JD Avianto Sprained bamboo installation, 2002
Bandung is the third largest city in Indonesia, three hours away by train from the capital city Jakarta, it is geographically surrounded by mountains with a mild to cool temperature all year round. With a population of over 2 million, the city started as a traditional Sundanese village (the major ethnic group of West Java) and the modern city was only built in the early 19 th century as a resort town for the civil servants of the Dutch colonial government. As a resort town, the city was built to mirror European cities and as a result, the atmosphere is an eclectic mix of Art Deco and local architecture.
Visual artists in Bandung and even throughout Indonesia have used ideas, concepts and medium to create art works that could be easily identified as craft medium. Using bamboo, clay, fabrics, glass, and other skill-based medium they have exhibited extensively in local and international arenas. Well-known artists such as Heri Dono, Dadang Christanto and Titarubi have incorporated craft medium as their artistic expression and are easily accepted alongside other traditional medium such as painting, sculpture or even new media practices in the art world. Widely practised by many Indonesian contemporary artists, yet problematic in its definition and status, the term ' kria ' or craft is an intriguing insight on the status of the object in Indonesia's art world.
Kria: a short history
Historically, the term ' kria ' or craft in Indonesian could be traced back to centuries ago in ancient Javanese culture. A term used to describe practices deemed to be high culture such as batik, keris (traditional dagger) and any devotional objects, kria held a high position in Javanese culture because it was related to practices and objects commonly used and made by kings, aristocrats and priests. However, any medium used and made by common people such as pottery, weaving, and woodcarving were not considered as a kria , rather just 'artisan' practices. The definition of craft or craft object is then defined not only by the medium but also by the caste and status of the maker.
The problematic definition over the distinction of craft and art in the modern time occurred as early as the 1950s. It started when one of the major art schools in Indonesia based in Yogyakarta, the ASRI (now ISI- the Indonesian Art Institute), in an effort to raise the status of skill and medium-based studio in the department, established a new major and named it 'craft' to replace the name of the existing old studio, which was 'kerajinan' or artisan. Yet it is essentially the same course: pottery, metal, wood, and textile. This term is then adopted by both the Bandung and Yogya art schools to designate artistic practices in art academies with western-based curriculum such as fabric design, ceramics, as well as metal and wood, moving away from the original values and meaning of the practice.
Yuli Prayitno Untitled wall instalation, paper boats, 2002
While the Indonesian government has supported the traditional craft practices by giving business training and establishing local craft bodies, in fact all these supports are intended merely to support the tourism industry, thus reducing these practices to its economical value. Consequently, the apprehension towards the inclusion of traditional craft practice in the Indonesian art world is not only because of the adaptation of Western art discourses but also supported by the cultivation of craft's status as tourist objects by the government.
Kria/Seni: the craft/art scene
The vague definition of craft and its subsequent low status in Indonesia are symptomatic to the uneasy relationship between craft and art as anywhere else in the world. However, regardless of the ongoing debate on the definition and status of craft, many visual artists have continuously made works that can be said still 'true to the material'.
Exhibitions such as Message of Medium (Bandung, 2001) and Medium as Identity (Jakarta, 2001) marked the new change towards the effort to define the medium-based works within the art scene. Artists from Bandung such as Biranul Anas, Titarubi (now Yogya-based), Tiarma Sirait, John Martono, Kahfiati, Feni Afiani and the younger generations such as Handy Hermansyah and JD Avianto alongside many Yogya artists are establishing a new set of practice that encourage the exploration of the medium to their works.
All graduated from the Faculty of Fine Art and Design, Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB art school), these artists have created a body of work that explores the medium and skill-based works in their practice. Textile artists such as Biranul Anas have created large-scale works which often incorporated natural elements such as tree branches and leaves in his tapestry. Other artists such as John Martono use batik techniques to create contemporary drawings on fabric while Tiarma Sirait uses a mix of humour, irony and performance art in showing her designs. With a background from ITB's sculpture studio, Handy Hermansyah and JD Avianto with other contemporaries such as Yuli Prayitno, Hedi Heryanto and the Jendela group from Yogya, created medium-based objects such as bamboo and wood with strong sculptural tendencies. No longer confirming to the academic sculptural tradition, their works are an exploration of the character of the medium and the interraction between the object, space and the viewer, in particular the bamboo-based objects of JD Avianto.
The ceramic artists however, established a more diverse scene. The strong appeal of pottery has drawn many artists to establish their own studio and producing handmade tablewares that are unique and limited in their production. Successful artist/craftsman Widayanto as one of the example has not only established a production studio for tablewares but also continously creating decorative ceramic figurines. Widayanto's figurines are loosely based from Javanese and Hindu mythologies, figures such as Ganesh (the elephant headed Hindu god) or Javanese women in various pose are made in high-fired stoneware with whimsical and humorous gestures. Meanwhile, other artists such as Titarubi and the late Hendrawan Riyanto chose to focus on creating art works in their studio. Titarubi's works are mainly installation pieces with strong gender issues while Hendrawan Riyanto made clay sculptures for his installation works, also often incorporated shamanistic performance in delivering his messages.
The distinction between contemporary art and craft practices somehow seems to blur in the works of these artists. Nevertheless, whereas many Indonesian artists continuously explored medium and techniques in creating their works, in reality these works are always highly conceptual and exist in the framework of art.
In contrast to practices above, the traditional craft practices which exist outside art academies are still alive albeit have lost its high social status of the past. Traditional pottery, hand woven textiles, bamboo crafts, even batik and keris making are still practised by traditional craftsman in smaller cities and villages in Indonesia. Interestingly, amid traditional Indonesian objects and other form of traditional craft practices, there is a distinct form of craft/art that almost parodied the situation in the art academies above: the landscape painting of Jelekong.
Jelekong is a small district in south Bandung, whose people's main occupation is painting. More precisely, landscape painting. A heritage from the colonial era, landscape paintings was popular genres in the 1920s and in fact, trail blazed the way for Indonesian modern art. Dubbed as 'Mooi Indies' or the 'Beautiful Indies' genre, it created a picturesque image of the Dutch Indies. Vehemently opposed by nationalist movement of the time, which opted for realistic image of the people, the genre petered out and only favoured by the upper class Indonesian of the time.
Titarubi Bayang-bayang Maha Kecil earthenware, glass and mixed media, ceramic children's busts with arabic inscriptions symbolising protection from harm (detail), 2002
The association with social status, wealth and romanticised image of 'tanah air ' (homeland) makes this painting genre now popular with the middle and lower class Indonesian emulating the upper class. Blending western practice and local context in their subject matter, the painter works methodically and systematically to paint a picturesque image of Indonesia. However, the landscape with rice fields, mountains and rivers depicted in their canvas is no longer a real landscape, it is now a formula to produce their works. Reversing high art into a form of skill and medium-based work, these artists/craftsman peddle their paintings from door to door and still find their market among the local neighbourhoods.
Conclusion
Nonetheless, regardless of the large possibilities of exchange between the craft and art arena, there has never been a strong awareness of contemporary craft scene in Bandung, nor in any other cities in Indonesia. The easy acceptance of medium-based works in the Indonesian art scene mentioned above, such as ceramics, bamboo sculptures, and textile drawings, may have not created a need for a network specifically for contemporary craft practitioners. Yet, it could also mean that there is still reluctance to acknowledge a medium/skill-based practice as well as due to the cheap and touristic stigma. This ambiguous situation can only be set straight by the practitioner themselves and especially the Indonesian art world, that there is a limitless potential in the 'object', apart from their function and superficial status.
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