Echoing Gayatri Spivak's critique in 1985, "Can the subaltern speak?", in 1996 G. Sidharta Soegijo--or Dharta for short--once posed a question: "Is the road taken by the West the only way to reach contemporary art in Indonesia? I want to free myself from the absoluteness of values. I want to find an alternative way; I want to seek Indonesian local values." Dharta's awareness about the existence of other discourses other than the dominating Western art discourse, however, had been present long before, since around the 1960s and 1970s. It was the time when the modern art of the Bandung School found it difficult to connect comfortably with its local context, whether in terms of the local values, aesthetics, and the critical dimensions. At the time, there were also doubts regarding the use of Bandung School's formalism as a landmark critical of its contemporary local identity.

Dharta's rich artistic expressions had indeed inherited the legacy of Bandung's formalisms, be it in his paintings, his sculptures, and his graphic arts, with abstract-geometrical, expressive, or symbolic tendencies. Dharta, however, views this legacy in terms of two strictly different realms: the realm of art works as the representation of the natural, and as the representation of the cultural. Dharta is also aware that there has been no systematic and clear analysis about the themes and the aesthetic of the subaltern--especially of the Indonesian visual art. Seeing and reading Dharta's works and thoughts, it becomes clear that such analysis is badly needed.

For the inhabitants of Jakarta, Dharta's "sculptures," Grow and Evolve III, (1991), Landmark of the Ocean, (1980), or the Proclamation Monument, are likely seen as monuments. For an art critic, it will be difficult to see such monuments, especially in Indonesia, as a form of public art. The art of monuments, in any case, has not been clearly defined here. But Dharta did not mind. As one of the functions of monuments is to communicate with the public, Dharta realizes that the language present and used by the surrounding public is not necessarily the result of some historical consensus, and neither does it always signify the local identity. In terms of languages, Dharta apparently concludes that he still can rely on local icons to develop some early forms of communications. Let us see, for example, his copper sculpture Orientation and Balance, (1996-1997) in Fukuoka, Japan. The sculpture combines the four points of the compass, the symbol of the local inhabitants of Fukuoka, which is at the same time the symbol of spirituality and a form of tattoo.

Dharta's early works had borrowed the icons from the traditions of the Javanese. Naturally, such icons were combined with the legacy of Bandung's formalism that Dharta had inherited. In his search to find "the essence of Indonesian identity and value," Dharta had no other choice but combining the strength of the "local" icons with some forms of a "universal" language--as if blending the Eastern wisdom and Western rationality. Dharta, in the mean time, is forever searching and evolving.

Aminudin TH Siregar

Born on November 30, 1932 in Yogyakarta.
Studied at Indonesia Academy of Fine Arts (ASRI), Yogyakarta (1953), Jan van Eyck Academy of Visual Arts, Maastricht, The Netherlands (1957).

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
1998 "Back to Yogyakarta", Bentara Budaya Art Centre, Yogyakarta.
2000 "Retrospective", Widayat Museum, Mungkid, Magelang.
2002 "Traces of Journey", Bentara Budaya Art Centre, Jakarta.

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2001 "Indonesia Association of Sculptors", National Gallery, Jakarta.

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