Arahmaiani: the Indonesian artist with a thousand lives

By AFP/Lucie GODEAU

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 her works 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.

"Art should challenge the status quo and provoke thought. It is a means to question our reality and inspire change," she wrote in the exhibition catalogue.

'Our Frida Kahlo'

Prominently featured in Jakarta were Linnga and Yoni, masculine and feminine symbols that are Hindu representations of the balance of opposites.

Indonesians "wanted to forget these symbols" that were once omnipresent in the archipelago, which was Buddhist, Hindu and animist before becoming the world's most populous Muslim-majority country, she said.

"I want to remind myself and others about this forgotten cultural heritage," Arahmaiani, 63, told AFP.

Recognised abroad as one of the region's best artists, she is "less so in Indonesia", said Deborah Iskandar, owner of ASI Gallery in Jakarta that hosted Arahmaiani's exhibition this year.

She wanted to host an exhibition for Arahmaiani to "introduce her work to a younger generation of art lovers", she said.

Exhibition curator Nasir Tamara calls Arahmaiani "our Frida Kahlo", comparing her to the Mexican feminist and taboo-breaker.

"For young people, Yani (Arahmaiani) is a heroine, she's free. She's been a fighter since university," she said.

The black-haired woman with a serene smile from Indonesia's main island of Java now laughs at past controversies.

Born in the Javan city of Bandung to a cleric father and a mother of Hindu-Buddhist descent, she studied art at the Bandung Institute of Technology.

She was briefly imprisoned there in 1983 following complaints about her works from Islamist parties.

'Freedom for everyone'

A 1993 painting "Lingga-Yoni" and 1994 installation "Etalase" caused controversy for combining symbols linked to Islam, Western culture and sexuality.

Conservative Muslims called for these works to be censored and Arahmaiani received death threats.

She then left for Australia, where she carried on her studies while living with a hippy community.

"There should be freedom for everyone, including women, on the religious basis of love and compassion," she said.

But being a Muslim woman abroad can also carry its own stigma.

She criticised those prejudices in her installation "11 Juni 2002" after a trip to the United States.

In that work, she recreates a room where she was detained by American immigration officers.

Her status as a young Muslim woman travelling alone had made authorities suspicious about possible terrorism links, she said.

In 2006, following a major earthquake in the central Javan city of Yogyakarta, she launched the "Flag Project": spectacular performances in which flags are waved with messages that encourage community dialogue.

Those performances were replicated elsewhere, including Tibet.

Arahmaiani is involved in environmental protection work there and visits regularly, marvelling at the historical links between Tibetan Buddhism and Indonesia's Buddhist heritage.

The artist says she is now working on the theme of political dynasties, a hot topic in Indonesia since the election of President Prabowo Subianto.

Prabowo is a former son-in-law of Suharto and his vice-president is the son of the outgoing head of state Joko Widodo, in a country long known for its political nepotism.