Don’t you get tired of the political chaos around the world and in Indonesia, now with the never-ending election cacophony? Ugh!

So when I got an email reminder from Museum Macan that it was the last weekend for its contemporary art exhibition on March 9 and 10, I jumped at the chance. There’s nothing like art to reduce stress, stimulate one’s brain and revive flagging spirits!

There were exhibitions by Arahmaiani, one of Indonesia’s most respected, multitalented artists; Lee Mingwei, a renowned Taiwanese artist living in Paris and the United States, and On Kamara a Japanese conceptual artist whose “One Million Years” is about the passage of time, on “society’s use of dates to give materiality to the elusiveness of time”. “To give materiality to the elusiveness of time”? Wow! Don’t you just love that?

“The past is not past” was the title of Arahmaiani’s exhibition, which featured 70 of her works from the past 30 years (see ‘Getting to know Arahmaiani through her ‘wrath’ at Museum Macan’, The Jakarta Post, Feb. 4). The title stems from the fact that the works — on the environment, commodification of land, identity politics, feminism, etc. — that she did so many years ago are still so relevant to today’s world. Does that mean we’re stuck? Judging by the reactionary trends, events and leaders worldwide, the answer is a resounding yes!

Arahmaiani’s work is provocative. Take “Lingga-Yoni”, a painting that depicts stylized male and female genitalia, symbols of virility often found in Hindu and Buddhist temples, with Jawi (ancient Javanese script) in the background.

Islamic hard-liners read it as Arabic script and immediately screamed blasphemy! To escape being persecuted, Arahmaiani decided to leave Indonesia for a while.

“The Mending Project” and “The Letter Writing Project” were participatory installation works by Lee Mingwei, about human connectivity, relationships — between people and countries, politics and the climate — healing and chances, or fate, in life.

But it was his “Sonic Blossom” that had the most dramatic effect on me. A woman dressed in a kimono-type garment, approached me and asked if she could gift me a song. Could she ever!

Standing about 8 meters from me, she engulfed me with her beautiful rendition of a Franz Schubert opera lieder that Lee had chosen for the project. It had a shocking effect on me — in a wondrously emotional way. It was as if the song penetrated my pores, straight into my soul, moving me to tears. I was a mess, but a really lovely, beautiful mess, which I wouldn’t mind experiencing again!

One of the regular programs at Museum Macan is a lecture series called A-Z about the basics of art. That day, they were on letter P. The topic was “performance art” and the speaker was none other than Melati Suryodarmo.

I really looked forward to meeting her as I had seen her amazing performances in her many viral videos. The one that really stuck in my mind was “Exergie: Butter Dance” where Melati, clad in a tight black dress and red stiletto heels, steps on 20 blocks of butter, and proceeds to dance.

As the butter slowly melts, the dancing becomes more precarious. Melati falls, but picks herself up, continues to dance, and again falls. It’s comical and painful to watch and one cannot help but marvel at her stoic determination. The performance was inspired by Melati’s ups and downs in life when she first moved to Europe from her hometown of Surakarta, Central Java. But in fact, it’s about the dance of life that we all have to do.

As Melati says, an “accident is just one moment/ silence is just one moment/ happiness is just one moment/ this is just one moment/ of being caught by the moment”. So, savor the moment!

Carla Bianpoen calls Melati “Indonesia’s long durational performance artist par excellence”. The butter dance only lasts for 20 minutes, but many of her other performances are much longer. Check them out on her
website melatisuryodarmo.com.

Melati gave a talk about performance art and its development in the world and Indonesia. Basically, it involves the artist using their own body as their means of expression. And please, don’t confuse it with the performing arts: dance, theater, vocal and instrumental music, mime, etc.

I discovered two things: one, that Melati was a student of Serbia’s Marina Abramovic, the world’s best-known performance artist. That really blew my mind! I came across Abramovic on the internet years ago, and was
mesmerized by her performances. Her dedication to her art is remarkable.

The amount of pain, humiliation, suffering and risk she is willing to endure, is amazing. Her willingness to give everything, even her life, to her art, was extraordinarily inspiring for me. No wonder she is considered a legend and the grand dame of performing art.

Indonesian performance art had its origins in the 1970s when 14 young artists from Bandung and Yogyakarta started the Indonesian New Art Movement. They protested the institutional concept of Indonesian fine art, criticizing its lack of socio-political consciousness.

They championed installations, photo-realist paintings and art that was more spontaneous. It was during this period that performance art in Indonesia emerged.

Arahmaiani, FX Harsono, Eddie Hara are performance artists who came on the scene in the 1970s and 1980s, while Melati, Dadang Christanto and Tisna Sanjaya appeared in the 1990s. Younger artists such as Reza ‘Asung’ Afisina emerged after 2000.

All of these Indonesian artists are highly regarded on the global art scene, which of course is something we should all be proud of.

And guess what? Performance art is also often used in street demonstrations in Indonesia to protest political, gender, environmental issues, etc., which is proof of its ability to take a critical stance on so many of the problems we are facing.

I went to Museum Macan to get a respite from politics, only to be besieged by all the political problems that we face today in the art on display there.

But when artists tackle them, they touch us, they resonate with the anger, fear and disgust we often feel when we are forced to “consume” the dirty politics touted by politicians.

Politicians often divide us because of their lies, group interests and partisan power wielding. When artists tackle the same issues, they express them with honesty, courage, sincerity, love and the desire to connect us all.

I went home invigorated. I must be sure to get a regular dose of art. Make sure you do too!

___________________

The writer is the author of Julia’s Jihad.

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