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Fearing the images: Street artists fight graffiti censorship
It’s a worrying trend. For the past month, scores of graffiti expressing discontent over the government’s handling of the pandemic have been censored by authorities and their artists hunted down. But for the country’s artists, this is simply a call to speak up louder and move smarter.
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A mural depicts President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo with a network error message covering his eyes. (AFP/ Fajrin Raharjo)
“Bandits have taken over the public space,” said members of Aliansi Rakyat Bergerak (People's Action Alliance), speaking anonymously. “This competition is another way of reclaiming it.”
Taken out of context, their call to action is a peculiar one. Send them a picture of the best graffiti you’ve made by the end of August, but take care to conceal your identity and your work’s location. Technical proficiency and witty, cutting jabs at the government’s performance earns you points. But to win, your work must fulfill a set of jarring criteria: It must be censored and erased by the authorities.
Since the “contest” was announced on Aug 25, artists throughout the archipelago have taken to the streets in response.
“We’ve been getting support from established artists offering their services as judges for the competition,” the alliance members said, wryly adding: “There’s been plenty of censorship, too. Good for them.”
They are only the crest of a much bigger wave. Earlier this month, graffiti depicting President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo with his eyes covered by the words “404: Not Found” in Batuceper, Tangerang, Banten, sparked a heated debate on political freedom in Indonesia.
Authorities quickly covered up the graffiti and announced a manhunt for the artist. A man in Tuban, East Java, was later brought in for questioning by the police for peddling T-shirts bearing the now-famous mural on Twitter. But the furor didn’t end there.
Graffiti with the words “Tuhan, aku lapar” (God, I’m hungry) and “Wabah sesungguhnya adalah kelaparan” (The real plague is hunger) popped up in Tangerang and were also painted over by local Public Order Agency (Satpol PP) personnel. In Pasuruan, East Java, graffiti bearing the sardonic slogan “Dipaksa sehat di negara sakit” (Forced to be healthy in a sick country) was also censored.
