Gets to the heart of what is unique about Indonesian art. Exploring the work of established and emerging artists in Indonesia's vibrant art world, this book examines why so many artists in the world's largest archipelagic nation choose to work directly with people in their art practices. While the social dimension of Indonesian art makes it distinctive in the globalized world of contemporary art, Elly Kent is the first to explore this engagement in Indonesian terms. What are the historical, political, and social conditions that lie beneath these polyvalent practices? How do formal and informal institutions, communities, and artist-run initiatives contribute to the practices and discourses behind socially engaged art in Indonesia? Drawing on interviews with artists, translations of archival material, visual analyses, and participation in artists' projects, this book presents a unique, interdisciplinary examination of ideologies of art in Indonesia.
Elly Kent is a visual artist, writer, translator, and researcher. She is also the editor of the New Mandala.
Author's Introduction: Entanglement in the world Part 1: History, identity and culture: the matrix for the artist's soul Si Kabayan Nyintreuk: eccentricity and activism Local knowledge: Jiwa ketok The unified eye: Where do the Quiet Ones Go? Etching performance: reflections from praxis Personal/social/interactive: a formula for the engaged artist Drawing on the personal-social-interactive Part 2: Turba, down to 'the people' People's culture inside and outside institutions Participation, pedagogy and politics: Made Bayak's Plasticology Adiboga Wonoasri - cosmopolitanism out of starvation Jakarta Biennale and Trotoart: social tactics in the city IBU at Cigondewah: turba as antagonism Part 3: Kerakyatan: conscientisation for the people The New Order and New Indonesian Art: Opportunity and Oppression Conscientisation and the rakyat - global/local entanglement Rayuan Pulau Kelapa - turba, conscientisation and negotiation KuehSenyum: actions in social exchange Tepuk Tangan Nuhun: interventions in gratitude Back to the Bay: Tita Salina and conceptual conscientisation Performing opposition: the burial of Made Bayak Part 4: Ethics and Aesthetics Local knowledge: gotong royong and rasa Pirates and maids: gotong royong as horizontal knowledge-building An ecosystem of production: institutional practices and contemporary art practice in Indonesia Mamahkuaing: maternal feelings Rasa: Feeling, Flavour, Taste and Touch A conversation: true fiction, fictional truth Impermanent conclusions An artistic ideology Originary discourses Coda
"[The book] proves to be a key instrument in understanding the Indonesian art scene's rich collectivity."-- "ArtAsiaPacific" "I picture Elly Kent's Artists and the People: Ideologies of Art in Indonesia as a collection of tightly woven braids, skilfully crafted by bonding art histories, ethnographic observation, and contemporary discourse that chart interaction as well as distinct paths of artistic ideologies related to the kinds of relational, participatory, and socially engaged art practices in Indonesia.... [Overall, this] is a significant scholarly contribution to socially engaged art discourse within and beyond Indonesia.... Kent's intellectual achievement attests to her rigorous labour of reading, translating, and contextualizing primary texts from Indonesia's prominent art thinkers across time, not to mention her sustained and empathetic engagement (or entanglement!) with the many facets of Indonesian contemporary art scenes."-- "Southeast of Now: Directions in Contemporary and Modern Art in Asia" "Artists and the People examines important art practices today that have escaped critical readings. In this way, [both] the books are distinguished from previous Indonesian art discussions that do not have a strong contextual ground in Indonesian cultural phenomena... Collectively, the books invite Indonesian scholars to theorise the overlooked social or humanities thinking of Indonesia's public intellectuals or art intelligentsia."-- "ArtLink" "Elly Kent's new book Artists and the People: Ideologies of Art in Indonesia adopts a sociological approach to understanding the practice of art in, specifically, Indonesia and its history and tradition."-- "Asian Review of Books"
