Sketches, stitches, and negotiations: Unravelling Indonesia’s national history through its visual representations
Edhi Sunarso may well be the only artist who worked with all regimes, all throughout the time, including after Reformasi. Artists from Sukarno’s era are generally attached, or associated in whatever ways, to the Indonesia Communist Party or its cultural under-bow, LEKRA. This means that during Soeharto’s regime, they would have been either annihilated, silenced, or put in prison, at the very least. Right after Reformasi, artists who worked under the Soeharto regime would have been skipped from the public reference, as they’d be considered allies to the oppressive and cruel government. So, how could Pak Edhi work with all these regimes? While we were chatting with Pak Edhi, the artisans in his studio were building two state-commissioned monuments. The first was of the nationally acknowledged hero, Diponegoro; and second, two horses interacting in joy. Both monuments were for the city government of Makassar. Mind you, this was 2014, so almost two decades after Reformasi and at the fourth president after the military regime was over.
“I made almost all of the dioramas in Indonesia. I made almost all of the dioramas in Indonesia. Firstly, of course, Monas [Museum Sejarah Nasional/National History Museum in Monumen Nasional/National Monument, in Jakarta],” Pak Edhi began his story. Two hours of conversation was not enough. We kept coming back to Pak Edhi with more and more questions and eventually he allowed us to unpack all of his photo albums and boxes of documents. Naturally, we started organizing them to make sense of things. Everything else slowly follows.
This research have found its public encounters through:
- 2010 [MONOGRAPH] Edhi Sunarso: Seniman Pejuang (Edhi Sunarso: The Fighter Artist, English & Indonesia), edited by Mikke Susanto, published by CV Hasta Kreatifa Manunggal, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
- 2015 [VIDEO] Towards figures of dedication, and a flood by Tom Nicholson with Grace Samboh. First exhibited in the Jakarta Biennale 2015 Maju Kena, Mundur Kena (Neither forward nor back), at Gudang Sarinah Ekosistem, Jakarta, Indonesia. Later on, the video transcription published by Southeast of Now: Directions in Contemporary and Modern Art in Asia Volume 1, Number 1, March 2017, NUS Press Pte Ltd.)
- 2017 [PRESENTATION] Fields: On Attachments and Unknowns, co-organized by May Adadol Ingawanij, Erin Gleeson and Ben Valentine at SA SA BASSAC gallery and resource centre, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
- 2017 [PRESENTATION] Arsip Kini Untuk Seni Esok ‘Membangun Sumber Data’ (Archive, Now, for Art’s Future) at the Gallery of Visual Art Faculty, Institut Kesenian Jakarta, Indonesia
- 2017 [PROJECT] I was born in Indonesia, by Tom Nicholson
- 2019 [ARCHIVAL EXHIBITION] in the occasion of Edhi Sunarso’s 1000th days of death commemoration, still on view at the permanent gallery Griya Seni Hj. Kustiyah & Edhi Sunarso (House of Kustiyah & Edhi Sunarso’s Art), Yogyakarta, Indonesia
- 2019 [WORKSHOP & SYMPOSIUM] A country for outliers, at Malaysia Design Archive & ILHAM Gallery, Kuala Lumpur
- 2019 [GROUP EXHIBITION] FOMO/JOMO: Meretas modernitas yang serbadua (Hacking modernity’s dualism) with Ary “Jimged” Sendy, Edhi Sunarso, Fajar Riyanto, Julian Abraham ‘Togar’, Mella Jaarsma, Nadiah Bamadhaj, Panca DZ, Paul Kadarisman, Pius Sigit Kuncoro, Uji ‘Hahan’ Handoko Eko Saputra, at RUBANAH Underground Hub, Jakarta, Indonesia
- 2019 [ARCHIVAL EXHIBITION] Visualization of the national history: From, by and for whom? at Gudskul, Jakarta, Indonesia
- 2019 [GUIDED TOUR] Taman Mini Indonesia Indah: From, by and for whom? as part of Encounters with Southeast Asian Modernism, Jakarta, Indonesia
- 2019 [WORKSHOP & SEMINAR] (Re)producing Fear and Joy: From, by and for whom? at the RUBANAH Underground Hub, Jakarta, Indonesia
- 2019 [PANEL DISCUSSION] Occupying Modernism: Disclosing our modern spaces, at kopimanyar, as part of Encounters with Southeast Asian Modernism, Jakarta, Indonesia
- 2020 [BOOK] Edhi Sunarso: Penggubah Monumen Bangsa (Edhi Sunarso: The nation’s monument-maker), written by Grace Samboh & Ratna Mufida, published by Pusaka Seni Rupa, Kementrian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan, Jakarta, Indonesia
- 2020 [GUIDED TOUR] Feasting the volcano and cheers to the abundance of scale, in Episōdo 03: Chasing the Scent, as part of Yokohama Triennale 2020 AFTERGLOW, Japan
- 2021 [PROJECT EXHIBITION] Visualization of the National History: From, by and for whom? (2) presented in Contested Modernities, Berlin, Germany