Feminist Provocations: The Rise of Feminist Art in Indonesia
Feminism is often times aligned with postmodernism. With both being progressive and avant-garde, it is no surprise that some can associate feminism as the movement that transgresses through and from postmodernism. To be more precise, postmodernism can be understood as the rejection of modernity’s encompassing principles, to which Jean-Francois Lyotard describes to be an “incredulity towards metanarratives,”[1] and in a similar fashion, feminism is also the rejection of societal patriarchy and male superiority. Postmodernism could also be seen as the movement which “casts doubt upon the possibility of a ‘new’ that is not in some way already implicated in the ‘old,’”[2] again, rejecting modernism’s gesture of constantly pursuing ‘new’ things. In a sense, this is possibly applicable to feminism, as it concerns the issue that has always been there, instead of bringing upon something ‘new’.
As postmodernism was an era which revolutionized ways of thinking culture, society, and language, it was also an era in which women began speaking louder about their rights and freedom that was much long overdue. It was around the 1960s when feminist art practices began expanding, with the emergence of artworks and exhibitions that were considered provocative to the previously monotonous, heterosexual, white, and male society. The reason being that it evokes the truth of female domestication. One feminist writer who addresses the issues of female subjugation in relation to social theory are Seyla Benhabib. Slightly opposing Lyotard’s arguments on postmodernism, Benhabib believes that rejecting grand narratives or in which she calls the ‘Death of History’ makes it impossible for women to have their own narrative.[3] The reason being that most women become victims in smaller domains — like their homes and workplaces — and to appeal only to these instead of the larger picture would not make an impact in the grand scheme of justice. Therefore, according to Benhabib, feminist activism should start from the underlying system of laws and institutions before it makes it way down to local communities.
But it is not just in the Western world that women were demanding liberation through forms of art and protest. Beyond the Western canon, Indonesian female artists were slowly breaking away from the pressing conservative nature of the patriarchal art world in the country. Being the country with the largest Muslim population in the world, feminist artists have been battling with the issue of censorship as well as their lack of freedom in representing the female body. Not too long ago before the rapid rise of younger feminist generations, the term “feminist artist” was very hard to discern in the Indonesian context, due to the fact that a feminist — including a feminist artist — was and sometimes still is painted to be “a militant, angry woman who rejects family values, hates men and/or is a lesbian”. This stereotype has ultimately made it difficult for female artists to not only express themselves, but also to take full control of their career as an artist. Often times, female artists are pigeonholed to be “difficult” when it comes to curating and managing their own art, thus, limiting their opportunities in exhibitions.[4] All of this can be attributed to the long history which have always reinforced the idea that women are powerless and that they belong in the kitchen.
Nevertheless, in more recent times, feminist art have been much more normalized both inside and outside the art world. One contemporary Indonesian feminist artist that celebrates the female of all sorts is Arahmaiani. Arahmaiani was born in 1961 in Bandung, Indonesia, right at the time when women were protesting for their rights in Western metropolitan cities. Mostly known for being a pioneering performance artist, Arahmaiani’s multidisciplinary works address issues of mainly class, race, sexism, politics, and religion. Arahmaiani’s works encompass as bridges between opposing fields; the contemporary and the traditional, fine art and mass media, feminism and religion, globalization and nationalism, and others.[5] Most importantly, Arahmaiani’s art encapsulates not just what it means to be a female in Indonesia, but also what it represents.
In one of her celebrated works, Do Not Prevent the Fertility of the Mind, Arahmaiani draws on her past experiences as a student who got arrested for her performance art, as well as her confrontation with the confining nature of female fertility during 1990s Indonesia. In reference to ex-president Suharto’s tightening birth control policies at the time, Arahmaiani believes that this action was the “colonialization of the state even to the innermost part of women’s bodies”.[6] The work consists of an arrangement of sanitary napkins, fluorescent lights, a portrait of Arahmaiani herself with scissors on one hand and an intrauterine device on the other. Do Not Prevent the Fertility of the Mind incorporates the notion of fertility in terms of its biological function as well as the psychological and spiritual struggles that women battle in order to make their own decisions and take control of their bodies.[7]
Until today, the art of female emancipation, resistance, and celebration in Indonesia is ever growing, with more and more Indonesians participating in the conversations about censorship, representation, maternity, and other topics that fall under the massive umbrella we call feminism. Through Arahmaiani’s works, we can see a connection to Benhabib’s understanding that feminism should be addressed firstly in its systemic structures. However, it is also safe to say that female artists are still very far away from achieving liberation and equal rights in the art world, both within and beyond the Western canon. Today, feminism is still frequently reduced to a form of man-hating resistance, despite it being a historical and complex web of threads.
NOTES:
[1] Jean-Francois Lyotard, “Introduction to The Postmodern Condition” (1979), in Art in Theory: 1900–2000, ed. Charles Harrison and Paul Wood: 1122. Oxford: Blackwell, 2013.
[2] Judith Butler, “Contingent Foundations: Feminism and the Question of ‘Postmodernism” in Feminist Contentions: A Philosophical Exchange, by Seyla Benhabib et al. with an introduction by Linda Nicholson, 36. New York and London: Routledge, 1995.
[3] Seyla Benhabib, “Feminism and Postmodernism: An Uneasy Alliance” [1990]. In Feminist Contentions: A Philosophical Exchange, by Seyla Benhabib et al. with an introduction by Linda Nicholson: 23. New York and London: Routledge, 1995.
[4] Wulan Dirgantoro, Feminisms and Contemporary Art in Indonesia: Defining Experiences (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2017), 17.
[5] Edwin Jurriëns, “Gendering the Environmental Artivism: Ekofeminisme and Unjuk Rasa of Arahmaiani’s Art,” Southeast of Now: Directions in Contemporary and Modern Art in Asia 4 no. 2: 4.
[6] Singapore Art Museum. “Do Not Prevent The Fertility Of The Mind.” https://www.singaporeartmuseum.sg/about/our-collection/do-not-prevent-the-fertility-of-the-mind#:~:text=Do%20Not%20Prevent%20the%20Fertility%20of%20the%20Mind%20draws%20on,are%20curtailed%20by%20watchful%20authorities.
[7] Edwin Jurriëns, “Gendering the Environmental Artivism: Ekofeminisme and Unjuk Rasa of Arahmaiani’s Art,” 6.
