Artworks:
Ruang Hidup Yang Di rampas 2019, hardboard cut on paper, 80 cm x 60 cm
Kendeng Lestari 2019, hardboard cut on paper, 80 cm x 60 cm
Indonesian artist Fitri DK describes herself as “an art worker from Yogyakarta”. She uses printmaking and graphic art techniques to critique and dialogue on social and environmental issues. Fitri is committed to raising women’s issues through art and music and consistently provides a strong female voice in an extremely patriarchal culture. Her work is a vehicle through which she documents events and aims to generate dialogue and debate. Fitri is a member of SURVIVE!Garage community, Taring Padi art collective, and a vocalist in the band Dendang Kampungan. Fitri also runs @democrafty, an online store of her handmade craft, embroidery, jewellery and prints.
The title of this print translates as “Robbed Living Space”
The artist says it is a portrait of environmental damage in Indonesia. The conversion of forests into oil palm plantations has resulted in forest animals such as orangutans losing their living space. Orangutans have been killed because they were considered to be damaging oil palm plantations, resulting in their near extinction. Land use change “for the sake of development” often does not pay attention to aspects of the environmental balance around it.
Fitri DK’s works are directly connected to social issues. ‘Kendeng Lestari’, or ‘Women’s Feet in Concrete’ references action taken by mothers who shackled their feet with cement as a symbol of their resistance to a cement factory that was polluting the air and water. The artist says: “I made this work for solidarity with the Kendeng peoples who continue to fight for their land from the threat of a cement factory that damages the environment in Kendeng, fight for Kendeng to be sustainable, they fight not for their own sake but for future generations, their children and grandchildren to continue to enjoy clean air, clean water, mountains, land & sustainable forests.” The text in the foreground refers to the women chanting about Mother Earth.
Ruang hidup yag dirampas (Robbed living space) 2019, hardboard cut on paper, 80 x 60 cm
Kendeng Lestari (Everlasting Kendeng) 2019, hardboard cut on paper 80 x 60 cm
Many artists have used printmaking – woodblock printing and screen-printing in particular – as a form of dissent, social activism, and as propaganda. Examples to look at include the prints of Goya and Hogarth, the early twentieth-century woodblock prints of Käthe Kollwitz in Germany and the New Woodcut Movement in China, or the screen-prints of the Earthworks Poster Co-operative in Sydney in the 1970s.
Why do you think printmaking is a successful medium for communicating a social message?
Analyse how Fitri DK has used graphic qualities of shape, line, contrast and text to make visually compelling images.
Would these prints be as visually and emotionally powerful if they were produced in full colour rather than black and white? Why/why not?
Think About/Discuss:
Look at Fitri DK’s other prints in the exhibition, or the examples shown here, and explain how she uses a language of signs, symbols and visual codes to convey powerful messages that extend beyond her situated Indonesian context to resonate globally.
More information and examples of Fitri DK’s work here:
https://www.16albermarle.com/fitriani-dwi-kurniasih