Margaret Agusta, Contributor/bungabahasa@plasa.com
Doves fly off the walls like bombers, nightmarish technology float over sinister figures and eviscerated cardboard boxes brim with subversive implications in activist Semsar Siahaan's first solo art exhibition since his return from exile in Canada.
Thrown out of the country in the midst of a sociopolitical conflagration he played a part in sparking, Semsar found uneasy refuge in a cold and distant land. He also found an opportunity to continue his exploration of art as a medium to express the humanitarian issues he was coming to appreciate more deeply as not unique to Indonesia, but rather inherent to human existence.
""It is a human problem,"" Semsar told The Jakarta Post one afternoon at his exhibition ""The Shade of Northern Lights"", which ran until Aug. 30 at the National Gallery on Jl. Merdeka Timor No. 14.
""In Canada, I learned of a case in which a member of the First Nation (indigenous Canadian) was stripped and forced outside by the police into the cold, where he died. Instead of setting up an independent investigative body, the police were allowed to probe the case themselves, just like the Marsinah case here,"" he said, referring to the slain East Javanese worker who became synonymous with the Indonesian labor movement for her active involvement in prolonged protests against injustice.
During the five years and three months Semsar resided in Victoria, Canada, he held four solo exhibitions of work that continued his exploration of human rights themes -- issues he had embraced in his crusade for sociopolitical reform since the beginning of his career as an artist and human rights activist in the late 1970s.
He also expanded his network of rights activists and artists, while further developing his talent for conveying complex ideas and issues through visual, rather than verbal, means.
Semsar believes the problem of mankind's inhumane treatment of other human beings can be resolved through raising greater awareness among individuals of the stances and choices they take in relation to ongoing human rights abuses in the world.
""Let's fight this together ... injustice, discrimination,"" Semsar said. ""At the core of the matter is a conflict of interests -- this is a human problem.""
This premise is reflected strongly and effectively in Semsar's exhibition.
Blinded by UN, a confrontational front-and-center composition of conventional images in juxtaposition, decries the assumption of many that the existence of a peacekeeping forum automatically means a resolution of conflict.
The G-8 Pizza, a huge, highly detailed installation piece in charcoal on cardboard and muted hues, the Genoa Tragedy series in oil on canvas, and the Third Millennium Totem series, Power of Faith and Its Victims, The Poet Who Disappeared and The Eco Defender -- all in ink on paper -- speak of individuals victimized by the injustice and structural violence spawned by flawed systems.
Ice Man, an installation created from cardboard and burlap, is a study of a world so emotionally cold and sterile that all tangible warmth is displaced by the harsh reality, such as a pet dog by frozen excrement. Another work, Untitled (2001), a 56 cm by 76 cm ink drawing on paper, speaks of loneliness and alienation in a crowded world.
According to Semsar, ""Art can't change people"", but it can help raise awareness of the need to ""build global solidarity"" and create an impetus toward fundamental change in societal systems, as well as toward the development and advancement of world rights forums, which form a ""circle of hope"" for all mankind.
Semsar's conviction that visual arts can be a vehicle of social reform has driven his continuous application of the basic tools of esthetics -- line, shape, color and composition -- to develop an increasingly extensive vocabulary of artistic techniques, which he deftly employs as a human rights activist to heighten individual awareness and to elicit informed concern for global humanitarian issues.
In his earlier work dating back to the mid-1980s, Semsar, who has consistently worked against the notion of ""art for art's sake"", dealt primarily with black-and-white images, spewing out simple, straightforward visual messages as readily understood and as inflammatory as the slogans shouted during a protest: They hit out hard and powerfully as cathartic expressions of outrage. Some visitors to ""Northern Lights"" have said they preferred this ""more angry"" approach.
Yet, Semsar's more recent works are no less angry. It is simply that they are more complex: a layering of issues, emotions and ideas through the artist's astute utilization of the tools of esthetics. Thus he lures the eyes and minds of viewers to an intense encounter with the human condition, raising questions that beg urgent answers only individual conscience can provide.
The artist is no longer making merely angry statements, but is forcing us to think about the reasons behind that rage more fully and to feel it, own up and take more responsibility -- at least in attempting to initiate change.
It is within this context of activism that it may be useful to note that creating art is subversive in nature. This is true not insomuch as in relation to usurping or removing something, but rather in terms of visual questioning or physical manipulation of an object that shifts its meaning, purpose or understanding in the mind of the viewer.
Semsar's achievements through his activist esthetics is perhaps best defined in the words of Ian Gibson, a doctor who visited one of the artist's Canadian exhibitions: ""Mr. Siahaan paints no illusions. His art will please the eye but it will not let the spirit rest easy. He draws from injustice or oppression, from illness or poverty. The images are stark or shadowy, and impress themselves on the consciousness with force.
