paintings of Bui Suoi Hoa, Basoeki Abdullah, Fajar Sidik, G. Sidharta dan Damas Mangku. The connections between them are mostly the depiction of mundane reality in focus of kinship, and the exploration of color use.
In the connecting room is installations (part of a performance art) by Marintan Sirait "Membangun Rumah" (2022), collaborations with Bintang Manira Manik (sound) and Gilang Anom M. Manik (video projection). It takes the audience into remembering out past, reconnecting our true 'selves' with the nature, away from the hustle of metropolitan, like Jakarta. The nature is depicted as mounds of sands forming a shape of volcano, where Indonesian indigenous life mostly begins. Onto the mounds, a video is projected with repeating clauses like a mantra that carry us into another level of reconnection, "wide open the window", "the land is round", "the land is invisible".
When you enter the next room, your eyes are instantly bedazzled by the beautiful installation by Agus Suwage "Ode to the Unknown Painter" (1995). A human figure made of wire is hung above a basin, with flowers as if growing from the inside, and across it are a collective of masks with KTP-number and occupations. It looks pretty much like a requiem for everyone who has been detached from their inner artists.
On the sides are installations "The Expandables: Jejak" (2021) by Cinanti Astria Johansjah. Two pairs of legs, one belongs to chicken and the other to cow, painted purple and hung with "blood" dripping to the ground. From there, emerge footprints with random numbers on their side, that lead to the exit door. It again accentuates the domesticity, as both animals are domesticated by human not only as companion, but also food and sacrifice. The numbers can mean anything, or nothing at all. The artist pays homage to the people who are merely remembered as numbers, and traces. The recurring theme of livestock also appears in "Si Hitam dan Putih" (1963) by Danarto. Goats are commonly seen in the rural setting, a typical forgotten part of a country. Danarto's goats represent the little people trying to feed themselves on a daily basis, forgotten by the rich, glutted central power deep inside the city.
The artworks in the last room are particularly eye-catching. In the center is a life-size sculpture made by G. Ravinder Reddy "Couple" (1998). As we encounter the sleeping naked couple, it is as if we are intruding their private space. While their poses looks cute, it also creates an awkward, uncomfortable feeling for the viewer.
Last but not least, one of the most intriguing is an installation by Siti Adiyati Subangun "Bermain Dakon" (1977). Dakon is a traditional game not only in Indonesia, but also widespread in Southeast Asia. However, Subangun's Dakon is awkwardly long compared to the traditional one. We can feel the intensity and growing impatience while playing it directly. It feels like us, the viewer (or player) is procrastinating, or moving slowly without avail, towards obvious destination. The other side of the dakon is pushed onto the wall, as if we're playing against an unliving, a system, or ignorant person. Again, even though this is a participative artwork, I find that the shells were untouched; it's a shame that the message of the piece remained unexplored.
Remarks
Throughout the flow, it is visually implied that the artworks screams about pain, discomfort, resistance, alliance, relationship, and the making of identity. Thematically, they are divided into five categories: Guyub (friendliness), Keberpihakan (taking sides), Kenduri (feast), Kekerabatan (kinship), and Daya (power). Especially on those taking the conflict as the jumping-off point, the resistence towards power and principality are very prominent. The emotions are similar across the globe, the pain are felt the same, the hope intertwined with actions. The resistence is in the past, yet still lives today. Entanglements are collected and histories are embodied. Through these works, we feel how the other side of the world acted to release themselves from gripping powers, how our society perceived our own problems in the past, what is seen and unseen, what are the outcomes of the conflict; is it internal or external, how everyday life gave meaning, how we find comfort in discomfort. By putting artworks from a country alongside the others, we could learn on how to solve problems, achieving communal goals, and dream for a peaceful, conflictless world. And now, they are still (and more) relevant as three-quarters century ago.
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