Wounds in Our Heart: Identity and Social Justice in the Art of Dadang Christanto

Abstract

On 10 September 1999 at the Third Asia-Pacific Triennial exhibition in Brisbane, Australia, I was part of a large crowd of around 1000 who gathered to watch a performance by Indonesian artist Dadang Christanto. The event took place in front of his artwork, Api di Bulan Mei 1998/Fire in May 1998 (Figure 5.1) an installation of rows of 47 larger-than-lifesized male and female papier mâché sculptural figures, their hands raised in supplication, which were to be ritually burned as part of the performance. The artist had dedicated this work to the victims, mainly Chinese — those who died and the women who were raped — when businesses and homes were destroyed in the Indonesian riots that occurred in Jakarta and Solo in May 1998, during popular protests that brought down the Suharto regime (Turner and Clark 1999). A fact-finding team appointed by the Indonesian Government, Tim Gabungan Pencari Fakta (TGPF) reported that nearly 1300 people had died in the riots, many of them burned to death when trapped by demonstrators in supermarkets (People’s Daily Online 2000).¹ The artist began the performance by weaving slowly among the figures, in his characteristic performance state of semi-trance, kneeling in respect to each figure as if to a parent or in prayer before, with great reverence, setting the figures alight one by one.