Indonesia’s Frida Kahlo, taboo-breaking artist Arahmaiani, on art that provokes thought
With a recent show in Jakarta and now one in the UK, artist who was imprisoned, then exiled reminds Indonesians of past they want to forget
Indonesian artist Arahmaiani has had many lives – from an imprisoned, then exiled anti-dictatorship activist to a hippie, art teacher and environmentalist – which have inspired artworks that test the limits of freedom.
The Southeast Asian artist was a nomad for years because of a crackdown on her paintings, installations and performances, which were viewed as provocative in the conservative Muslim-majority nation.
Her works are now on show at Britain’s Tate Modern in London for the first time, and in November she gave a performance there focusing on violence suffered by Chinese-Indonesians in unrest during the fall of dictator Suharto in the late 1990s.
Her voice- and percussion-based performance, named Burning Country, presents a healing process for the community after the trauma from riots still fresh in the memory.
Her radical view of that era, questioning of religious tolerance and environmental damage were major themes of her mini-exhibition “The Wrath of Earth”, held in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, in August and September.
