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Andreas Iswinarto: Master of a Dark Art
Never forget: Like a police line that protects the scene of a crime, Andreas painted Memory Line to protect the memories of victims of human rights abuses
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span class="inline inline-center">Never forget: Like a police line that protects the scene of a crime, Andreas painted Memory Line to protect the memories of victims of human rights abuses.
The sky is pregnant with rain as a group of people clad in black stand together outside the Presidential Palace. They are part of Kamisan, a silent weekly protest calling for investigations into a range of alleged human rights abuses.
One of their number steps back. He listens to the protestors' silence and looks at the black umbrellas they carry. Then his eyes wander across the road, where the presidential guards march. He sees the presidential gates. The road that leads past the fountain. The white palace. And a picture starts to form in his mind.
'For six years they've stood here, in this spot, every week,' says artist Andreas Iswinarto. 'I came here because I wanted to show solidarity with them. I look at their strength and their spirit to keep on fighting for the truth. It's a great inspiration for me.'
So inspired, in fact, that he created a series of 200 paintings entitled Kamisan, to honor the protestors' resolve.
The series forms a body of work that numbers over 800 paintings created by Andreas over the last four years.
Together, they form Galleri Lentera Pembebasan (the Lantern in the Hills Gallery), a combination of art and activism that shines a light on the darker corners of Indonesia's past and present that some quarters would rather ignore.
A graduate of the University of Indonesia's School of Economics, in 1997 Andreas entered the NGO world, with stints at the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) and the Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Studies (Demos).
He worked for 15 years as an activist, grappling with a myriad of problems that plagued the country during its democratic transition and beyond.
'I wanted to work on behalf of the marginalized,' he says. 'Walhi focused on environmental problems. With Demos, it was about democracy and human rights.'
A look at Andreas' work and the activist connection is clear. He uses ink, chalk, charcoal, acrylic and oil to paint pictures of environmental decay, human rights violations, corruption, labor exploitation and the like. His isn't exactly heart-warming work, but as Andreas explains, it is an attempt to show what is.
'I respond to real life events,' he says. 'The reality of life. The defects, the problems. Sometimes I know I want to paint, but I have no idea. So I start anyway and then the idea emerges later on.'
The 49-year-old says his work leans toward an abstract, expressionist style, but as with most artists he's wary of being pigeonholed.
'I lean toward the abstract, but not completely. Of course, in my work there are things that are not immediately clear, but there are some things you can know, like people or structures, so I think also use a realist style so that more people can understand my message.'
Andreas, who is self taught, was encouraged to produce more work by Sanggar Bumi Tarug, an art community based in Yogyakarta, the members of which are survivors of the violence that swept the country in 1965-66, targeting alleged members of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).
Poet Widji Thukul also looms large in Andreas' work. Well-known for being critical of the Indonesian government during the Soeharto years, Widji disappeared, along with a number of other pro-democracy activists, in the months before Soeharto's fall.
Andreas has visualized many of Widji's poems in his paintings.
'I never met Widji, but somehow he's still had a big impact on me. He came from a poor background, he was part of the marginalized, but yet through his poems he could voice the plight of the marginalized. If we talk about Indonesian democracy today, his words are still relevant,' he says.
Andreas promotes his work via his online portfolio, his Facebook page (which has over 16,000 likes), Twitter and in alternative galleries across Java.
His next exhibition, Kotak Hitam (Black Box), will be held at the Jaya Preanger Coffe House on Jl. Cisankuy No.68 in Bandung, West Java, beginning on Dec. 10 (International Human Rights Day) until Dec. 14.
As for human rights in Indonesia, Andreas is less than confident that President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo can make any headway on resolving cases of past violations given the composition of his Cabinet and advisors.
All the more reason then, for Andreas to keep on painting. He says artists can make a difference by using their work to support campaigns on these issues.
'At the very least, I want my work to get people thinking, talking and engaging on these issues,' he says. 'Silence is our biggest enemy.'
' Photos by Mark Wilson
