Artwork: Rekonstruksi Daun Semanggi #2 2014, charcoal & assemblage on pinewood, 100 x 150 cm
Indonesian artist Maharani Mancanagara was born in 1990 in Padang. She now lives and works in Bandung, West Java. Her works explore and reinterpret Indonesia’s complex and sometimes sensitive issues of modern socio-political and cultural history through fictional storytelling, turning political histories into fables or allegories. She studied printmaking at Institut Teknologi Bandung where she began to utilise drawing, printmaking, and installation, often using wooden surfaces.
When Mancanagara discovered her grandfather’s diary, she began a journey to explore personal histories intertwined with larger socio-political dynamics of 20th century Indonesia. Having discovered that her grandfather was imprisoned on Baru Island in 1965 for “re-education” during the terrible purge and massacre that followed an abortive coup, she began to collect people’s unrecorded stories that often presented an alternative view of the history she had been taught at school. Working with archival sources, she is particularly interested in education and the position of women in Indonesian history. Rekonstruksi Daun Semanggi is a homage to Raden Adjeng Kartini (1879–1904), an activist and advocate for women’s rights who protested against the limited opportunities for women to receive education. Kartini’s letters were published in 1911 as Out of Darkness to Light, Women’s Life in the Village, and Letters of a Javanese Princess. The artist views Kartini as an authentic role model for both women and the younger generation in Indonesia. She says, “Women portrayed in the artwork illustrate individuals in their traditional background, striving to learn”.
Artist website: https://mancanagara.com/
Think About/Discuss:
Many artists have explored alternative painting surfaces, often using surprising found materials. In the early twentieth century, for example, Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso made collages using newspaper, wallpaper and sheet music. Robert Rauschenberg painted over a quilt and pillow for ‘Bed’ (1955). In the 1980s Julian Schnabel’s neo-expressionist works were painted over shards of broken crockery glued to the canvas. Compare Mancanagara’s use of found timber in this and other works with any of the following:
Sun Xun’s practice of making ink paintings over newspaper
Yuken Teruya’s tiny sculptures created inside paper shopping bags
Guan Wei’s series of works painted on recycled file folders
Ekaterina Panikanova’s installations of paintings and drawings on old books
Vernon Ah Kee’s ‘Shield’ surfboards – his response to the Cronulla riots
How does an artist’s choice of materials embed meaning/s that may be understood by audiences? What specific meanings are communicated in the artworks you have explored?
How does the artist’s use of wooden boards as a painting surface and the addition of oil lamps suggest ways to read and interpret the work?
How do the imagery and the artist’s techniques evoke a sense of nostalgia?
How would the emotional impact of the work be different if the artist had painted it on a canvas using bright colours?