Lunar New Year is a cause for celebration, but that’s not always the case in Indonesia. Racially-charged laws that discriminated against Chinese-Indonesians were heavily enforced during the country’s New Order regime, which lasted from the 1960s to 1990s. The laws, among other things, required Chinese-Indonesians to adopt more “local” names and prohibited them to practice their traditions in public, including celebrating Lunar New Year. This went on until former president Gus Dur took office in 2002.
A steadfast critic of the systemic racism in Indonesia is artist FX Harsono (b. March 1949). Back in November 2019, Globetrotter visited the ICAD X exhibition where the prominent Chinese-Indonesian artist showed some of his most notable works, including his video installation, Writing in the Rain.
Writing in the Rain by FX Harsono
“Writing in the Rain was created in 2011, [and it was] about how I tried to write my Chinese name, which had to be Indonesian-ized in 1967. In 2002, after Gus Dur was elected president, the Chinese-Indonesian community gained the freedom to practice their culture, including displaying Chinese letters in public, etc. And I then remembered that I had a Chinese name. I tried to write it but then, it came to me that my name was nothing but a mere memory. It was impossible for me to use it again as my identity because mine had been formed by my Indonesian name for tens of years during the New Order era."
Both as an artist and a lecturer, FX has inspired a new generation of artists, including his former student Yaya Sung (b.September 1986), whose work was also exhibited at ICAD X.
Study of Sanity - Flexuous by Yaya Sung
Using photography as her medium, Yaya Sung has experimented with installations, texts, videos, performances and designs. Through her works, she looks to explore her sense of identity as a Chinese-Indonesian, and it was FX who inspired her.
"He always said that an artwork had to be critical; we have to put a lot of thought into it. Meaning, why do we create something? There has to be a clear reason. Besides critical, art has to be concerned about social issues. And I fully agree. Although there are many kinds of art and some are made to entertain, etc, I understand why it's also important that art has to reflect the current events or our critical questions about the current events."
Generations pass, yet artworks about racial discrimination by the likes of FX, Yaya and other oppressed artists are always relevant. In a way, there seems to be a sense of pessimism in their art, as the history does nothing but repeating itself. But FX disagrees.
"I'm never pessimistic, I need to stay optimistic that artistic or cultural matters will always reflect problems that are non-static. When people talk about history, they always assume that history is the past. But the way I see it, [history is] how we react to the past in the present in order to know how we can take a step toward the future. Therefore, history is the past, present and future."
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