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Art, land reclamation and green governmentality in Indonesia: Teja Astawa's Dewa Murka and Tita Salina's 1001st Island — The Most Sustainable Island in Archipelago

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 July 2021

Charlotte R.A. Wittesaele
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Abstract

The artworks 1001st Island — The Most Sustainable Island in Archipelago (2015–16) by Tita Salina and Dewa Murka (2016) by Teja Astawa are compared as a means to provide insight into ways artists have been interrogating recent urban discourse in Indonesian contemporary art. This article engages with the critical vocabulary proposed by urban historian Abidin Kusno, which analyses green discourse in the changing Indonesian urban landscapes of the post-Suharto era, and explores how these two artworks reflect Kusno's analysis. Salina's multi-media installation and Astawa's painting address two land reclamation projects in areas that have faced rapid urbanisation: Jakarta and Bali. The artworks evoke questions about tradition, spirituality, environmental sustainability and socioeconomic inequality. The artworks are formally and contextually analysed before being compared and evaluated in relation to Indonesian urban history and discourse. Both artists reflect Kusno's critical analysis of green discourse in Indonesia. Salina's work shares parallels with the tools applied by the government in Jakarta, as her artistic practice similarly requires communities to participate in its creation. Meanwhile, Astawa's work mostly reflects the narrative of green discourse. This conclusion invites further investigation into the Java-centrism of urban discourse and the varying ways in which green discourse may be taking place across the Indonesian archipelago.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies , Volume 52 , Issue 2 , June 2021 , pp. 309 - 335
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Copyright
Copyright © The National University of Singapore, 2021

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Footnotes

I would like to thank Tita Salina and Teja Astawa for their creativity, time and willingness to be interviewed; Dr Pamela Corey for her supervision and critical questioning; and Neil Tett, for his belief that I just needed a little more time and for sparking my academic enthusiasm!

References

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47 Ibid.

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52 ‘I inten[d] to eliminate the distance [between the] public and artists with interactive intervention.’ Tita Salina to author, 3 Aug. 2017.

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54 Ibid.

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57 Kester, The one and the many, p. 68.

58 Ibid.

59 Ibid.

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67 Ibid.

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69 In 1936, Hans and Rolf Neuhaus set up an aquarium in Sanur as a tourist attraction. The toko (store) at the site commissioned tourist paintings. Seascapes were extremely rare. Spanjaard, Pioneers of Balinese painting, p. 93.

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76 Ibid.

77 Astawa to author, 17 July 2017.

78 Anderson, Mythology and tolerance of the Javanese, p. 42.

79 Ibid., p. 13.

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81 Astawa in email to author, 17 July 2017.

82 Ibid.

83 Salina to author, 3 Aug. 2017.

84 Salina to author, 4 Aug. 2017.

85 Ibid.

86 ‘Myself, if the reclamation was done right, I agree.’ Astawa to author, 23 July 2017.

87 Kusno, ‘The green governmentality’, p. 314.

88 Astawa to author, 23 July 2017.

89 Ibid.

90 Vickers, ‘Being modern in Bali’, p. 19.

91 Hartawan, Fragments of subconscious memory, p. 17.

92 Ibid.

93 ‘I use performance in [a] very flexible way and not in [a] theatrical [way]. I use performance to articulate and convey the message and it doesn't have to be myself to do it.’ Salina to author, 3 Aug. 2017.

94 Ibid.

95 Ibid.

96 Ibid.

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99 Ibid., p. 34.

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