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Wake Up! by Stefan Buana
27 Mar – 19 Apr 2009

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essay

By Michael Vatikiotis

"It's time to wake up", Stefan Buana exclaims. "The world is in a mess and we need to come to our senses to do something about it. Now is the time to act."

Hard as it might be to imagine an artist's contribution to resolving global warming and the financial crisis, this earnest young artist from West Sumatra firmly believes in the power of his imagery. "In a situation like today, you need to be pure and strong," he explains his series of paintings depicting galloping wild horses. When it comes to the faces of almost long forgotten historical leaders like Sultan Hassanuddin and Gajah Mada: "I miss these kinds of heroes from the past," he says. The sorts of heroes we have today simply don't live up to his expectations.

Stefan Buana is one of Jogjakarta's more distinctive and innovative contemporary artists. He deploys a variety of styles and innovative techniques to produce works of such range and diversity you often wonder if more than one artist is at work.

Flipping through a catalogue from a recent exhibition of young Jogja artists, Stefan Buana makes no apologies for his distinctive somber symbolism. Stefan has shunned the brash pop art of his younger artist friends. He finds it extravagantly unreal for the times. For Stefan, inspiration comes from the very real problems of the many friends he has at home in West Sumatra who are less fortunate than him and have fallen on hard times.

The artist recounts the sad story of a couple of his friends from back home in Padang. Their business went bad and they turned to petty crime to makes ends meet. Now they are in prison. So the galloping horses are for them, to give them hope.

But whilst he brims with confidence for the human spirit, as reflected in the strong line and dynamic spirit of his images, Stefan nevertheless betrays a healthy grip on reality. Indonesia's vibrant new democracy will face an election this year, and to celebrate the new forces of populism he senses around him, he characterizes the politicians fishing for votes in the murky depths of the ocean. Using a creative combination of ink-stained string and sawdust, he conjures up the many faces of voters in a parody of communal unity, their variety presenting at once the impossibility of uniformity. That's democracy for you, he says.

As well as people, Stefan is always conscious of symbols, drawing for the most part on the animal world for inspiration. The elephant, the horse, the majestic hammerhead shark, all reflect what Stefan describes as "the context of my current existence." Then he takes basic materials like rice, sawdust and string to bring relief to images that he conjures up in dark, shadowy forms with sparse use of colour. Much like the seamy reality he seeks to portray.

Stefan's paintings present Indonesia at a crossroads, straddling modernity and tradition. This is amply reflected in the themes of this exhibition – the nostalgia reflected in paintings like "Rindu Bung Karno", and "Rindu Sultan Hassanuddin". Then there is the sharp modern commentary reflected in "Raja Samudra", "Pilkada Rakyat Bantul", and "Musim Pancing". This diverse and strident commentary makes Stefan Buana one of the quintessential Indonesian painters of his times.