Feminisms and Contemporary Art in Indonesia

Feminisms and Contemporary Art in Indonesia

Defining Experiences

  • Author: Dirgantoro, Wulandani
  • Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
  • Serie: Asian Visual Cultures
  • ISBN: 9789089648457
  • eISBN Pdf: 9789048526994
  • Place of publication:  Amsterdam , Netherlands
  • Year of digital publication: 2017
  • Month: May
  • Pages: 229
  • DDC: 709.598
  • Language: English
While Indonesian contemporary art is currently on the rise on the international art scene, there hasn't yet been an in-depth study of the works of Indonesian women artists and the feminist strategies they employ within the art world. This book fills that gap, presenting the first comprehensive study of feminisms and contemporary art in Indonesia; using feminist readings to analyse the works of Indonesian women artists historically and today; illuminating the sociocultural contexts in which they have worked; and offering a nuanced understanding of local feminisms in the nation.
  • Cover
  • Table of Contents
  • Acknowledgements
  • List of Figures
    • Figure 1 – S. Sudjojono “Di Depan Kelambu Terbuka” (In front ofthe open mosquito net), 1939, oil on canvas, 66 x 86 cm,Ir Sukarno family collection
    • Figure 2 – Jim Supangkat “Ken Dedes”, 1975/2005, mixed media, 61x 44 x 27 cm, Singapore Art Museum
    • Figure 3 – Nasyah Jamin “Gadis Makasar” (Makassar Girl), 1965, oilon canvas, 82 x 57.5 cm, National Gallery of Indonesia
    • Figure 4 – Emiria Sunassa “Wanita Sulawesi” (Woman of Sulawesi),1968, oil on canvas, 66 x 47 cm, Oei Hong Djien Museum
    • Figure 5 – Emiria Sunassa “Kembang Kemboja di Bali” (Frangipaniof Bali), 1958, oil on canvas, 47 x 67 cm, Oei Hong DjienMuseum
    • Figure 6 – Emiria Sunassa “Mutiara Bermain” (Pearl at Play), dateunknown, oil on canvas, 79 x 91 cm, image courtesy ofHeidi Arbuckle
    • Figure 7 – Emiria Sunassa “Peniup Seruling dan Purnama” (Fluteplayer and full moon), 1958, oil on canvas, 60 x 80 cm,Iskandar Waworuntu collection
    • Figure 8 – Mia Bustam “Portrait Diri” (Self-portrait), 1959, oil oncanvas, dimension unknown, destroyed in 1965
    • Figure 9 – IGAK Murniasih “Rasanya kok enak ya” (Feels gooddoesn’t it?), 1997, acrylic on canvas, 100 x 150 cm, whenphotographed, estate of the artist
    • Figure 10 – IGAK Murniasih “Sembahyang” (Prayer), 2004, acrylic oncanvas, 170 x 100 cm, when photographed, estate of theartist
    • Figure 11 – Laksmi Shitaresmi “Kutunggu Hadirmu” (Waiting foryour arrival), 2010, acrylic and charcoal on canvas, 190 x190 cm, private collection
    • Figure 12 – Laksmi Shitaresmi “Aku… aku… beginilah aku” (Me, me,me, … this is me), 2010, fibreglass, mixed media, 156 x 168x 20 cm, private collection
    • Figure 13 – Titarubi “Bayang-bayang Maha Kecil” (Shadows of theTiniest Kind), 2003-2009, ceramics and mixed mediainstallation, dimension variable, in various private andpublic collections, including Oei Hong Djien Museumand Singapore Art Museum
    • Figure 14 – Titarubi “Bral geura miang” (Now is the time to depart),2004, digital print on vinyl, 200 x 150 cm, artist’s collection
    • Figure 15 – Arahmaiani “His-Story”, 2000-2001, performed at theJakarta International Performance Art Festival (JIPAF),Nippon International Performance Art Festival (NIPAF),Japan, and in Dresden, Germany
    • Figure 16 – Arahmaiani “Do not prevent the fertility of the mind”,1997, mixed media installation, dimension unknown,part of Womanifesto Festival, Bangkok, Thailand
    • Figure 17 – Arahmaiani “Flag Project” (2004-ongoing), mixed mediainstallation and performance, dimension variable, SingaporeArt Museum
  • Glossary and Abbreviations
  • 1 Introduction
    • Defining Experiences
    • “Intimate Distance” as background
    • Unnatural partnership: Women, political activism and feminism/s in Indonesia
    • The female body, art and censorship in Indonesia
    • Definitions and distinctions: Feminisms or gender?
    • Methodology
    • Selection of artists
    • Book structure
  • 2 Firing the Canon
    • Indonesian Art Canons as Myth and Masculine Ideal
    • Postcolonial masculinity, canon making and Indonesian modern art
    • Truth and beauty: The early years of modern art in Indonesia
    • “Representing Indonesian modernity” as canon-making
    • Gerakan Seni Rupa Baru
    • The legacies of GSRB
    • Gender and avant-gardism in GSRB
    • Ken Dedes and the gaze
    • Concluding remarks
  • 3 Haunting in the Archipelago
    • Emiria Sunassa and Mia Bustam
    • The dark archipelago: The narratives of Emiria Sunassa
    • Reading the primitive
    • Tracing the feminine: Emiria’s nudes and native landscape
    • The primitive and the feminine: Nationalism’s internal others
    • Painting ghosts: The narratives of Mia Bustam
    • Sudjojono dan Aku: Becoming an artist
    • Dari Kamp ke Kamp: Arts and politics
    • Imprisonment
    • Emiria and Mia: Exceptional women
  • 4 Female Desire and the Monstrous-Feminine in the Works of IGAK Murniasih
    • The monstrous-feminine in Murni’s paintings
    • Displacing desire: Sex and humour in Murniasih’s works
    • Women and desire in Bali
    • Reading Murniasih: Framing desire
    • Murniasih as an outsider artist?
  • 5 Searching for the Feminine
    • Motherhood and Maternal Subjectivity
    • The changing representation of motherhood in Indonesian visual arts
    • The maternal nude: Laksmi Shitaresmi
    • Titarubi: Herstory in art
    • Women, motherhood and political participation: Voice of the concerned mothers
    • Political motherhood in the works of Titarubi
    • Maternal Subjectivity: Women reading women
    • Concluding remarks
  • 6 Performing Feminism/s
    • Performance Art and Politics in the Works of Kelompok PEREK and Arahmaiani
    • Performance art in Indonesia
    • Kelompok PEREK: Kelompok Perempuan Eksperimental (1998-)
    • Challenging the status quo: The performances of Arahmaiani
    • Global feminisms and Arahmaiani’s politics of the body
    • Religion and spirituality
    • Performing feminism/s in Indonesian visual arts
    • Concluding remarks
  • 7 Conclusion
    • Strategies of correction: Interventions in art history
    • Strategies of Interrogation: Searching for the feminine
    • Reading feminism/s in post-New Order Indonesia
    • Rearticulating feminine spaces in the Indonesian art world
  • Bibliography
  • Index

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