03.12.24 — 28.12.24

Manusia Sungai

Solo exhibition by Rizka Azizah Hayati

RIVER MAN
FROM THE CROCODILE MYTH TO TRACING THE ANCESTRAL LEGACY

PROLOGUE

As one of the curators of ARTJOG, held from July 7th to September 4th 2022 in Jogja National Museum, I first knew about Rizka Azizah Hayati when her name was included in ARTJOG 2022 artist selection. ARTJOG 2022 had the theme “Expanding Awareness” as an attempt to expand awareness and making art more inclusive. Rizka’s Magical Crocodile is an art instalation in the form of a brown-ish crocodile skeleton, 6 meter in length, displayed on top of a dining table with white tablecloth. Its tail extends all the way under the table and its head sticking up. Its jaw is wide open, showing sharp, serrated teeth in its mouth cavity. The skeleton is not made from real animal bones, it’s made from waste cloth and the brown coloring was from the natural color of rust.

After the work was completed and moved to ARTJOG exhibition space, I served as a mentor for Rizka, especially in the matter of display and in activating the audience of her work. The Magical Crocodile is a tribute for the crocodile as the river protector in Kalimantan, especially in the Mataraman, Banjar, South Kalimantan, at the shores of Martapura River, where Rizka was born and raised.

Rizka Azizah Hayati was born in 1996 and raised in Bawahan Pasar village , a small village by the Martapura river, South Kalimantan, Indonesia. She grew up as a native with strong Banjar customs, which is a blend of Dayak-Malay cultural acculturation with Islam. Since her childhood, Rizka has often heard stories about the ceremony of presenting offerings to the “crocodile” that guards the river. It is from here that she drew the idea to present the audience with a meal on the dining table next to her crocodile 'statue'. The audience can interact by wearing the head of the crocodile like a helmet while they ‘taste’ the drinks in the state of relaxation, which is why there are chairs by the table. It was decided then to use two chairs to seat the audiences who will interact with the artwork (from the planned four chairs) to give the the space more legroom and not obstructing the flow of visitors.

When arranging the display for ARTJOG, my conversation with Rizka became more intense as we were facing the artwork that had already been on display in the space. Our conversation was ranging from discussing the type of cloth that was being used as material for the crocodile installation, to the importance of burning incense in the exhibition space, etc. The yellow cloth material, for example, are often used as marker for sacred places and was obtained from cemeteries not far from her home. The white cloth was an inheritance from her grandfather, it was used to bathe people in a cleansing rite. Also used were discarded mukenas and mosquito nets belonging to her grandmother, as well as other textile materials, utilized as a medium for this installation work. Permission had been requested for these sacred and history-filled fabrics, and they were allowed to be used as artwork material before they were sent from Banjar, South Kalimantan, to Jogja. The memories of making offerings to the river protector were still so vivid in Rizka's memory that she intended to capture the mythology in the form of art.

The Magical Crocodile work is interesting because Rizka’s direct experience as a young artist can be interpreted into this work with strong environmental issues. Different from other young artist who usually highlight an issue before seeking the experience, Rizka started off from her direct experience, she even had a very intimate memory and the curiosity about the river ritual culture.

After ARTJOG 2022, my conversations with Rizka were increasingly frequent, she often visited my studio and discussed the crocodile myth in Martapura or Kalimantan in general. I happened to have been to Martapura before, so I can imagine the location setting and the river culture in it. The remainder of our conversations were about her mystical experiences related to one of her ancestors, and then Rizka began her data research and visited several sites in Martapura (exploring the Martapura river, museum, the Great Amuntai Temple, etc.).

About five months ago, Rizka began to talk about her plan to hold a solo exhibition in Nadi Gallery. Since then, our conversations also included her working process and consultations about her artworks that will be displayed.

THE DISPLAYED ARTWORKS

When we talk about Rizka’s abstract or abstraction work, it is certainly not easy to do a review of the visuals, therefore I choose to write about the narratives in her works and the art creation process. The main point is not at the final result of the artwork, but rather on the artist and the various experiences she has gained. This essay is sociological in nature, it is more about interpreting Rizka's thoughts (and feelings) than dissecting the visuals of her work.

Understanding abstract art does not come naturally for everybody. Abstract is the type of art that will leave some people scratching their head. A lot of people often fails to see that abstract artists have excellent drawing skills, a honed sense of composition, and a deep understanding on how color works. Most abstract artists have the ability to draw an object with perfect accuracy, or even a realistic portrait, but they choose not to. On the contrary, they choose to express their creativity by concocting a visual experience with more freedom, unburdened by the weight of the object.

Abstract art can also cause uneasiness for people because one cannot automatically know what the art is conveying by a mere glance. They may also assume that because it does not look like anything, therefore the art is not “about” anything. Abstract art does not consist of an identifiable object, thus there is no standpoint for interpretation. This can be confusing, or even intimidating, for people who are used to impose their own values to whatever they see in front of them.

Actually, abstract art is not about “absence”. Basically, abstract art is about form, color, lines, textures, patterns, compositions, and processes.¹ These are formal qualities of an artwork, because they describe what is the artwork’s value and how the artwork was made. Abstract art is the explorations of these formal qualities. Interpretation is gained from how the formal qualities are used to create visual experiences (and/or the depth of visual, inteligence, emotions, etc.).

Different from abstract art, abstraction in art is the practice of creating artwork that departs from an accurate depiction of reality. Abstraction can be a little, partially, or entirely. As an example, art that changes the colors or form in a striking way is considered as being partially abstract. On the contrary, total abstraction does not have a reference to anything identifiable.

Abstraction is not a style or movement; abstraction can be found in all art to a certain degree. Various dictionaries define abstraction as 'freedom from representational qualities in art' and 'not representing things pictorially'. Tate describes it as the process in artist’s life, in which the artist has 'removes (abstracting) elements from an object to create a simpler form’ or producing something that 'has no source at all in external reality'.²

Although an artist might have a real object in his/her mind as he/she was painting, the object might have been stylized, distorted, or exaggerated by using colors and textures to convey feelings, instead of creating a replica. It is more about how the beauty of shapes and colors can override the accuracy of representation. Abstraction is a ‘continuum'.³

The real object in Rizka’s mind is derived from her experiences and observations. Nearly all of Rizka’s artwork begin with researches, because she is always filled with curiosities about everything. Questions about an event, the rambling mind that goes all over the place, as well as the collected information and data that she wrote down in a book (like a sketch book, which she calls a media of journaling). Sometimes the inquiries are asked to several trusted people, but some are only written down, including the answers to them.

In terms of form, the works on display can be divided into two categories, namely paintings and installations.

PAINTING WORKS

Rizka’s interest to paint has been obvious since she was a kid, but she only decided to paint professionally in 2017, when she was an undergraduate student in the Fine Art Department in Universitas Negeri Malang (UM) in 2014–2018. During her study, she joined Sanggar Minat, a Student Activity Unit in UM. From there, she got to know some visual artists and began focusing on painting. Several contemporary artists, international and national, became her role models. Some artists that she admires including Anselm Kiefer, Cai Guo-Qiang, and Christine Ay Tjoe, whose works can be easily found on the internet. Before she makes abstract paintings, like most painters, Rizka began by painting in a variety of styles, ranging from realism to surrealism. She had tried to paint in various styles, but she found her interests and passion when she paints abstract. “Abstract is more challenging”, Rizka said.

The works of the three artists that Rizka admires may not carry a red thread at a glance, but upon close observation, those three artists have worked with vague, unclear objects. Instead of presenting an object clearly, some sort of blurring effect is presented. This aspect inspires Rizka's aesthetic sense in processing many aspects of her paintings; lines, planes and colors are in a blurred/non-explicit manner. Something that is sensed to be full of uncertainties.

“In painting abstract, we do not expect what the end result will be. Because of the uncertainties, I decided to explore the abstract style,” she explained. “I like the unexpected things. Results that we cannot control. I believe only on the hands and intuitions.” According to her, abstract painting emerges from the spirit’s drive, when painters truly believes in theirself as a whole, both their emotional as well as physical intelligence. “In terms of form, it is not fixed (non-standardized). It is not dependent on optical or subject sensing. It can be a summary, description, division, differentiation, liberation, or even further. It is basically an inner drive.”

Painting for her is not just an amusement, it is something more dominant, it is a reflection. Sometimes when she is lost in thought, she inundates herself with questions that she makes herself, to which she answers herself, whether it is trivial or not trivial. “For instance, where is my position as a human? Or, is balance just a mere utopian dream?” Also, painting becomes an attempt of self-care in expressing various emotions. Be it fear or anxiety. By painting, Rizka felt she is able to convey thoughts, ideas, and even emotions that are difficult to express in verbal or in writing. She often journals, be it keeping notes on concepts, painting sketches, or random ramblings.

Rizka admits she doesn’t really bother herself with the creative process. Sometimes, she would create the painting first, or she might find the concept first. She applies how the imagination works when she sees something, that is why the visual data or concept can come first, but both can also come to her during the painting process. When she paints, everything flows according to her instinct. Therefore, Rizka has never limit herself with the creative process.

Nearly all of Rizka’s paintings display the rust dyeing effects. For her, the rust symbolizes scars, furthermore, it is about the intertwining fragility and strength, and it exists in many things including within oneself, the narratives of history, and symbols about the past.

Originally, Rizka wanted to show a visualization of pain endured by human by using scars that she achieved through various techniques and materials in her works. However, in the process, Rizka reflected that human strength and vulnerability are always in a state of tug of war, not only do they have the potential to generate positive forces, they can also cause damage in various forms.

In this first solo exhibition, Rizka presents about 18 paintings, all of them are new, painted recently in 2024. There are two series of paintings by Rizka (titled Marshland Fermentation 1 and Marshland Fermentation 2) that are based from her experiences of residing in marshland area. Even when she opened her windows in her home, the first thing she saw was the marshes.

For her, marshes are crucial for the environment because it is an area between the land and the river, between land and water. Also, in the marshes (in its certain depth) there are minerals, coal, and even diamonds. In addition, the marshes are considered as the residential outskirt and used as a garbage disposal site. Rizka often wonders how the existence of marshes, an area with its weather influenced condition, an in-between region, is dismissed by humans. It is as if the marshes are marginalized for not having a ‘clear’ identity, because it is not land nor water.

The other painting (titled Bawah Rumahan), is based on her memory about the house cellar. Traditional houses in Banjar are stilt houses. The space under the house, or the cellar, is utilized despite the risk of being flooded. Rizka’s memory of cleaning the house cellar together with her mother as they wait for the rice being sundried is etched deeply in her mind, thus she questions the meaning of the stilt house cellar, especially for herself. The stilt house cellar may seem to be non-functional, but evidently the space’s role as an area between the house and the marsh surface is for air circulation.

The next painting (07.00 & 17.00) is related to the river culture, specifically the one experienced and witnessed by Rizka in Martapura. For instance, the work inspired by the bubu (fish trap) comes from the experience of when her parents installed bubu to catch fish near their home. This also piqued Rizka’s curiosity. Questions kept popping up in her mind, “Why human created a device to trap fish?” or “How did the first bubu get created by human?”.

Still related to the river culture, another painting reflects Rizka’s experience of meeting and interviewing her uncle in Banjar (Wild flowers on The River Bank). Rizka was intrigued by her uncle’s activities, where he spent the night sleeping on his boat when he went out to fish at night. Why would fishermen do such thing? Is it only for the sake of capturing fish?

In Migrasi Beranda, Rizka questions how the residents of her village, who used to be so close to the river, having a lot of activities in the river and respected the river, have now changed. The river men culture has now diminished. In fact, the river is now part of the house back porch.

Two other paintings, titled Croco 1 and Croco 2, are about crocodile scales. As a “river man”, Rizka intensely observes the crocodiles. Not only because of the myth of crocodile as the ancestors’ incarnation who always protect the river, but also because of the shape and details of the crocodile's body parts that she observed. For Rizka, the crocodile scales symbolize repetitions, strength, as well as ancientness. The crocodile scale is like a living artefact of the crocodile’s evolution journey throughout the millennia.

The next painting (The Space Between is Infinite) depicts her experience and reflections of a person who is swimming in backstroke or floating on the water on their back, which is the most comfortable and relaxing position. This comes from her experience of swimming, often in backstroke with her back facing the water, looking up to the sky in a meditative manner. She depicts this sense of relaxation on the canvas.

Rizka’s experiences that lead her to her questions the conditions/events that is hard to find the answers for creates an attitude of submission. It reminds her to the theory she often hears on the concept of cycles, the meaning of the number 0 and the concept of infinity in the spiritual world. The concept she gained from reading about feelings to ease emotions, about one's psychological state to the concept of submission. Rizka paints these experiences and feelings into the work titled 0.

Aside of the direct physical experience, Rizka often gains experiences from her dreams. Such as in the work titled 02.00, which is inspired by a dream. In her dream, Rizka floated to meet deceased family members and ancestors at night, as she heard a voice “Oh...so this is the person...” This dream bothers her so much that she keeps thinking about its meaning for several weeks. When she does not understand the meaning of her dream, she has the idea to materialize it into painting.

Rizka’s curiosity about her ancestors’ history in Banjar, South Kalimantan, does not stop at the Islam-Malay culture there. Rizka asked a lot of questions to her relatives about the history and sites that she could visit in South Kalimantan. From this opportunity she discovered about the Dipa Kahuripan kingdom and the Great Amuntai Temple, both of which she went to visit. The Tanah Harum dan Dingin painting is about her experience visiting the Great Temple complex, especially the area that was once the royal assembly hall.

The other paintings are more of Rizka's personal expression in describing various emotional states. INSTALLATION WORKS

The first installation work is a narrative about home, consisting of several parts of other installations. The work is titled Rumahku, Rumahmu, Rumah Kita di Dalam Rumah-Rumah. For Rizka, Banjar traditional house is the tabon house, a place where history, memories, and culture shaped her. Home is the most comfortable place, it feels homey, like an anchor to which she will eventually come back to.

Memories of home (especially of traditional houses in Banjar, South Kalimantan) emerged because Rizka had the experience of moving away when she pursued higher education in arts. She went to study in Universitas Negeri Malang in 2014–2018, and then she continued studying in the Postgraduate program at the Indonesian Institute of Arts (ISI) Yogyakarta in 2019–2022. After finishing the post graduate program, she has resided and worked in Yogyakarta until this day. Rizka extensively explored the parts of Banjar traditional house that are rich in symbols, through a more contemporary approach. She interpreted the wood, ornaments of fascia and fence, division of space, and even the philosophy of the Banjar traditional house. The division of types and forms of Banjar houses is in accordance with the philosophy and religion derived from the Dayak tribe’s Kaharingan belief that the universe is divided into two parts, namely the upper and the underworld.⁴

Banjar traditional house (Baanjung) was initially built in marshland by the river area. This is the reason why the structure is built with level on stilts. The foundation, poles, and sticks are important in constructing the house. The foundation, the most basic construction of the house, usually uses Kapur Naga wood and Galam wood. The poles and girders use Ulin (Eusideroxylon) wood, with a total of 60 poles and 120 girders.⁵

The traditional High Ridge Banjar house symbolizes the microcosm within the vast macrocosm. The resident of the house seems to live in the central world between the upper and the underworld. In their home lives an extended family, whereas the unity of the upper and underworld symbolizes the Mahatala and Jata (the husband and wife).⁶

This installation is also Rizka’s response to the spontaneous habit over unpredictable matters, because the condition of her village where fire often broke due to the long dry season, to fire from the stove in the kitchen or to short-circuited electricity. This is a fear in its own because Banjar traditional homes are made from wood, making it susceptible to fire. Apart from fire, there is the risk of flooding, although this could be predicted through several natural signs before the catastrophe, for instance the river water turns murkier, animals in the soil come out (worms, snakes) and flying ants appear. These natural signs are local knowledge that is transmitted continuously as an upstream - downstream river culture. Rizka has experienced all of those natural incidents both directly and indirectly.

Rizka even brings over the wood from her house and several other types of wood from her neighbors in Banjar to Nadi Gallery to be used as the material for her installation work,because of the attachment to the 'real' wood that has an emotional affinity. As we know, the Banjar traditional house is made from Ulin (Eusideroxylon) wood. This memory of the Banjar traditional house is from her old home. Home holds an important meaning for Rizka, especially during the times when she was restricted from going outside to play. There was also a very memorable moment as a child when she was accompanied by her grandmother, who was ill after a stroke. She played jump rope over a rubber sling with one end of the sling was tied to the pole of her house and her grandmother held the other end. There were also experiences that left such impression in Rizka's heart, even though they were bitter experiences. Especially this one moment after a big flood, where the power went off and there was no internet connection, suddenly a big snake appeared and went up coiling at a pole of her house. Her family and neighbors were busy chasing the snake away. Rizka felt this experience was a memorable moment of togetherness for her. Until today, Rizka kept questioning, how should a home be the safest and most comfortable place to return to? Is the feeling of safety and comfort influenced by the place of residence? Can the sense of safety and comfort comes from within?

In the middle of the wood installation is a pool of water to state that the source of life and river civilization is from upstream to downstream. There are also concerns regarding the decreasing population of snakehead fish and other predatory fish in the river, caused by various factors. It is also the complaint of some fishermen there. The work is titled Sisa Makan Malam.

Apart from the woods, Rizka created a garland of yellow fabrics with rust print effect composed of several pieces of fabric shaped like a human spine filled with dacron. The end of this ‘back spine’ is dunked into the pool to symbolize the river upstream-downstream culture.

In creating this work, Rizka reinvestigated her memory on an incident in her home in Banjar. She often records her experiences or events, and then reinvestigates it to gain a deeper meaning from them. Visually, this installation is more illustrative, so it seems clearer despite being symbolic. The work can be understood as a symbol of a current condition and the river upstream-downstream culture in Martapura. The Banjar traditional house as the metaphor for central world, the grey area that Rizka often utilizes to explore her creativity, aside from being a personal symbolization of the body, as an attempt to reprogram oneself over and over again. This work is titled Reprogram Body 1.

The Mutasi Melata 1 work is the second installation, it is a narrative of the crocodile myth of South Kalimantan. The myth of supernatural crocodile is prevalent in Kalimantan, the land of thousands rivers, especially from Rizka’s hometown by the River Martapura. The myth itself is often the seed of narratives in many versions, but it is most often associated as guardians of the river, or incarnations of ancestors. In the past, the river is a mean of transportation that developed the centers of civilizations. The mystical culture of Kalimantan's rivers and forests is closely tied to the collective memory of the local people, including the ancestors of the artist who moksha from Kalua (an area in South Kalimantan), thick with tradition of taking care of the supernatural crocodile from the river and have been a belief for decades. The crocodile acts as the protector of the community as they trade across the river area. The crocodile was held in esteem as a Datu (the respected one) and was being cared for by being fed with certain offerings that are floated down the river. There is also stories about how the supernatural crocodile is being used supernaturally to fight against the Dutch colonialism as a mean of intimidation. The ancestor tradition is closely related to certain symbols and messages. The context of this crocodile is that it holds a message for us to keep caring for the river as the river itself is the Datu, or a part of our family. This has slowly been degraded with practicalities so that we are no longer afraid of ruining the sacredness.

However, according to Rizka, river culture is starting to be abandoned. The crocodile man legend is now just a legend. Nothing more and nothing less. “This is a kind of criticism on how the sacredness of (our) rivers has been less upheld, and even tends to be ignored. Human no longer fear and mindlessly throwing garbage into the river, and all sorts of things." The legend of the crocodile man as the guardian of the river has turned into a disastrous story when children are reported missing in the river, even when it was not caused by crocodiles. Many cases of crocodile killing also stem from human fears, especially when crocodiles surface. The conflicts between crocodiles and humans are in fact caused by habitat changes, crocodiles have become threatened by humans.

Rizka’s curiosity about the crocodile myth was also sparked by the accessories on the bride's dress in a traditional Banjar wedding. At the back part of the bride’s wedding garment is strands of coconut leaves arranged in the shape of a crocodile's tail, serves a depiction of halilipan, a symbol that women should act humbly.

In the process, this work for Rizka is a combination of two symbols, which are on the meaning of halilipan and the spiritual path she went through during the research. The crocodile myth has always intrigued Rizka, not only because of stories from relatives about one of her ancestors who moksha (liberated and ascended to the higher plane) by transforming into a crocodile, but also her experience and research that shows how myths can mobilize human instincts to pay more attention to nature, especially the riverine with its various cultures. It was at this point, Rizka feels strongly about becoming more active as a 'river man'.

Yogyakarta, November 2024
Bambang ‘Toko’ Witjaksono
(Curator, Artist & Lecturer of the Fine Art and Design Faculty, ISI Yogyakarta)

Notes:
1 Dabrowski, M. (1995). Kandinsky Compositions. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. p. 43
2 https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/a/abstract-art
3 Wileman, R. E. (1993). Visual Communicating. New Jersey: Educational Technology Publications. p. 12.
4 http://www.wahana-budaya-indonesia.com/
5 https://www.arsitag.com/article/rumah-baanjung-rumah-tradisional-suku-banjar
6 ibid

Bibliography:
Dabrowski, M. (1995). Kandinsky Compositions. New York: The Museum of Modern Art
Wileman, R. E. (1993). Visual Communicating. New Jersey: Educational Technology Publications
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/a/abstract-art
https://gni.kemdikbud.go.id/pameran-virtual/manifesto-VIII/perupa/rizka-azizah-hayati
https://pojokbanua.com/sekelumit-abstraksi-perjalanan-melukis-rizka-azizah-hayati/
https://www.beritabanjarmasin.com/2022/07/feature-angkat-mitos-buaya-gaib-rizka.html
http://www.wahana-budaya-indonesia.com/
https://www.arsitag.com/article/rumah-baanjung-rumah-tradisional-suku-banjar
https://www.facebook.com/glitterscorp/posts/busana-pengantin-banjar-adalah-jenis-busana-pengantin-suku-banjar-yang-terdiri-4/1550844935244657/

Photo sources:
www.artjog.id
Rizka Azizah Hayati
Glitters Wedding Planner & One Door, Palangkaraya, Kalimantan