FX Harsono’s 'Shadow Of Identity', a new installation work created this year, is showing at the 'And The Invader’s Fear Of Memories' exhibition at Wei-Ling Gallery in Kuala Lumpur. Photo: Wei-Ling Gallery
Acclaimed Indonesian artist FX Harsono was dressed in jeans and T-shirt and was patiently setting up his installation work titled Shadow Of Identity at Wei-Ling Gallery in Kuala Lumpur at the time of this interview, just days before the And The Invader’s Fear Of Memories exhibition was to open.
The gallery assistants stood nearby watching him work and were quick to assist the artist.
The 75-year-old man didn’t need much help as he pieced together this new work.
He created the installation Shadow Of Identity this year at his studio in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
When asked about the challenge of bringing it to Malaysia, he replied, “It wasn’t so difficult. I hand-carried it myself because it consists of various parts, and now I’m reinstalling it here.”
Harsono remained composed while assembling his installation – a blend of steel, wood, electric candle, LED light box, photo prints, plastic, paper, and LED running text.
Identity and belonging
“The concept behind this piece revolves around the identity of Chinese Indonesians. During the New Order regime (1966-1998) under President Suharto, many Chinese Indonesians faced discrimination,” said Harsono, an Indonesian of Chinese descent, born in Blitar, East Java.
Harsono’s installation serves as an altar of memory, commemorating Indonesian Chinese ancestors and their struggles, paving the way for future generations to remember. Photo: Wei-Ling Gallery
He began his career as a graphic designer in Jakarta before transitioning to the art scene in the 1970s.
“Your identity was used against you if you were Chinese and one of the ways was in the form of the ID (identification) card for example. It was a tool to discriminate the Chinese in Indonesia,” he added.
Back in those days, the artist described the difficulty he himself faced when he wanted to apply for a passport.
“There is a lot of bureaucracy, you get asked a lot of questions and they want all kinds of paperwork to prove that you are Indonesian or born in Indonesia or that I changed my Chinese name to a Indonesian one.
“When I produced my ID card, I was told that was meant for Indigenous people only and that I needed to get another ID card; I had to pay a lot of money for it,” said Harsono, whose original name was Oh Hong Boen before changing it to Fransiskus Xavarius Harsono.
All this however was in the past and is no longer the case in Indonesia today.
Harsono said that it was during Indonesia’s fourth president Abdurrahman Wahid also known as Gus Dur (from 1999 to 2001) that the laws that were discriminating against the Chinese Indonesians were changed.
A close-up view of Harsono’s installation, which is part of the 'And The Invader’s Fear Of Memories' exhibition. Photo: Wei-Ling Gallery
“He (Gus Dur) made a lot of changes and after that the Chinese people could celebrate Chinese New Year, we could go to the temples, we could practise our culture and Mandarin was taught in schools,” said Harsono.
Harsono’s Shadow Of Identity installation serves as an altar of memory, commemorating Indonesian Chinese ancestors and their struggles, paving the way for future generations to remember.
It is a thought-provoking piece that fits the theme of the And The Invader’s Fear Of Memories exhibition, which runs through Aug 10.
Inspired by Mahmoud Darwish’s poem On This Land, the exhibition features diverse artworks exploring personal memory as a tool of resistance. It includes multimedia installations, photography, and sculptures that provoke introspection and confront suppressed narratives.
Apart from Harsono, this exhibition, curated by Line Dalile, brings together six other internationally acclaimed contemporary artists: Dadang Christanto, Ken Matsubara, Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Sean Lean, Suzann Victor, and Wei Leng Tay.
Altar of memory
Harsono’s Shadow Of Identity consists of a series of old photographs of Chinese immigrants during the Dutch colonial rule, portraits specifically for bureaucratic documentation complete with the authoritative stamp of approval.
There are also leg tables made to stand with the support of scaffolding with small planks on top of them decorated with electric candles.
In this new installation, Harsono reflects on the history of the Chinese-Indonesian community of his ancestry. Photo: Wei-Ling Gallery
Harsono said that these “tables” were broken pieces meant to signify the trauma that the Indonesian Chinese had experienced.
“The older generation still live with the trauma of the past having experienced the discrimination, the riots and massacres but the younger generation, those born around the 1990s and 2000s, they don’t know anything about what happened before,” he elaborated.
“They (the younger generation) are in a better situation now but for me, I was born in 1949 so I know what we went through during the Suharto era.”
What Harsono hopes when the younger Indonesian Chinese folks see the installation is to question why items such as the old photographs are part of the display, and what they signified.
“It is my hope that the young Indonesian Chinese looks at this work and start asking questions like why are these photographs here. When they start questioning, that means they want to know. And then if they discover about the ID card for example, they can then ask other older members of their family about it.”
Forging his own path
Over the past 50 years, Harsono has been creating art without traditional tools like canvas, sculpture, or print.
Despite his training in painting at the STSRI-ASRI art academy in Yogyakarta (1969-1974), Harsono “abandoned” traditional artistic methods to explore new avenues through installations and unconventional materials.
Harsono’s 'Shadow Of Identity' features old photographs of Chinese immigrants from the Dutch colonial era, complete with bureaucratic portraits and authoritative stamps. Photo: Wei-Ling Gallery
“From 1975, I started working without using the canvas. I was not making any painting, sculpture or print. I wanted to make something where the art critic cannot say that this is a painting or a sculpture. I just wanted to say that I have a different way of making art,” said Harsono, a founding member of Gerakan Seni Rupa Baru (New Art Movement) and the Desember Hitam (Black December) movement in Indonesia in the 1970s.
During the interview, he paused to recount an anecdote or argument that profoundly influenced his career path.
The turning point in his artistic journey occurred during a 1972 debate between an architect and a painter. The architect contended that there were no truly Indonesian paintings, as all materials, techniques, and knowledge were derived from the West.
In response, the painter argued that the essence and spirit of painting could still be distinctly Indonesian. This debate inspired Harsono to forge his own path in art, seeking to express Indonesian identity through his work.
“As a young artist and a student at that time, our thinking was that if we use the technique and the material from the West then the people and the art critics will analyse and criticise our work using the Western theory.
“So how do you make art without the people and art critics using the analogy or criticism from Western theory that’s when I began my own journey of art.”
Harsono is not only an accomplished artist but also an active art critic, questioning its social relevance and the evolution of contemporary art.
His accolades include the 2014 Prince Claus Award from the Netherlands’ Prince Claus Fund and the Anugerah Adhikarya Rupa Award from Indonesia. In 2015, he received the Joseph Balestier Award for the Freedom of Art from the Embassy of the United States of America and Art Stage Singapore.
Despite his achievements, Harsono shows no signs of slowing down, creating new artworks annually.
When asked about retiring from art, he grinned and replied, “No ... artists never retire.”
And The Invader’s Fear Of Memories is showing at Wei-Ling Gallery in Kuala Lumpur until Aug 10. Exhibition is open by appointment only. Contact 03-2260-1106 or e-mail siewboon@weiling-gallery.com.
