Postcolonial Disorders

2. Indonesia Sakit: Indonesian Disorders and the Subjective Experience and Interpretive Politics of Contemporary Indonesian Artists

INDONESIA SAKIT Indonesian Disorders and the Subjective Experience and Interpretive Politics of Contemporary Indonesian Artists Mary-Jo DelVecchio Good and Byron J. Good I painted Indonesia Sakit [Indonesian Disorders] in early June []. I finished it in a week. I expressed all the ideas I had, they were immediately there. I had this vision about what would happen in the future. I meditated, reflected, to get buried ideas out.At that time, Indonesia was in transition.The New Order entered the reform era [masuk reformasi].There were many problems.As soon as Suharto resigned, there were people who wanted to take over the presidential post, they wanted to be the national leader.Well, that is why I painted the tiger, then the map of Indonesia, and the symbol of a woman, although it is only an image.At that time, the strongest party rising up was the PDI-P, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, with Bu Mega as the leader.1 When I painted it, she was not yet in power. The presidential chair seemed very promising for those who were trying to grab it. Someone could be president because the people elected him or her. So I represented in these little supports , the unity of people required to get the presidential chair. Actually, the chair is very shaky. The danger at that time was the rebellion in Aceh—it had begun but not exploded.2 Therefore I put the tiger in this corner—it meant “gobble up”Aceh, to show the danger in Aceh.The separatists appeared there; this movement endangers the unity of Indonesia.The tiger symbolizes anger, dissatisfaction, the people who are disappointed.The white pigeon symbolizes love and compassion; [the umbrella is a symbol of protection, the naked running man is people’s desire for freedom].The naked people are the people’s simplicity and honesty—we have many people in Indonesia who are like that. Hypocrisy and greed—these are symbolized in the spots. Here are the diseases, disorders and pain of Indonesia—in the many spots. Yulikodo,Yogyakarta artist, January  2 62 Artists—painters, playwrights, musicians—imagined and re-imaged the state and Indonesian society as Suharto’s New Order regime unraveled after thirtythree years of autocratic rule. At the heart of this chapter are the work and reflections of three contemporary Indonesian painters and their efforts to constitute a space and visual language for critical engagement with their society. The chapter draws on our conversations about their subjective experiences of producing art and describes their ongoing efforts to carve out distinctive modes of subjectivity as artists and intellectuals during the period of reformasi, or reform, that followed the fall of Suharto. The chapter’s title, “Indonesian Sakit,” is from an evocative painting by Agus Yuliantara “Yulikodo,” one of Yogyakarta’s young generation of artists. The image of Indonesia as sakit—as “sick” or “disordered” or “in pain”—resonates with the experience of many of Indonesia’s leading contemporary artists that resulted in an outpouring of vivid political paintings during the immediate post-Suharto era. In this chapter, we explore creative responses to the world of reformasi Indonesia by three artists, all based inYogyakarta:Yulikodo, a graduate of the Art Institute of Indonesia in Yogyakarta (ISI—Institut Seni Indonesia), who specializes in super-realist and surrealist paintings; Alex Luthfi R., a nationally known painter and senior member of the faculty at ISI; and Entang Wiharso, an innovative leader of contemporary Indonesian artists who has exhibited his work in Indonesia and around Asia, Europe, and the United States.Their critical portrayals of Indonesia and its place in the global order at the end of the Suharto era are conveyed through paintings and commentaries Indonesia Sakit: Indonesian Disorders 63  . Indonesia Sakit (Indonesian Disorders). .Artist: AgusYuliantara “Yulikodo.” Photo: Karen Philippi. upon making art.3 We examine in particular the role these artists and their contemporaries played in “subjectifying” the state, exploring how they imagined and positioned themselves as critical citizens, fearful yet risk taking, by making political art and placing it on public exhibition.4 Begoña Aretxaga suggests the importance of the “subjective dynamics that link people to states” (: ). “The question of desire as well as fear becomes most crucial in rethinking the kind of reality the state might be acquiring at this moment of globalization,” she argues, asking “how does it [the state] become a social subject in everyday life? This...