Contemporary Art’: Propositions of Critical Artistic Practice in Seni Rupa Kontemporer in Indonesia
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CONTEXTUALIZING ‘CONTEMPORARY ART’: PROPOSITIONS OF CRITICAL ARTISTIC PRACTICE IN SENI RUPA KONTEMPORER IN INDONESIA A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Amanda Katherine Rath January 2011 © 2011 Amanda Katherine Rath CONTEXTUALIZING ‘CONTEMPORARY ART’: PROPOSITIONS OF CRITICAL ARTISTIC PRACTICE IN SENI RUPA KONTEMPORER IN INDONESIA, 1973-1994 Amanda Katherine Rath, Ph. D. Cornell University 2011 This dissertation contends with the development of seni rupa kontemporer (contemporary art) between 1973 and 1993, with certain case studies extending to the late 1990s. I offer a history and genealogy of concepts of critical artistic practice, examining to what purpose strategies of a contemporary art have been put and from what conditions they emerged. I examine how these have been interpreted to possess criticality in Indonesia. Taking the controversial curatorial essay published for the 9th Jakarta Biennale of Art (1993) as a catalyst rather than as a point of reference, I rethink the possibility and value of a construct of an avant-garde and postmodern in seni rupa kontemporer.I propose a kind of avant-garde without modernism’s tradition of transgressive poetics. The mode of marginality I have in mind is a critical position possible only on this side of the political sea change and depoliticization of the cultural field in Indonesia after 1965. This entails tracing shifting notions of art’s and artistic autonomy, which were largely dependent upon the relation art had with politics and the spheres in which artistic practice was seen to reside. My argument for a kind of pascamodernisme (postmodernism) in contemporary art in Indonesia posits its position also as one of a critical marginality, whose experiences with modernity are specific and distinct from those of the Euro-North-American context. I argue that a pascamodernisme in contemporary art articulates critical artistic practice as a postcolonial critique of modernity-as-development, and the mutilating forces of modernization. A key aspect in this discussion is those practices that sought to assume alternative traditions, realities, and futures within modernity. In this regard, an important subtext is notions of collaborative work and the artist as members of artists’ collectives and collaborative type of work as a primary and critical artistic solution. I am interested in those artistic collaborative and collective projects that helped to establish installation and performance art into art-historical categories in Indonesia, and whose activities and projects have had a discernible impact on the development of seni rupa kontemporer and how it would be defined vis-à-vis the terms and concepts generated by them. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Amanda Katherine Rath obtained a dual Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Colorado University in The History of Art and Photography, respectively, in 1992. She was the Exhibition’s Coordinator and writer for the Asian Art Coordinating Council from 1992 to 1995. Amanda gained her Masters degree in Asian Studies and Certificate in Southeast Asian Studies from the University of Hawaii, Manoa in 1997. She spent one year at the University of Victoria, Canada for doctorate studies, where she taught an introductory course in the art and architecture of South and Southeast Asia. She then went on to doctoral studies at the Department of the History of Art and Archaeology, and Visual Culture at Cornell University. Amanda received both the Fulbright and Fulbright Hays fellowships for dissertation research in Indonesia, where she spent 18 months researching contemporary art (2001-2003). Her teaching experience also includes assignments at the University of Hamburg, Germany and Cornell University, specializing in modern and contemporary art of Southeast Asia. She is currently a Fellow with the Department of Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Frankfurt. iii To my partner and home, A.G. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First, I would like to thank my committee chair, Associate Professor Kaja McGowan, whose commitment, encouragement, guidance and support has made the completion of this dissertation possible. She has been a constant to remind me that what appears may not be so. I would also like to thank my committee members, Professor Salah Hassan and Assistant Professor Iftikhar Dadi for their critical insights into questions of a global contemporary art, and for their continued support of my project in this regard. In addition, a deep-felt thank-you to Professor Barbara Watson-Andaya, whose critical commentary and support during my Master’s studies at the University of Hawaii helped lay the foundations for my intellectual inquiries into Southeast Asian Studies. Research for this dissertation would not have been possible without the generous financial support from the Fulbright Dissertation Fellowship and the Fulbright Scholarship for Indonesian Research. My research was also assisted by the financial support from a Foreign Language Area Studies (FLAS) grant. I would also like to thank the Southeast Asia Program of Cornell University under Director, Assoc. Prof. Thak Chaloemtiarana for its generous support, notably in financial regards as well as in supplying office space at the Kahin Center during my graduate studies. Many people in Indonesia have helped me over the course of this project. I would like to thank all the artists, art groups, organizations, gallery owners, curators, art critics, and academics for giving so much of their time to me and my project, for sharing their experiences, histories and insights, and for providing me with, or access to, materials and images of works of art. Thanks especially go to my assistants Iwan Wijono and Feri, without whose invaluable help this would be a very different project. v My special gratitude also goes to: FX Harsono, Jim Supangkat, Nindityo Adipurnomo, Mella Jaarsma, the folks at Cemeti Art Foundation (now the Indonesian Visual Art Archive), Krisna Murti, Heri Dono, Arahmaiani, Tisna Sanjaya, Agung Kurniawan, Agung Jennong, Ade Dermawan and everyone at Ruang Rupa, Isa Perkasa, Agus Suwage, Titarubi, S. Teddy D., Bonyong Munni Ardhie, Andar Manik, Marintan Sirait, Asmudjo Irianto, Amminudin TH Siregar, Dr. Oei Hong Djien, Biantoro, Edwin Rihardjo, Hendro Wiyanto, Yoyo Yogasmana, Heru Hikayat, Herry Dim, Nandang Gawé, Wawan Hussin, Entang Wiharso and Christine Cocca. Finally, I would like thank Arndt Graf for his unerring support, generosity of spirit, humor, and love through this journey. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH..........................................................................................iii DEDICATION……………………………………………………………………… iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS...............................................................................................v TABLE OF CONTENTS…………………………………………………………… vii LIST OF FIGURES.........................................................................................................x LIST OF TERMS AND ABBREVIATIONS ...............................................................vii INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................1 Construct of an Avant-Garde........................................................................................17 Construct of a Postmodernism: Pascamodernisme as Critique of Modernity-as- Development.................................................................................................................20 Collaborative Processes and the Artist Collective as Additional Frame......................24 CHAPTER ONE THE ROLE OF THE BIENNALE EVENT IN THE FORMATION OF THE SENI RUPA KONTEMPORER DISCOURSE...................................................28 Historical, Political and Ideological Background.........................................................29 Locations of ‘Indonesian’ Art...............................................................................31 Taman Ismail Marzuki Cultural Center (TIM) .....................................................33 Official Aesthetic Expectations ............................................................................37 Controversial Curator and Curatorial Platform ............................................................39 CHAPTER TWO.. READING A READING OF THE AVANT-GARDE AND POST MODERNISM..............................................................................................................46 Standard Narratives ......................................................................................................48 Categories of the Avant-Garde and Reconceptualizing Gerakan Seni Rupa Baru ......55 Angkatan as a Mode of Periodization ..........................................................................61 Reading the Postmodern...............................................................................................65 General Patterns of the Pascamodern in Seni Rupa Era 80-an and in BJIX........71 A Growing Definitionof Postmodernism/Pascamodernisme................................93 Ambivalent Notions ..............................................................................................99 Conclusion..................................................................................................................102 CHAPTER THREE... PRE-1966 AND EARLY NEW ORDER PROPOSITIONS OF ART’S AUTONOMY ................................................................................................105