And for anyone who blames foreign speculators for the Asian Economic Crisis, the painting screams the title. Don't expect economic analysis from this painting. Deep, if not violent, feelings were certainly palpable during the exhibition at the colonial-era Hanoi Opera House. Based on the rape of Chinese Indonesian women during the May riots in Jakarta, its left half depicted a bloodied, decapitated torso. The surreal piece by Isa Perkasa is filled with bald, naked figures in various poses of pain and perdition.
Dark shadows cover their eyes and genitals.
A long queue of figures, mouths agape, are sunk up to their chests in the ground. A look at Indonesia explains how destructive images emerged from one of its creative souls. But politics took a back seat to other aesthetic values in the Vietnamese, Bruneian and Singaporean works. Singapore went for conceptual art, while Vietnam and Brunei paid homage to forms and colors pleasing to the eye. Bright red hues dominated the two winning Vietnamese entries.