TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Kartika: The non-Kartini 'Kartini'
Born on Nov. 27, 1934, she is the daughter and only child of the late Affandi (1907-1990), an expressionist painter and one of Indonesia’s most celebrated artists.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
A 62-minute documentary had been made of Kartika by Christopher Basile, an American filmmaker based in Australia. (Christopher Basile/File)
L
ong before he turned five, my son Aditya’s creative and artistic talents were already apparent. He loved drawing, painting and making imaginative figurines from plasticine. The only thing I could do with the modeling clay was to make simple round and long shapes, which I fashioned into a penis and balls.
At that age, he thought it was pretty hilarious, but when he got bigger, he would get pretty embarrassed when I did these kinds of things — typical teenage reaction, I guess.
So imagine having a mother who makes several giant-sized penises from clay, in different shapes and colors, erect as well as flaccid, the glans stylized in different ways — as a clenched fist, a dog, a fish and a cock’s head (no pun intended!), as well as droopy men’s faces — and exhibits them publicly.
Well, if your mother is Kartika, a painter and sculptor, and you were brought up surrounded by artistic family members who consider any kind of nudity beautiful, it’s all a normal part of life!
