Untitled (2009) by Agus Suwage: Courtesy of the artist

The question of self and identity has turned into one of the biggest discourses among social and cultural thinkers in the past 20 years.

It is now accepted that identity is unfixed, always changing, and needs to be re-contextualized. Thus the concept of self now refers not only to the “I” (ego); it also represents how the “I” connects with the “other”.

A major solo retrospective of the works of Agus Suwage currently in Yogyakarta gives an interesting perspective on the “self” by tracing the history of self-creation in the context of other social and cultural moments in the artist’s life. This almost complete collection of the artist’s works from 1985 to 2009 offers self-reflection along with a playful visualization of our existence as human beings.

Agus Suwage, one of the most established artists in the Indonesian contemporary art scene, turns 50 this year. As he enters the so-called “golden years”, he chooses to reflect on his artistic journey. As is evident from the title of the exhibition, taken from the Paul Simon song, he is “still crazy after all these years”.

The exhibition at the Jogja National Museum, Yogyakarta, opened on July 4, with what Suwage’s fellow artists and admirers described as a “real party”. That the crowd grew to nearly 1,000 people from all over the place – an uncommon occurrence for Yogyakarta – shows the strength this artist’s magnetic pull has on art lovers. This is just the beginning: The exhibition rooms are full of the interesting pieces that explain the reason behind his popularity.

Suwage’s aesthetic vision is not only based on the strong distinctive characteristics of the many mediums he has explored — painting, three-dimensional objects, graphics, installation — that are signified by the light brushstrokes or the use of interactive and mechanical objects. It is also the way he delivers his message that is striking, as he tends to use humor and parody as the style of his metaphors. In retracing his journey, we can see how his humor turns into a very dark and critical commentary on modern society.

Enin Supriyanto, curator of the exhibition, divides almost 300 works into five rooms throughout the three levels of what used to be the Indonesian Institute of the Arts building. Room #1 is “Genesis”, which displays the works from the early 1980s. At a glance, the tendency here is to question the essence of the human body by presenting figurative drawings. The human body was Suwage’s main subject during the early period of his career as an artist.

The next room, “Room is mine”, consists of works in the form of drawing books. What impresses here is evidence of Suwage’s ability to express a wide range of topics by putting them into very interesting abstract narrative forms, most of which reflect on fundamental human existence. It seems that during this period Suwage was curious about the history of the universe and human civilization.

With the works in the third room, the fundamental question begins to shift to an exploration of the concept of “I”. In this period, Suwage started to explore himself (which later became his identity) in many possibilities, whether in painting, sculpture or installation.

It should be noted that in this section, “The Years of Living Dangerously”, the self is shown as part of collective society. In other words, “I” becomes an outsider, a witness of the social political movement. With their period being the 1990s, the topics explored in these works reveal a criticism of the status quo and of the violence during the “New Order” regime.

One of the most interesting is Iconofasisme (1999), an installation of nine torso frames, each with Suwage’s self-portrait on the face. Inside each torso is an item that represents a human passion and possession: a book, a gun, male genitals. For the 1990s, this work appears a very strong representation of self-criticism directed toward the order of our new society. Not very far from that piece is another intriguing example from this period: The Departure is a wooden box made out to be a ship, containing broken human heads made of leather, as if they were people ready to depart.

On the second floor, entering the fourth section of the exhibition, the subject “I” becomes very dominant. In this section, “I See, I Feel, I Hear”, Suwage goes deeper, shifting the self from outsider to main focus: man as a free individual. His face becomes something very familiar in most of these contemporary art exhibits, with very distant expressions and gestures, combined with strong symbolism.

Thus, in a way, these symbols give us tools to understand the context and content of his paintings. Most of Agus Suwage’s masterpieces were created during this period and established him as a contemporary artist with success in the commercial art market.

That the individual is free does not always mean alienation from others. Thus, the “I” and “others” are always complementary in search of the essence of human life. In room #5, “Autoscopy”, the self meets others, building the bridge, harmonizing the differences.

Suwage is interested in investigating the lives of influential people, mostly public figures from Gandhi to RA Kartini, from Indonesian comedian, singer and movie star Benyamin to Thom Yorke. One of the highlights here is Pause/Re-play, a display of 50 watercolors depicting performance art.

In the last part of his earlier works, he comes to explore death, the reminder that the human body will return to nothing but bones and dust, forgotten. Some of the skeletons are painted black, others celebrated with gold paint to show a different meaning of death. Suwage perceived death as a natural part of human life, a final stage, not the opposite of life.

The last room in the exhibition, “Still Crazy”, holds his newest works, created this year.

As a retrospective exhibition, “Still Crazy after All These Years” attempts to underline and draw out the conceptual meaning behind Suwage’s work.

For this purpose, Enin Supriyanto’s topical arrangement helps viewers find the essence of the questions that are fundamental to this artist’s work.

With the serious display and the strong concepts, it can easily be said that this exhibition is one of the best solo exhibitions held in Indonesia during the past 10 years. The next question is: How much crazier can he get?

— Photos courtesy of the artist

Still Crazy After All

These Years

Until July 31

Jogja National Museum

Jl. Amri Yahya (Gampingan) No. 1

Open daily 10 a.m. – 8 p.m.

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