Women Photo Exhibition: Jakarta, West Java

Sometimes, when looking back in time, everyone had a specific role to play and things seemed to be a lot easier to cope with, compared with the more complex realities we face today. In a world in which traditional gender roles are mixed up by modern lifestyles, it’s tough to find ones own place in society.

For women, the Indonesian cultural stage does not help that much, as it does not leave much room for women Indonesian artists or photographers in particular.

Projects like Mata Perempuan, Seharusnya (Women’s Eyes, Apparently) provide the small steps that may result in an equal share of the cake for photographers of both genders.

The exhibition sports the work of 13 women artists who portray their own experiences as women and their views on femininity and womanliness. “We’re talking about us,” said the artist Stefanny Imelda laconically.

Their absolute artistic license in producing the photographs makes the exhibition a very diverse and varied experience. Thus, except for femininity as a general subject there is no recurrent theme that guides the observer through the showrooms of Galeri Cipta II, Taman Ismail Marzuki, Central Jakarta.

Widya Amrin, for example, focuses on highlighting two extreme images of women. Her work shows four pairs of pictures. Each contrasts a weak and a strong woman by portraying similar facial expressions or body parts.

Drops of water on a face can represent the sweat of aspiration or a sole tear; a scream can show boldness or desperation. A hand can have a tight grip on a dumbbell or clasp its fingers powerlessly around a box of potentially fatal tablets.

“It’s about feelings, the weak woman tried to kill herself,” explained Widya, adding that she had befriended both women.

Not all of the photographs work with such polarizing images, but the topics that are presented draw the observer’s attention toward serious issues.

Maria Lasakajaya’s work shows mostly men instead of women and deals with the patriarchical domination of women in society. The pictures, arranged with captions, portray physically and psychologically strong men in dominant poses.

“A six-pack does scare me”, said Stefanny, as she viewed Maria’s work.

The traditional female role as domestic and inferior “angels”, fulfilling their job in society by being beautiful, is questioned. Three pictures showing a distressed woman are completed with the sentence, “I’ve lost my wings in hell.”

Trika Simanjuntak takes up this thought of domesticated oppression and domination of women in her work, Domestic Violence.

She portrays a woman in man’s clothes, seeming to build up aggression. The same woman in her female guise is finally shown with a bruised face. In a way the depicted woman becomes her own victim in the end.

Dealing with these topics, the artists maintain close ties to the harsh realities of everyday life like domestic violence and murder.
Firman Ichsan from the Jakarta Art Council came up with the idea to give female photographers a platform four years ago. Mata Perempuan, Seharusnya is his second project with the same artists.

It is symptomatic of the situation that it was a man who initiated these projects, but the Jakarta Arts Council refers to the artists in this exhibition as “fresh newcomers”, as if to express hope for a better future for woman photographers in Indonesia.

Malahayati presents photos that show women working at Blok M making a living to feed their children in her series Malam Melawai (Melawai at Night)

She has her very own way of saying what she thinks of women and how they survive in contemporary society: “Yes. We are open.”

Mata Perempuan, Seharusnya
Galeri Cipta II
Taman Ismail Marzuki
Central Jakarta
10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
finishes June 8

Sascha Pries