Indieguerillas x Hisashi Tenmyouya Duo Exhibition

SAME BUT DIFFERENT

Both indieguerillas (husband and wife duo Miko Lancur Bawono and Santi Ariestyowanti) and Hisashi Tenmyouya were graphic designers and illustrators before they became artists. They were born and grew up in modern families that have no strong attachment to their traditions. However, the works of both artists are strongly influenced by the tradition and culture of the society they live in. Indieguerillas once said,

“Undeniably Hisashi Tenmyouya is an important figure for indieguerillas, although at that time we did not know him in person. In the early days of indieguerillas, Hisashi Tenmyouya strengthened our confidence that we could use our tradition as the basis for our artworks in contemporary context.”

By looking at the statement by indieguerillas, we could clearly see that not only they idolized Hisashi Tenmyouya, they also considered him as their comrade-in-arms.

However, rather than talking about similarities of their background, to me, it is more interesting to talk about how different their artworks are. Hisashi Tenmyouya began his study of the Japanese traditional style of painting known as Nihonga when he was 10 years old. He uses his immaculate skills of Nihonga to make a statement about an antithesis of modern Japanese-style painting in its role as an opposite concept to modern Western-style painting, and he calls his style as Neo-Nihonga. Neo-Nihonga is a new genre that uses new materials such as acrylic paint, while at the same time refers to characteristics of Japanese art, such as a traditional Japanese line drawing, and the use of decorative, symbolic, and playful elements. As for the subject, it aims to be the true contemporary art portraying contemporary Japan while quoting the classical essence of Japanese art.

indieguerillas began to familiarize themselves with their own traditional culture when they were adults. They began to look back at their own roots, when they realized that their artworks were no different than the artworks made by their peers in Yogyakarta, or other artists they saw on the internet. They felt the uniformity in art throughout the globe. Instigated by their childhood memory of popular adaptation of wayang stories on TV shows and comics, they began to dig deeper into the roots of their traditional culture. In their attempt to further understand their traditional roots, they came across Punakawan who they felt as a true representation of themselves. Punakawan, consists of Petruk, Gareng, Semar and Bagong, are wayang figures that are found only in Java. They play the role of servants in Javanese wayang stories. The term Punakawan originated from the word pana, which means to understand, and kawan which means friend. Punakawan are not only servants, they also understand what befalls their master. Often they act as the advisor of their masters. In their artworks, indieguerillas uses the Punakawan figures as the symbol of Indonesia’s common people, including themselves.

This is quite similar to Hisashi Tenmyouya’s artistic concept of Basara, where he employs the glamorous beauty that connects the basara of the Nanboku dynasty, the kabukimono of the late Sengoku era, the ukiyo-e masters of the late Edo period, and Japanese recent youth culture with its bad and decorative taste. indieguerillas uses the Javanese traditional wisdoms and iconography found in wayang stories as a critical statement towards the new Indonesian (including their own) mentality that is driven by Western materialistic behavior. They call this generation as the happy victim. Through their artworks, both artists try to criticize their society in relation to their traditional values, but their intentions are somewhat different. Hisashi Tenmyouya attempts to make a reformation in the Japanese art culture, while indieguerillas simply attempts to remind Indonesia’s young generation (including themselves) about their own roots and tradition. 

In contrast to Hisashi Tenmyouya who masters the technique of traditional Japanese painting, indieguerillas have never learned nor studied any traditional art making process. Objects in Hisashi Tenmyouya’s paintings are hybrid between contemporary imaginations with Japanese traditional objects, and are executed in his unique style of traditional Japanese painting. As the result, visually we can see a very strong Japanese tradition in his paintings, but at the same time we also feel the contemporaneity of his artworks. The sense of time in his artworks is blurred. It could be someone from the past imagining about the future or someone from the future imagining about the past. indieguerillas, who are formally trained as designers, are employing contemporary design techniques, skills and creative approach to execute their artworks. This lead them to produce artworks by using non-conventional medium and techniques known to fine art, such as the use of CNC machine to cut hard objects, digital prints, digital sketches, and the use of ready-made objects. There are two main elements in almost all of their artworks: the figures of Punakawan and the logo or visual identity of famous brands. But the figures of Punakawan are far from their original form and style known in traditional wayang show. indieguerillas’s Punakawan has been mutated into hip-hop style of Punakawan wearing lots of branded items. This is the representation of themselves as Indonesian youth who are becoming the happy victim of Western materialistic mentality. Generation that is more proud to wear Gucci rather than batik (Javanese traditional textile), more connected to their Facebook friends rather than their neighbors, more proud to hangout at Starbucks than our local coffee shops, but their mindsets are still local. The way they look don’t match the way they think and act. indieguerillas artworks are sarcastic comedy about the acute inferiority complex of Indonesian young generation. 

In my opinion, this world is undergoing a major change. The Western dominance has begun to fade in various aspects of human life, including in the field of art and culture. As the non-Western nations began to offset the dominance of the West, they opened up opportunity for the formation of diversity in the global art scene. Both Hisashi Tenmyouya and indieguerillas try to find an alternative platform in contemporary art that allows them to take part in the global art scene, while at the same time remain attached to their own tradition and culture.

(END)
Text by Hermanto Soerjanto
(edited 15/11/15)