Yogya`s Women Artists On The Move

Baby Boom

Yogyakarta - On a hot Monday afternoon in the beginning of April, 15 women gathered in Yogyakarta`s Cemeti Art House, most of them young artists. Sitting on bamboo mats and sipping tea, they listened to fellow artist Theresia (Tere) Augustina Sitompul, present pictures of her latest solo exhibition, “Confessions of an Artist as a Young Mum”, at the Vivi Yip Art Room in Jakarta last March.

Tere aimed not only to discuss her artistic concepts, but also to share the obstacles she faced in preparing for her solo exhibition, while caring for her eleven-month-old daughter Blora, at the same time. “It`s not easy to divide your time between family and work. Several of my artist friends become mothers and then stopped their art for several years”, says the 27-year-old, graduate of the Indonesian Arts Institute (ISI). “I don`t want to sacrifice my art for motherhood. My child doesn`t prevent me from doing artwork - she is the source of my inspiration.” Luckily, Tere admits, her artist husband S. Teddy D, supports this choice.

Many women artists struggle with breaking out of conventional role models. “In our society, the artistic community in Indonesia is still very patriarchal”, said performance artist Arahmaiani. Together with art journalist, Carla Bianpoen and Dutch artist, Mella Jaarsma, Arahmaiani established “Senin Sore” (Monday Afternoon) meetings at Cemeti. “These meetings help women artists to develop more independently. We need to create a space where they can meet without being dominated and interrupted by men all the time”, Arahmaiani explained. The three senior art experts decided to form a monthly discussion forum to best fit the needs of their fellow artists, rather than an all female art exhibition they believe highlights the exoticism of women being artists above their art.

“When I have an exhibition, the first thing everybody emphasizes is that I am a woman. Have you ever heard about an exhibition where critics and journalists stress the artist is a man?” asks painter Diah Yulianti, who also took part in the first “Senin Sore” gathering. Even more annoyed is a 36-year-old mother of two,” Some people stop being interested in my work the moment they learn I am married and have children, because they think I don`t have time to be productive anymore. A male artist, on the contrary, will never be asked how having a family affects his creative work”, Diah says.

The outspoken painter from Kalimantan is far from unproductive. She is currently working on a solo exhibition at Singapore`s Waterton Gallery, while sharing the family responsibilities with her jewellery designer husband. Although balancing career and family is not an exclusive problem for female artists, Diah points out another, more specific problem: “Almost all curators and art critics in Indonesia are men. Naturally, they understand the work of other men more than the work of female artists. But exactly because of this, they should make the effort to discuss the artistic concept of women artists rather than focusing on her family status or sex appeal.”

To achieve increasing awareness and respect not because of their children or beauty, but for their work is what most of the women gathered at Cemeti Art House advocate. They claim the recent boom in contemporary Indonesian art has not put a single woman artist among the top listed Indonesian painters. The series of seminars for young women artists in Yogyakarta, aims to help increase their self-confidence and enable them to develop their work to a point where even hardcore macho-critics cannot overlook their artistic value. However, there is still a long way to go.

“Men and women go through the same difficulties in finding ideas and solutions in the creation of their art. The problem starts with the public reception afterwards”, painter and performance artist Lashita Situmorang says. “As there is no real critical discourse with a theoretical background in Indonesia, in the media or the artistic community, the success of an artist depends on personal contacts and collectors. And most collectors are men supporting men.”

Facing the male patronage system dominating most of the Indonesian art scene, the “Senin Sore” meetings could be the first step to building a group of female artists– something still new in Yogya. Other venues, however, seem to confirm the trend: last February, the Kersan Art Studio exhibited work from the group PEREK (Experimental Women), presenting an all female exhibition titled “Exhibitionist”.

Another remarkable social art project organized by a group of women was launched yesterday (25 April) in the red light district of Yogyakarta`s Sosrowijayan area. The “Red District Project” (RDP) aims to introduce arts and cultural events to foster understanding between prostitutes and residents living in the area. The three-month-long project offers workshops concerning the environment and society as well as artistic and managerial skills.

“Considering the art boom and all the money that poured into Yogya last year, I felt the urge to organize a social project”, said Lashita. Disappointed with the reaction of other artists who preferred to continue painting for the booming market rather than put energy toward social issues, the 32-year-old pursued her project and eventually found enough like-minded artists to start a fund-raising exhibition.

“Although we didn`t plan this as a female project, women will be naturally dominating, since it`s much easier for them to get the trust of the sex workers”, Lashita said. She also added that it was usually easier for women to deal with the strong emotional issues that would arise in the project.

The next “Senin Sore” discussion will take place at the RDP studio, where Lashita intends to exhibit her work with fellow artists. While social art projects in the West are widely acknowledged (more often than not pushed by women artists), the Indonesian art community is still hesitant about this unconventional approach.

“We really need to support each other to achieve new standards,”says Diah, “this group will only work, if we are all absolutely honest: if we stick together instead of bashing each other as competitors, we can change something in the system.” Christina Schott

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com (26 April 2009)

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