40.See JoseManuelTesoro,"Open But Not Shut,"Asiaweek(2 June2000), pp.36-37. Forwritingon Indonesiancultureof fear and the post-Suharto era, see Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development, Stability and Unity: On a
Culture of Fear (Bangkok: Forum Asia, 1995) and Adam Schwarz and Johnathan Paris (eds.), The Politics of PostSuharto Indonesia (Singapore : The Council of Foreign Relations, 1999), respectively.

41. Permadi,a soothsayer,has said that when Habibiebecamepresident,he did not have the wahyu,or divine blessing. Dono explained that the dragon ls the Chinese symbol indicating the rise of Asians in the year 2000. The
Garuda with shoesfalling down the volcano signifiesIndonesianauthority. In this case, the mythologicalfigure
could mean the army divisionssupportingGeneralWirantoand GeneralPrabowoSubianto, Suharto'sson-in-law.
42.For discussionon ngeledek in recent Indonesianart, see Martinus Dwi Marianto, "TeasingThroughArt," AWAS!
Recent Art from Indonesia (Yogyakarta: Cemeti Art Foundation, 1999), pp.42-53.
43. Suharto denied this accusation, stating that he hardly has any money. On 8 August 2000, the Head of the State

Prosecutor's Office BarmanZahir put forward a file and indictment to charge Suharto with violations of the law
related to corruption and abuse of power. If proven guilty, he could face life imprisonment. See Anthony Spaeth, "Don't
Cry for Suharto," The Time (19 June 2000), pp.18-19.

44. Executedshortly before Suharto'sresignation,Dono informedthat in this work he wanted to be most direct, as
there was no roomfor humor.
45. Terry McCarthy, "Democrat...or Boss?" The Time (17 July 2000), pp.34-35; and Jose Manuel Tesoro, "Defiant Under

Fire,"Asiaweek(4 August2000), pp.32-33. Thisarticlequoted IndonesianpoliticalanalystSoedjatiOjiwandonoas
saying that, "in the land of the blind , the one-eyed man is still king."
46. Roeslan Abdulgani, "Waiting on Wahid Is Not Easy," The Indonesian Observer (11August 2000), p.5.
47.I take this opportunity to thank the Japan Foundation for this kind invitation. I would like to express my deep

gratitudeto Ms. YasukoFuruichiand her assistantsfor their tirelessefforts in realizingthis project.
48.I would like to thank Dr. Vishakha Desai, vice-president of the Asia Society, New York, for her kind advice on Indianand Indonesianreligiousand courtarchitecture.Discussionon this topicat Villa Serbelloniby LakeComowas mostexhilarating. I also wish to extend my thanks to Mr. David Elliott, director of Moderna Museet, Stockholm, for his

stimulatingcontributionon Dona's work during our discussionin Amsterdamon 15 July2000.
49. Helen lbbitson Jessup, Court Arts of Indonesia (New York: The Asia Society Galleries, 1990), pp.105-123.

50. I would like to thank my son, PirawuthPoshyananda,for introducingme to hundredsof Pokemonmonsters.logic
and reality have never been the same since.

97

Context
Jim Supangkat

After celebrating nearly 20 years of political euphoria in lit eratu re, art, theatre and experimental film s in Indonesia, crit icism has started to surface in the year 2000. Criticism says that political works of art praised by a group of critics and scholars weretrapped in a kind of intellectualization of art. In this opinion then art is misused towards political goals and as a consequence of that, the work of art is placed in an
insignificant posit ion. This commentary also finds fault with art crit icism that applies acontextual approach that on ly considers criti cism as an observa ti on of the social andpolitica l content of the work of art.
Also with this the reasoning why Indonesian artists have been join ing regional art
exhibitions in the last 10 years has been assaulted. The attack considered regional
exhibitions as the cause of political intentions in Indonesian contemporary art. The
critic ism sees this occurrence as being related to the fact that curators of regional exhibitions tend to select wo rks that base the idea of Indones ian art as a political commentary, and perceives this as show ing a stereotypical view of First World curators towards
the Third World.
The emergence of such criticism probably is being shown as an outgrowth of trying to find meaning and value in the ongoing tendency in Indonesian art. Critics who
have been invo lved in discussing these issues originally beli eved in such theoriesas
postmodern ism, post-structuralism and pluralism.
While observ ing this criticism, I discussed the matter with Heri Dono because hiswork has been the target of this type of criticism. Dono is a prom i nent Indonesiancontemporary artist whose work tends to explore social and political issues. He is interpreted as an artist who excels beyond other artists since he is the only artist who
steps towards entering the wor ld art fo rum and, to date, has joined many regional exhib it ions. Today, he spends most of his t ime join ing art events throughout Asia including Australia as well as in Europe and the United States . He has rarely had a chance toexhibit his work in Indonesia itself.
I was surprised to find that Heri Dono is not at all upset by th is but even agrees
with the criticism . He feels that "pol itical works have become repetit ious, and artists
who have done this kind of work we re seen as too political in t he sense t hat they tend
to force political issues as the only matter that shou ld be considered . They do not givethe public a chance to talk about other matters not only in the ir own work but also inother artists' work."
Heri Dono does not deny that his work also explores social and political issues.
Nevertheless, the issues he raises in his work, shou ld be cons idered as cultural matters since the critical views shown in social and political matters, wh ich he touches
upon in his work, are expressions that show everyday prob lems wh ich are faced bypeople that have cultural significance.
Heri Dono is of the op inion that both art and political life need some aspects of
freedom so as to be able to find ways to survive the continuous changes that we facein society. He believes that the two different wor lds mingle wit hin culture so as to beable to achieve their dynamic function, as he states: "We have witnessed many politi cal
movements that have had their or igins through cultu ral awareness, w hich at the very
beginning was discussed in cafes by artists and philosophers ."It is quite clear that Heri Dono perceives all matters to have a cultural basis. In
fact, critics who attack the idea of polit ical euphoria also criti cize this perception. Critics call it the " intel lectua lization of art." This parti cular crit icism is apparent in t he opinion of Ahmad Saha!, a promine nt young crit ic of literat ure.
In his article "Cultural Studies and the Extricating of Aesthetics," Ahmad Sahal
states that political euphoria in Indonesian art shows the influence of "cultural stud ies." ' Cultural studies can be explained as "the" platform to worldwide discourse developed in the last 30 years that shows the resistance to cultural hegemony.
Ahmad Saha! saw three basic thoughts in the discourse. The first, opposing theculture that has been taken for granted because that culture is actually constructed bya powerful group of elite's. The second, liberating the knowledge of people from thedominating knowledge of the elite's. The third, celebrating plurality of culture.
Saha! sees thoughts under the label of cultural studies as having influenced scholars in Indonesia. Due to this particular influence, critics and scholars considered works
of art and literature merely as cultural texts and social documents. The aim of cultural
studies is known to find facts and realities that show cultural hegemony and domination committed by elite groups. In reading such works, critics and scholars alike consider political correctness as the most significant matter . As a consequence, whether
the works are good or not is overlooked .
Saha I is of the opinion that political euphoria emerged in Indonesian arts throughthese writings. This political euphoria tends to express not only political matters but
also cultural matters that show hegemony. Ahmad Sahal's opinion, if not indirectly, has
unveiled Heri Dono's tendencies and reasoning why his works could enter the world art
forum. As far as I know Dono is indeed the only artist in Indonesia who clearly considers art as a cultural matter, since his work also shows a resistance towards cultural
hegemony.
Heri Dono does not deny Saha I's criticism. Nevertheless, I am not sure whether
his opinions really are influenced by thoughts which emerged in cultural studies oreven if he is a follower of this type of thought, since most of his opinions are based on
his own insight.
To Heri Dono, art is the only media for the expression of ideas that in fact have thecapacity to accommodate human sensibilities, where the specificity of art as a media issuch that no other media has this ability . Nevertheless, he is sure that the content of
his work is always a cultural matter and not an artistic one. Dono thinks of it in thefollowing way: "lfwe consider culture as a piece of cake and art expression as a part ofthat cake, creating works of art should not be considered as slicing the cake. Since
cutting the cultural cake into pieces through the creation of art could be seen to be
identical with emptying culture."
Based on this stance, Heri Dono is inclined to work with other people to create hiswork . He wants to assure himself that he is producing a work that deals with culture,
rather than a work that merely tells his personal artistic sentiments. He has a lot ofexperience working with groups of people and communities . For example, he has often
worked with mechanics to develop parts of his installations which were made fromcomponents of used transistor radios. Dono explains:"You can find thousands of small radio shops in Yogyakarta repairing usedtransistor radios . After being repaired, these radios are sold cheaply to thegrassroots. I see the used radio business as a culture in itself. The mechanics
have recycled goods that were thrown away. They made a device out of invaluable items that could spread out information among the grassroots. Do notforget that these radios also provide entertainment."
To Heri Dono, innovation in an artistic sense is a cultural matter. This innovation, hebelieves, happens in everyday life and is not related to what has been believed as "pureart" or "fine art." The tendency to recycle junk and thrown-away things in the grassroots
is an innovation that he feels is based on artistic compassion.
Years ago, I wrote about Heri Dono's interest in making works out of items like
Coca-Cola cans that had been thrown away. In the recent interview he told me that it is
not significant to consider this action as his way of showing art. It is more important to
see it as the effort of poor people developing traditions to survive through difficult
situations, where, according to Dono, "Creations show the fact that tradition continuously makes breakthroughs not for the sake of artistic means but more for practical99

means."Heri Dono explained that when he brought this concept to the world art forum heintended to show how artistic innovation should actually be considered. According tohim, these kinds of innovations are over looked by art analysis and art critic ism because the wor ks th at show th e innovat ions are usually categor ized as appli ed art or atbest-craft products .
Heri Dona's statement clearly shows a critical view towards cultural hegemony. In
opposing cult ural hegemony, views in cultural stud ies celebrate the elimin ation of barriers between High Art and popul ar art in everyday life . The elimination of thi s barrier
was meant to contravene the belief that only High Art deals with artistic values, meanwhile popular art shows the low taste of the "common" people.
Heri Dona's stance is understandable, as he feels that his work is an evidence of
cultur al hegemo ny that exist s in Indones ia. Nevertheless, the debate on cult ural hegemony is not the only matter raised by Saha! and other crit ics in their crit icism. They are
more critical on the absence of an aesthetical dimension that they think was extricatedin wo rks influenced by cultur al stud ies.
In criticizing the contextual approac h in art criti cism, they tend to sepa rate text
from context. To them, "context" is perceived as social and cultural backgrounds, whereas
the text is perceived as a textual phenomenon.
In his art icle, Saha I wrote that cont extual approach in art criti cism tends to explore matters that are outside the work of art. This criti cism overlooks the text, wh ich
he sees as a medium that has an autonomous art istic value. Thus contextual approachtends to deny aesthetical experience in reading the work of art. It is Saha I's opin ionthat th e aesthet ical experience is the "sou l" of art and art criti cism.
In my opinion Saha! and other crit ics were not aware that there is an anti logy incultural studies when it enters art discourse. Views in cultural stud ies denies High Art
and do not believe that there is particular value to lit erature, fine art, theatre and sedate music. As Heri Dono said, values should be searched for in cultura l acts. Nevertheless, views under the label of cultural studies in fact do not (or cannot) deny HighArt as a tradit ion because it is impossible to deny the pract ice of art.
Thus, on the one side, cultura l studies denies High Art but, on the other , it celebrat es art infrastr uctures that have deve lop ed with in the tradition of High Art. To me
this inconsistency very often results in an unclear positioning of views in theories under the label, "cultural studies." In describing artistic phenomenon, it is not easy toknow when the theorists are ta lking about art and when they are talking about cultural
matters.
In my opin ion due to the unclear positioning of views under the label "cultural
studies," Saha! and other crit ics were trapped when they began to attack the contextual approach in art critici sm. Instead of analyzing the ground ing of cultural studies
they attacked views in cult ural stud ies in the course of relating t hem to aest het ics. This
is why their crit icism goes back to the debate of theories in aesthet ics. In fact, therefusal to acknowledge the hierarchy of art, as well as the bel ief in cultural plurality,
under the label of cult ural studi es can be understood as rej ection of previous commo n
beliefs based on the principles of aest hetics.
The rejection of art hierarchy could be seen as part of the continuous debate on
Plato's premises of metaphysical beauty and sensua l beauty in aesthetics . Seeing it asa linear development of views in aest hetics, this rejection is a ve ry late reaction towards 19th century aesthetics. Meanwhile, celebrat ing plurality in culture (and art) could
be seen as a resistance towards universalism, the fundamental premise of modernism
and also a resistance towards absol ut ism of the text wh ich is the keynote of modernist
criti cism.
I see the criticism towards polit ical euphoria in Indonesia as a revita lization of theoutdated debate on art and society. It is clear that textual phenomenon, as mentioned100

by Saha!, had already been "constructed" by the painter Henri de Saint-Simon and agroup of industrial ist in 1825 through the Avant-garde Manifesto. This was then opposed by the RealistManifesto wh ich was declared by socialists Courbet and Boudelairein 1861. From the development of these two manifestos, the endless debate on art for
art's sake found its starting point.
Heri Dono reacted to Sahal's criticism in another way. He is of the opinion that text
and context in art criticism, as well as in creating works, cannot be separated. He denied that he has been ignoring the aesthetic experience in creat ing his work, as heexplained: "All of my work is based on aesthet ical experiences; in other words, I decideto develop an idea into a work of art after my "aesthetic feeling" assures me that theidea is worth being expressed. Not all phenomenon that surrounds us has a significant
enough meaning to be expressed."
Explaining his aesthetic pr inciples, he told me that at the very beginning of his
career in the 1970s he asked himself, what art is and how aesthetical feelings relate toart expression:"I came to the conclusion that aesthetical feelings relate to collectivity and this is
why I reacted to the common belief that works of art should reflect individual
aesthet ic exper iences and the content of the work is then a personal matter. I felt
something is not right when I saw my works reflecting my sorrowful feelings. I felt
it was not the type of feelings that should be expressed in a work of art."
The outcome of that insight was then transferred to his interest in cartoons as an artist ic medium. Heri Dono found the world of cartoons interesting because in this world
everything is lively: " In my mind the cartoon world is similar to an anim istic world where
everything has soul, spirit and feelings. In this kind of world, commun ication has no
barrier. I know the world of cartoons does not make sense but in fact we enjoy and evenadore cartoon films."
Through this kind of observation he came to be of the opinion that art should be
like cartoon films, which can offer the artist a chance to explore the "illogical mind."When expressed in works of art it could trigger motives among people to resist thedominat ion of logic. After exploring the wor ld of cartoons, Heri Dono was attracted to
wayang performances (traditional Indonesian puppetry). To him wayang performancesand cartoon films are similar to each other: "Wayang in some ways is simple animation
and we actual ly can use the structure of wayang ku/it for making cartoon films."
Heri Dono told me that as a result of his encounter with wayang performances heattained a new understanding of aesthetic experiences. "In general I changed my interest from art to arts," he exp lained. "I felt the need to explore mus ical and theatricalsensibilities of art beyond my present visual perception of art." At the time of this enlightenment he felt that the aesthetics of wayang performances had a strong spiritual
dimension related to the identificat ion of matters in everyday life : "Through th is awareness I came to believe that the cultural relativeness of works of art is significant. Art asa medium which could be based on any artist ic convention is merely a vehicle."
In his opinion med ium does not mean art materials. It could be anything-an
object, something ready made, a sign or a symbol or even an idea. He explained thatthe medium is not related to originality or individuality and thus it is not a personaldomain of artists:"The medium is a kind of language where it is hard to know who actually has
invented it. In art we can build a medium from th ings that surround us. Artists justpick them up, in a sense, borrowing them from culture and then this gives them
meaning or another meaning, if the borrowed sign or symbol already has meanings ."101

I further asked him if these aesthetical principles of his was understood when he presented his works in regional exhibitions or other events abroad. In answering my question, he said, "In comparison with critics in Indonesia, curators and critics abroad are
more open." I went further by asking him whether the openness resulted in an understanding of the aesthetical dimension in his work. Heri Dono responded by saying, "I
think curators abroad latched onto my work because they knew that I explore hidden
artistic views of the people which are overlooked by critics . It is a matter of High/ Low
Art, when we usually talk about this matter."
I backed Heri Dono into a corner when I asked him a longer question, "Did theHigh/ Low Art discussion consider the aesthetic dimension of your work? If the case was
not totally a social or cultural case, but contended as a case of spiritual contemplation,
was the High/Low Art discourse proper in reading the case?" He responded with a very
short answer, "Probably not."I am aware that I conditioned the question so Heri Dono would give an answer
that I expected-I was acting like a policeman who treated him as a defendant. Thus
the answer given to my long question is probably not Dona's real answer. Nevertheless, I indeed have a strong feeling that the aesthetical dimension in work done by aThird World artist like Dono is overlooked in the world art forum, simply because theaesthetical dimension is unreadable.
The unreadable aesthetical dimension is the case raised by criticism towards political euphoria which has recently emerged in Indonesia. The objection of this criticism
is the imbalance of the reading of the text and context in criticism that show the influence of cultural studies. Nevertheless the criticism failed to point out the exact problem.
To me the criticism will clear its goal if the determined work of art in the analysis ismeant to be that of a Third World artist and not just any work of art. In this sense, it isphenomenal why observations in the world art forum tend to explore the social-cultural background and deny the aesthetical dimension. I find this tendency to be due tothe imbalance of knowledge on works of the Third World . There is adequate information on the social and cultural background of Third World works of art, while there isn't
nearly any information on the aesthetical dimension of its art. Efforts in the past thathave tried to analyze this have always been trapped in discussing Western aesthetics.
The common error that makes the analysis always go back to Western aesthetics
is also seen in Ahmad SahaI's criticism, which is the separation of text and context thatcannot be actually separated. In my opinion, there should be a rereading of what contextual art is, where we intentionally see the fact that text and context can not be disassociated.
The separation of text and context will attribute to an incorrect conclusion thatsees a work of art as contextual due to its social and cultural background . At the sametime, it sees the aesthetical dimension as a universal matter. This conclusion does not
add anything new to our knowledge since social and cultural matters have been contextual all the time. Thus it is significant to believe that the aesthetical dimension iscontextual.
The term "contextual art" is indeed meant to identify the differences in art. This
term that has its roots in the belief that art is a plural phenomenon stands only as longas identifying differences is still in the process (the term is different than those thatpoint out identities, as in the term "Asian art").
The very basic problem of contextual art that covers both text and context is theuncertainty of identifying local discourses. Local discourse is directly related to theknowledge of art that has been dominated. Identifying the local discourse is liberating
this knowledge and making it readable. It should be clearly understood.
Art discourses that resist the "international" hegemony in art has put the freeing
from that dominated knowledge on their agenda. Nevertheless, this agenda in fact never102really comes to be realized, although it is apparent that local discourse is indispensable to discourse of world art that sees art as a plural phenomenon. In this sense,
discourse of world art results from mediation of the world's local discourse.
I have to admit that it is not the regional or the global art forum who are responsible for identifying the local discourse. It is the Third World itself who is responsible
for elaborating on the local discourse. Nevertheless, the dominated artworld in the
Third World is in fact too weak for the task. This weakness has become worthwhile
because the world art forum in the First World, where the process of new art discourses
took place, has inaccurately perceived the local discourse.
The local discourse (in a plural sense) has been perceived as localness. Whenimposed in a binary global-local point of view, the localness constructs a half of an
overly simplified slogan, "Glo-cal." The slogan makes an assumption of a mixture ofterms that does not describe a certain reality.
In that case the emerging criticism in Indonesia that questioned the connection
between art and culture has its validity. Without asserting art as the frame of the discourse, "Glo-cal" could be anything, since showing it through cultural matters is nothing new. The cultural spectrum is too wide to conduct a specific discourse.
In the art discourse, "Glo-cal" immediately shows its inaccurateness . If thelocalness is meant to be a local art discourse, any world or regional exhibitions could
show that the localness is already inclusive of globalness. There is no need to add an
explanation that localness in any expression of art has to consider globalness.
Hypothetically, I see globalness in local discourse to be rooted in the High Art
tradition. I am resigned to the fact that this particular statement will not be acknowledged in any contemporary art forum. Contemporary art, which has been considered
as a kind of common denominator in the process of art discourse, has exploited localness
only to differentiate postmodernist art and modernist art. In fact, whereas modernist
art tends to deny localness, contemporary art, which is adversely different from modernist art, explores localness . In such a case, it is impractical to connect localness with
the High Art tradition.
When the "global-local" point of view was translated to a "global-regional" pointof view in a regional forum, localness became regional solidarity. It is interesting to seethat the outcome of this translation was not to come up with another slogan but to find"regional art," as in Asian art, Southeast Asian art or even Asia-Pacific art.
This idea indeed could be seen as showing an outdated tendency; that is, searching for identity. Nevertheless, as a phenomenon, the issue of "regional art" shows apredisposition towards searching for an art discourse instead of a "cultural discourse."
In my opinion, this is a passage to find a local discourse; the local discourse being an
art discourse. Yet such discourse does not have to be confined to artistic matters only,
since it could open discussions on cultural matters.
To me, identification of a local discourse is a matter of observing art convention
which is enclosed by its own context. The "contextual convention" contains communal
understanding which have been taken for granted in local circles but never developed
into a discourse due the dominance of Western art theories. To me this repressed communal understanding is the hidden paradigms, therefore, the identification of local discourse is to perceive the repressed understandings as its discursive elements.
In the case of Indonesian art, identifying local discourse is a matter of communal
understandings that have emerged since the 19th century (when High Art tradition was
adapted) up until now. I have seen several communal understandings that could beconsidered as hidden paradigms of Indonesian art discourse. For example, there is thefact that the majority of Indonesian artists believe the notion of artistic expression
being related to spirituality. This spirituality that is commonly perceived as mysticism(following the Western perception) never developed into a significant art discussion,
let alone an art discourse .

10 3

Heri Dono is one among many Indones ian artists who believes that the aestheticaldimension in his work is based on spirituality, as he states: "I tend to counter rational
conclusions in my mind that observe th ings through materiality . In th is process I relyon spirituality and aesthetical experiences that very often provide me with surprisingideas which show some kind of paradox ."Such is the perception of Indonesian artists when they observe representationand cultural matters. I recently interviewed Srihad i Soedarsono, a painter with morethan 50 years of experience ,2 where he gave me simi lar views to Heri Dona's, that is,where spiritua lity goes beyond mater iality. He states: "Single substance that we commonly perceive through materiality do not represent whole reality . Representation
through spiritua lity in my paintings tends to find substances of reality."
The effort to find local discourse by looking at communal understandings in thedevelopment of art in the Third World is far from being discussed. This may be because
a common perception holds that local discourse is "chart ing" a totally new discourse .
Such effort has been "constructing" mediat ions of discursive elements wh ich are foundin the cult ure. The goal is to eradicate previous beliefs in art that have been tainted byabso lutism .
To me the idea of eliminating abso lutism by denying previous art development isa solemn one. Since the death of absolut ism and universalism is celebrated, assumingthat the scrutiny of absolutism influence ends in a search for the universal truth isbaseless . The scrutiny in identifying local discourse is a matter of finding a contextual
truth .

Notes
1. Ahmad Sahal, " Cult ural Stud ies dan Tersingkirnya Estetika, " Kompas (2 June 2000).
2.

Srihadi Soedarsono is one of the pioneersof Indonesianmodernart.

104

Dono's Paradox: the Arrow and the KrisDavid Elliott

Around 470 CE, long before any of us was born, the Greek philosopher and mathematician Zeno proposed a number of paradoxes which challenged what he could see to be
the truth . He and a group of associates ' rejected previous wisdom in favor of a logicalapproach focused on the infinite divisibility of time and space. Zeno tried to analyze
motion and deduced that it was impossible. One of the most famous of his paradoxes
has the ontological and spiritual reverberation of a Zen ko-an. Briefly, it states that when
an archer shoots an arrow from a bow, it will never reach its destination because at each
moment it occupies a space which is equal in length and volume only to itself. Therefore
logically it is at rest.
Zeno may have been more fascinated by the fallacies in his arguments than in thearguments themselves. As a result he has been credited as the father of modern dialec tics . The straightforward trajectory of the arrow-often a metaphor for swiftness anddirectness-might therefore not be quite as straightforward as it seems. And then there
is another distinctly regional weapon: the wavy-bladed kris.The dagger which Heri Dono
explained to me was typical of the Indonesian mentality: "People find it difficult to confront and express the truth and the reality of their lives. Fear is the disease which prevents them from saying what they want to say. The word of truth cannot always run in astraight course but like the kris has a wavering edge. Some people have to use a coded,slang language or wr it e grafitti as the only means by which authority and government
can be criticized." 'This led me to think about how his work has evolved over the past 15 years within
an lndonesian/Southeast Asian context as well as more broadly on the international
scene. I have also reflected on how he has negotiated the many demands and pressures
wh ich are bound to bear on any developing arti st but which have been particularly acutein the pressure cooker of the militarized and virtually totalitarian Indonesia from which
he derived so much creative energy, wisdom and imagery.
During the past two years the situation in Indonesia has changed dramatically. The
oppressive, militaristic governme nt of Suharto has been swept away and it is not yet
clear what the future will be. This liberation has even spawned new slang words whichhave filtered into critical writing such as ngeledek, meaning to tease, taunt or ironize,
which one critic has recently used to describe the work of the artists who have emerged
during the latter half of the 199os. 3 It seems to me that that this can also be app lied
retrospectively to the work of Heri Dono. And because this is a word which could nothave been used to describe his work previously, maybe this is just another aspect ofthings being not quite as straightforward as they seem?
I first saw Heri Dono's work in 1993 at the opening of the First Asia-Pacific Triennialof Contemporary Art in Brisbane and was strongly impressed by its breadth, ambition
and rootedness in Indonesian culture. The paintings alone perhaps would not have caught
my eye but the sound installation, the Game/anof Rumor(1992-93, cat.no.7), the shadow
puppets displayed on a rack and the wayang ku/it performance, in which the puppets
were used, tipped the balance. They were all celebratory, humorous but with a bitter
undertow of social and political criticism; this is what stuck in my mind. Two years later
the Museum of Modern Art, of wh ich I was then director, invited Heri Dono to come to
Oxford on a residency.
I have since wondered quite what it was I took away with me in my impressions of
the exhibition in Brisbane. I believe that I understood a lot about Heri Dono's work andit s context but there was also a lacuna. Perhaps this was inevitable -s omething I could
not have apprehended, someth ing about which Julie Ewington wrote in "Between the
Cracks," her review of the Second Asia-Pacific Triennial; she was referring to the filters
which we, westerners, easterners, southerners , northerners-outsiders-cannot
avoid
applying to all the information, knowledge and perceptions we receive.4 No this was not
Kipling's interdict about non-comprehension between Eastern and Western "races," 5
nor did it even derive from the condition of being a citi zen of one of the ex-imperial105

discourse is relevant to the situation in Indonesia but is notcountries-postcolonial
dominant. The view that can be glimpsed by the outsider , fleetingly between the cracks,
is more like the difference between the straight flight of the arrow, which moves but
cannot be logically proved to do so, and the wavering blade of the decorative, metaphorical kris. That they are a means of attack as well as of self defence is what they havein common-they also both leave a deadly wound.
We all talk blithely about the same abstract theoretical concepts: colonialism andpostcolonialism, modernity and postmodernity, totalitarianism and democracy, late capitalism and globalization, traditionalism and modernization. But as soon as we step outside the Seminar Room, we are no longer sure what such terms mean for there is noconsensus about their significance. We are unable to enforce a single understanding.
Perhaps critical theory could be regarded as the new Imperialism through which theverbal, publishing, academic "West" attempts to suborn the rest of the world? Maybe
we have all become its unwitting agents? But critical theory need not be a single hegemonic discourse and many of these abstract concepts, if they have any relevance at all,can be redefined or massaged locally to do the job that is needed. And this seems tohave already been happening .
Is modernity with its historical dimension in Southeast Asia the same as that in
Africa or Western or Eastern Europe?6 Of course not. Is postmodernity worth bothering
about in Malaysia or Indonesia? Probably not unless it is useful in some way or can betrotted out, like the very best china, to impress the relatives. Not surprisingly in the
chaotic context of post -totalitarian Indonesia, critic Rizki A. Zaelani analyses a recent"loss of .. .faith in a number of meta-narratives of modernity" as well as a weakening of
the desire or hope of ever becoming "modern ." 7 At the same time he has tracked an
intensification of what has been described as an "art of revolt" which is seen as a meansof redefining and grasping hold of the meaning of truth and historical development. •In the light of this discussion there are two things that have always particularly
attracted me to Heri Dono's work: its critical and dynamic relation to cultural tradition
and its intense reflection about and critique of lived experience and reality. As an artist
Dono has positioned himself at the margins of society, identifying both with the pastand the poor, which in a rapaciously modernizing totalitarian state such as Indonesia
tended to be regarded as the same thing. He has also consistently shown a sympathy
for those who have been disempowered but typically, and of necessity, has not regarded
this as a political involvement. Dono's work is a million miles from agitprop, it is toolaconic for that; and perhaps this is what he was asserting when he wrote "I am not
involved in political or social problems ... but my paintings, maybe they are identical with
politics or society. The main thing is that the social structure must be turned round 180
degrees ."•This statement is almost dangerously ambiguous: his work is a reflection of reality
but also one which implies that the reality (the social structure) must be turned round tomatch the art. Dona's reflection is, in fact, a critique-and one which waveringly balances on a knife's edge. Until very recently any direct political statement could be life
threatening. In May last year, fellow artist Dadang Christanto recollected that "while
Soeharto was in power, in general, political perspectives did not emerge in most artists'
art works . They also avoided discussing politics in daily life. Talking politics was taboohow much more so to put political concepts into works of art. This matter is easily understood if we remember the terror created by the New Order, that is, how fear was
created among the people ." '° Christanto walked a similar tightrope in his own work.
No doubt as a result of this repressive climate as well as from general conviction,
Dono has stressed his orientation towards the "problems of humanity in general." Oneof the ways in which he does this is by using humor as a trigger or threshold: "Imagine
a person who doesn't look deeper into my paintings will laugh, see my work as an expression of hilariousness. But someone who enters into it might cry ... I am not only106

involved with problems of visual art. I am involved with tragedy." " And the tragedy is not
only that of Indonesia: "The world is crazy and frightening. Look at the hunger in Africa
for example: they need food but they've got bullets." " Under pressure to work abroadfor considerable stretches, Dono has transposed his Indonesian sensibility and experience, as well as his work, into other climates. The painting The Magician Who Cannot be
Killed (1990), refers to an argument he had with a Czech market trader in Switzerland
within the context of the fantasy of the shadow puppet play, Conductor Killed in Holland(1992), refers to another real event.
At this point we can begin to perceive Dono's Paradox more clearly. Like Zeno's
arrow his work can only logically occupy the space which it itself takes up and therefore
it cannot move forward-yet we all can see (except, thank God, for some particularlybone headed bureaucrats) that it does. We also may understand that silence can be
eloquent and that the artist, like the kris, may occasionally have to move in one direction to strike in another.
Although he was born in Jakarta, he has been based for many years in Yogyakarta,
the old capital, which has a much slower pace. From 1980 to 1987 he studied painting at
the Academy there and obviously acquainted himself with the work of Mir6 and latePicasso combining their cut out figures on flatish grounds with elements of traditional
Javanese art which also used the cut out form within non-naturalistic space. ' 3 A key
painting of this time was Eating Shit (1983, cat.no.10), an acrylic and collage on canvas
one metre square. Respect for one's elders is the rule in most Southeast Asian societies
and not only does this express an untypical youthful rebellion against authority-perhaps even against his teachers at art school-but it also has a political dimension: theartist had heard reports that dissidents were forced to eat their own excrement while indetention; this was his recording of a fact which was not generally talked about. At thistime Dono also felt the need to develop a more participatory and broadly based form ofart and in 1987 studied the wayang kulit or traditional Javanese shadow puppet playwith Sukasman, one of its masters. Dono now began to make his own puppets which
often were related to characters who also appeared in his paintings. These plays enabled the artist to use parable or pseudo-myth in a more dynamic way than was previously possible. There had always been elements of comedy within the Hindu epics ofthe Mahabharata and Ramayana which provided the staple for the traditional wayang
and, as it was a popular art form, the burlesque was often accentuated. But althoughJava and the whole Indonesian state is predominantly Muslim, and has increasingly become subject to the pressures of fundamentalism, these stories are rooted in a preMuslim past and are often combined with animist folk tales and other popular beliefs
which have a distant relationship with Buddhism. Dono exploited the multicultural andmultifaceted possibilities of the wayang, with its proliferation of mythological monsters,
as something which could be easily updated. He often enlisted for his performances
people from the poorest areas of the city.
One of these was Kudo Bina! (Wild Horse) (1992), a performance based on a traditional horse trance dance which was ostensibly a statement against the "fossilization of
traditional art ...[and] ...the systematic destruction of nature by human greed and arrogance." But the synopsis spells out a far more searching critique, if one cares to see it,
carefully crafted within the traditional story lines of dancing dummy horses, warringarmies, tempting the Gods and the ultimate destruction of all. Dona's armies are not themassed Hindu legions but the steel helmeted and gas masked monsters of the present. ''Tellingly he links the performance with the official event ASEAN Year '92: "Kudo Bina!
isn't presented to gather support for any cause, or to welcome visitors to visit ASEAN
Year '92. But, of course, [a] visit [to] ASEANYear '92 supports the concept of Kudo Bina/." ''Three large-scale installations Watching the Marginal People (1992), and Game/anof Rumor (1992-93, cat.no.7)and Fermentation of Mind (1994, cat.no.5) further nail down
the threatening and exploitative atmosphere of this time as well as Dono's perception of107how the state inflicted its terror. All of a sudden we become not on ly the audience but
also the actors in a much larger puppet play, one in which the state and its cronies are
the puppeteers and "authority, marginalization and rumor exist because a big systemalready built it and we as human-beings are included as puppets or as the audience forit." The all-seeing eyes revolve, the teeth are bared, the quiet whispering of machines
continues through which all information and disinformation are disseminated, rows ofheads nod rhythmically behind school desks-all these things are pervasive elements
in works which seem like strange hybrids of children's toys, bricolage, props for a horror
film and high technology. This, in itself , is a comment on the governance of the country
as well as on how it enforces its power and exploits its resources.
In Oxford in the winter of 1995-96, Heri Dono organized a performance and an exhibition at the end of a three-month residency there . The performance The Drunkenness
of Semar (1995), involved local people from one of the commun ity groups and took place
in a disused church. In this he examined, in a playful but powerful way, the impact ofmodernization and militarism on a developing society. Semar is a priest, guru and joker
who lives in low class society but who is also a Hindu God with both male and female
characteristics. This multifaceted character is the starting point for a number of intricate
word plays and parodies from which the piece derives its force. Through the invention ofa new character, Supersemar (a parody of Superman), the figure is keyed back to theDecree of 11 March 1966, the date of the military coup by which President Suharto replaced President Sukarno - the founder of the Indonesian Republic. '6 And there is also a
traditional Javanesecake called Semar Mendem, which means The Drunkenness ofSemar,
and this for Dono became a metaphor for po litic ians' sweet talk: "The leaders of Government when speaking on TV may appease the masses with their wisdom and sweetcharm but their abuse of power belies th is sweetness. I used to eat the cake but now I
perform it." " Dona's version of th is story departs from the Hindu original in that he shows
the God when he is drunk and can no longer impart wisdom to his people. "In this condition Semar can be appropriated by the authorities and turned into a devil, they canpretend to have Semar's sober wisdom. Thus a dictator can seem to be a man of thepeople."' " Yet still, if you did not know any of this, the performance could seem like aviolent and rather eccentric fairy tale . But the Devil which Semar became is still finallydestroyed .
In the Museum of Modern Art, Dono constructed Blooming in Arms (1996), a vast
installat ion comprised of monstrous helmeted military figures (about 15 feet high) madeout of chicken wire. They were lit dramatica lly in the dark with glowing red eyes andartificial limbs, the wa lls of the gallery had been painted khaki, camouflage netting draped
the roof and the museum guard wore military battle dress. A word play may also befound in the t itle of this work which contrasted the Indonesian government's official
green policy (penghijauan) of encouraging every family to plant a tree outside their homewith its economic policy of allowing multi-national interests to decimate the forests of
Sumatra, Kalimantan and lrian Jaya. Under such circumstances little that is really green
could be said to bloom -exce pt, of course, for the khaki uniforms of the young army
cadets which grow in ever increasing numbers. In fact the situation was even worse as"children lost their limbs. They are innocent but they have to live with artificial legs for
all their lives . Some have lost their families and their souls."' 9 Here Dono again moves
from the specifically Indonesian context to one wh ich is widespread throughout the region and the world; in t he process the land mine becomes a metaphor for hidden threat
and can again be tied back to Indonesia, its po int of orig in.
It is fair to say that contemporary Indonesian art was very little known in GreatBritain in 1996 and remains so to th is day, nevertheless there was considerable public
interest in Heri Dona's work and a number of reviews appeared in the press . One inparticular, Speaking Out by Lying Low by Sacha Craddock in The Times, had a considerable impact. 20 This drew the attention of the Indonesian Embassy in London to the108