Artists face different kinds of challenges in the current Reform Era, when the country’s art scene has changed in line with the evolution of political and societal views after the fall of the New Order regime in 1998.

Visual and performance artist Mella Jaarsma said recently that artists had to change their strategies in expressing ideas, because society in the Reform Era was becoming more conservative, even though the government was more democratic than under the New Order regime.

Jaarsma is known for her 1998 work Pribumi, Pribumi (Native, Native), which had her perform a symbolic act on Jl. Malioboro in Yogyakarta by frying frog legs and offering them as food to question the roles animals play in human culture and to open a dialogue about riots in Jakarta and Surakarta, Central Java, in May 1998.

She said that, during the New Order era, the government had not allowed artists to voice criticism on social or political issues.

However, by using their creativity, artists managed to circumvent the government’s strict policy by expressing themselves in art, Jaarsma told an open discussion to commemorate 21 years of the Reform Era at Macan Museum in West Jakarta.

She explained that, in the 1980s and 1990s, artists were relatively free to create works with subtle self-censorship to make it difficult for the authoritarian government to accuse them of criticizing its policies.

“In the Reform Era, visual and stage artists were facing the challenge of blurring societal boundaries because of intolerance caused by conservatism,” she told The Jakarta Post.

He said the boundaries were less predictable now because an artwork might become a problem in social media due to misinterpretation and intolerance.

The dominance of conservative voices in social media limited freedom of expression, she said, adding that digitalization, therefore, had contributed to polarization among citizens.

Jaarsma, was showcasing her works at an ongoing 82-day axhibition at the museum, along with nine other artists. The exhibition Dunia Dalam Berita (World in News), which will end on July 21, portrays the improvement of democratic processes and the developments of diverse identity aspirations through the lens of news.

In a separate solo exhibition, multitalented artist Julian “Togar” Abraham expressed his criticism of growing intolerance through his work Melintas Bunyi (Tracking Sound), a collection of electrically automated devices to create musical sounds using daily appliances and musical instruments.

“I used the case of Meiliana as an example. She thought that the adzan [call for prayer] broadcast from a [nearby] mosque was a disturbance, while Muslims considered her complaint a disturbance for them” Togar told the Post.

The 44-year-old Chinese-Indonesian, a Buddhist resident of Tanjung Balai, North Sumatra, was sentenced to 18 months in prison in 2018 over her complaint about the adzan volume.

The complaint sparked a large protest — caused by misinformation — which resulted in the destruction of 14 Buddhist temples.

In his exhibition at Rubanah Underground Hub in Menteng, Central Jakarta, Togar displayed various artworks, such as an automated creaking old door, intimidating and simultaneous beating stacks of drums, and the clicking sound of an arranged neon lamp.

All of them were composed in a natural flow using electrical power to create sound on its own, thus combining music and visual arts to convey his message.

“People need to be more aware of how they listen to information, because false information, as in the case of Meiliana, could make people more intolerant,” Togar said.

Meanwhile, novelist Ayu Utami gave an illustration of how the social environment had changed. During the New Order era, the government was authoritarian in style, while the people were relatively tolerant.

Nowadays, the reverse is the case, she said.

She told the discussion at Macan Museum that during the New Order era, religion had been enforced as a tool to fight communism and as a result, religion spread out without the development of critical thinking.

As an example, Ayu said, the openness of the New Order government allowed lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people to get involved in public activities. However, according to her finding, they were nowadays considered the country’s second-most dangerous enemy, after communists.

Ayu relayed the story on how she grew up in a family supporting former president Soeharto, which had made her more aware of political issues. “I was born in an era where arts were used as a medium to fight for a cause” she said.

Jaarsma said changes in society encouraged her to create artworks that would promote critical thinking in the audience. (awa/tkp/tru)

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