Traversing Alam Minangkabau: tradition, identity, and art world making in Indonesia

Abstract

This paper takes as its focus a specific ethnic group's position within Indonesia's contemporary art world as a means to examine the effect ethnicity has on the production of art worlds whose parameters are determined by factors like identity and tradition. The group in question – the Minangkabau of West Sumatra – has received attention throughout history due to the influence of artists active in Jakarta and Bandung in the mid-twentieth century and more recently, in Yogyakarta. By looking at the relationship that Minangkabau artists living outside of West Sumatra maintain with their counterparts in West Sumatra, this study examines the possibility of ethnicity as a vehicle through which a multi-sited local art world can be constructed, traversing geographic boundaries and complicating the continued hegemony of Java as Indonesia's centre of contemporary art production all the while rooted in its historical origins.

Keywords:

• Indonesia
• ethnicity
• migration
• contemporary art
• tradition
• community
• landscape painting

Acknowledgements

Research for this article was supported by the Social Science Research Council, Fulbright-Hays, and the American Institute for Indonesian States. I would also like to thank Michelle Antoinette and Francis Maravillas for their work organising this special issue, the two anonymous peer reviewers for critical insights that shaped the final version of this article, and the members of the communities highlighted, who opened their homes and studios to me in Indonesia.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Katherine Bruhn is a PhD candidate in the Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research interests cluster around global modernisms and contemporary visual practice with a focus on Southeast Asia generally and Indonesia specifically. Her dissertation considers the activity and work of Indonesian artists from the province of West Sumatra, spanning a period from the late-colonial era to the present. Prior to her PhD research, she completed her MA in Southeast Asian Studies at Ohio University and her BA in Art History and Anthropology at the University of Arizona.

Notes

1 Interview with Mamad Ridwan at his studio in Padang, West Sumatra on December 14, 2016.

2 The Pagaruyung kingdom existed in Sumatra from the fourteenth to the early eighteenth century.

3 Here I am referring to academic studies by scholars including Claire Holt (1967), Astri Wright (1994), Helena Spanjaard (1998), and Yvonne Spielmann (2017). Each study is positioned as an examination of ‘Indonesian’ art yet none provides substantial (if any) reference beyond Java and Bali. While these are all the work of foreign scholars, in the case of Holt, Wright, and Spanjaard they have each played a key role in reaffirming a particular narrative of Indonesian art history. Greater attention to art activity outside of Java can be found in exhibition catalogues and journal articles that more frequently represent the voices of scholars both from Indonesia and the wider region of Southeast Asia.

4 In his work on Thai contemporary art, David Teh (2017) draws attention to the continued gravity of national identity for artists from Southeast Asia noting that in international contexts an artist's nationality is almost always the first label applied to him or her (7). This is in contrast to Euroamerican artists for whom place of origin is not deemed as relevant if at all. On this point, Teh offers New York based artists as an example.

5 I am referring to major international exhibitions first organised in the early 1990s that marked a new attention to contemporary art from Southeast Asia. These included the Asia Pacific Triennial organised by the Queensland Art Gallery beginning in 1993, exhibitions organised in Japan by the Fukuoka Art Museum/Fukuoka Asian Art Museum and the Japan Foundation, and the ‘Traditions/Tensions’ exhibition of 1996 sponsored by the Asia Society, New York.

6 I am referring to institutions like the Cemeti Institute for Art and Society in Yogyakarta. Originally known as the Cemeti Art House, this art space was founded in 1988 and is recognised as Indonesia’s first artist run alternative art space. From its inception, Cemeti has played a key role in the development of what at the time of its establishment was emerging as seni kontemporer (contemporary art) (Rath 2011).

7 This origin story rather than the history of Pagaruyung was more frequently cited by my interlocutors when discussing the history of Minangkabau and its traditions.

8 This is a claim that is made by Sakato. It is, however, difficult to track exact membership at any given moment.

9 I emphasize Sanggar Dewata because along with Sakato, these groups are the most notable artist communities that have been founded in Indonesia on regional/ethnic lines. Over time other groups have been organised based on their members’ affiliation with a particular city or region, however, all have been short-lived. For more on Sanggar Dewata see Usaha Das (2017).

10 The term ‘bakaba’ comes from the Minangkabau word ‘kaba’ (or kabar in Indonesian) and can be translated as ‘news’ or, in verb form, ‘the act of spreading news or communication.’ On a more complex level, it is a nod to Minangkabau tradition where ‘kaba’ refers to a traditional Minangkabau literary genre. When Sakato first used the term ‘bakaba’ as the title of an exhibition, Indonesian curator Jim Supangkat (2009) asked whether it might be viewed in a similar light to the Javanese term kagunan that he has long deployed as a means to discuss the local origins of ‘art’ (seni).

11 Art Jog was founded in 2008. Because of its unusual format that highlights artists instead of galleries in a curated exhibition, it is now one of the most anticipated art events in Indonesia. In 2015, ‘Jogja Art Weeks’ was conceived in order to coordinate the multitude of events happening around the city. It was a formalization of what had already occurred organically because of the density of artists and art spaces in Yogyakarta.

12 Other groups that formed in the 1990s included Semoet and Genta.

13 Muhammad Irfan exhibited with Jendela up until the group's fourth show in 2002.

14 Author's translation.

15 Minangkabau is well regarded for the use of figurative and poetic language in both daily interaction and cultural ceremonies like pidato adat (ceremonial orations). Two common forms are known as pantun (a Malay verse form) and pepatah-petitih (proverbs).

16 This list was produced by the data management outfit Artprice, https://imgpublic.artprice.com/pdf/fiac09.pdf.

17 Tambo Arts Centre was initially called Kampuang Sakato, where ‘kampuang’ can be translated as ‘village.’ Because the founding members of Kampuang Sakato had been part of Sakato in Yogyakarta they felt they possessed some ownership over this name. However, because of perceived exclusivity from other artists active in West Sumatra, the group changed its name to Tambo Arts Centre in 2017.

18 Each year the Tambo Arts Centre includes artists active in West Sumatra who are not part of their community in their annual exhibition. Such artists have seniority in this region's art world or are recognized for their skill. Both characteristics apply to Ridwan.

19 These artists were active in Java from the mid-twentieth century. Each is recognised for the part they played in the development of new directions in modern art. Nashar, Oesman Effendi and Zaini are associated with a ‘Jakarta school’ (Siregar 2015) and Mochtar Apin with a ‘Bandung school’ (Spanjaard 1990)

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by U.S. Department of Education - Fulbright-Hays DDRA (Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad) Grant; American Institute for Indonesian Studies; Social Science Research Council.