19-07-2025

By Adrian Perkasa: I first read about Djoko Pekik during the violent periods of Indonesian Reformasi through his iconic artwork, Indonesia 1998 berburu celeng (Indonesia 1998 Boar Hunting). His painting featured two guys hanging a boar after hunting, and hundreds, if not thousands, of people greeted them with diverse expressions. 

Many buildings and skyscrapers may be seen in the background, as well as a flyover that resembles Jakarta's Semanggi flyover. This image became iconic in my thoughts as I recalled the Reformasi period and the events that occurred during this period.

Naturally, it was an incredible opportunity for me when Diana Suhardiman, the director of KITLV, invited me to accompany her to Plataran, Djoko Pekik's exhibition in Bantul, Yogyakarta. Although Djoko Pekik died a few years ago, this visit was particularly meaningful since his daughter, Bernadeta Inten Lugut Lateng, invited us to go deeper into several of her father's works and expressed her family's perspectives on him.

I must confess that prior to this visit, my knowledge of Djoko Pekik was primarily derived from the insights of others, particularly Sindhunata, a distinguished writer in the realm of Indonesian arts and culture, renowned for his Celeng painting series and his role as a curator for various exhibitions featuring Djoko Pekik. Through his insights, I grasp that Djoko Pekik is an artist rooted in the people, engaging with them, and consistently his works strive to embody their experience, emotions, and aspirations. He consistently identified the uniqueness and individuality of individuals and subsequently captures their plural expressions throughout his artworks. Consequently, his artworks embodied vivid life of the people, or rakyat. 

However, visiting his gallery expanded my perspective on Djoko Pekik. Bernadeta revealed another side of Djoko Pekik, a family man and critical observer of his country. One of his earliest works is a portrait of his wife, which demonstrates the painter's feelings for the love of his life. Bernadeta also described how his father always included his family, including his children, in creating his artworks. Djoko Pekik, for example, encouraged his sons to work alongside him on several paintings, including Kawulo gonjang-ganjing (The people in chaos) and Detik-detik pergantian tahun 2000 (Seconds before the new year 2000).

Djoko Pekik, as a critical observer, provided critiques for nearly all of his works. Even after the army detained him for his association with the Bumi Tarung artist group, which the authorities accused of being a communist organization, he continued to criticize Indonesia's political economy. The two paintings in his gallery best represent his point of view. The picture Go to hell crocodile depicts a gigantic crocodile eating blood from a hole in the ground. According to Bernadeta, the crocodile represents Freeport, a gold mining corporation in Papua. Because of the New Order administration, this firm may be able to exploit Papuans and ruin their environment. He also depicted several groups of people, including himself, attempting to kill the crocodile. The title of this artwork is intriguing because it is similar to a famous statement used by Sukarno, Indonesia's first president: "Go to hell with your aid," which he used to reject many foreign interventions in Indonesia throughout the 1960s.

Djoko Pekik presented a critical assessment of the incident after September 30th, 1965, at the Sirkus badak (Rhinoceros' circus). He described the encounter as a circus-style orchestrated performance. In his painting, a ringmaster appears as a rhinoceros handler in the arena. The ringmaster is shown as a man with a whip and fangs, similar to an ogre or demon, in a Javanese wayang. The main characters are two rhinoceroses, who are unusual compared to tigers, elephants, and other creatures that frequently appear in circuses. The two rhinoceroses attacked each other, unaware that the director was using them as tools to manipulate the stage. Djoko Pekik believes that the terrible incident in 1965 and its aftermath were the result of foreign meddling. They intended to exploit Indonesia's abundant natural riches.

This short visit to Plataran expanded my knowledge as a historian and scholar. Various approaches, including the arts, can help us understand society better, while applying multiple lenses to view and capture multiple realities on the ground. Djoko Pekik's life and works are a testament of how arts could serve as innovative methods to voice social justice concerns. Previous collaborations between Djoko Pekik and Sindhunata serve as an example. Learning from their collaborations, I believe that if we address current challenges from the grassroots level, multiple opportunities for knowledge co-creation will flourish enormously.

Author

Adrian Perkasa is a postdoctoral researcher researching the histories, practices, and uses of Pranata Mångsa (a Javanese agricultural calendar) and other grass-roots knowledge about agricultural calendars and seasons in Java