Asian Transformations in Action - Api-fellowships.org

114 REFIGURATION OF IDENTITIES AND FUTURES IN TIMES OF TRANSFORMATIONUniversity Art Museum. Chiang Mai University has anextensive campus and a very strong fine arts departmentthat is reflected in the CMU Art Museum, which is verylarge for a university and is as large as many municipalmuseums in Japan. The installation was held in arelatively small room on the first floor. While trafficwas not as frequent as it is in Manila, the museum isvisited by the general public and many tourists so theaudience for the installation was more diverse. Beforethe show, some people from Thailand told me thatThais are very shy and would not reveal their secretsto strangers, the same thing I was told before the firstinstallation in Tokyo. However, I collected over 1,000secrets in one museum show in Tokyo alone. Althoughthe number of secrets collected here was lower thanin Manila, the percentage of participants from theaudience who wrote these secrets was about the same.I received 80 secrets altogether, after which I had aseries of discussions with students from Chiang MaiUniversity and local artists. Of all the secrets collected,the common thread was about the closeness of familyrelationships and its burden. Parent-child relationshipsseem co-dependent on economic, social and emotionalfactors. Some students suggested that this reflects aregional characteristic of the northern rural Thais, wheretraditional family values are stronger as compared to thebig city of Bangkok.After some discussions with art students, CMU studentsexpressed an interest in creating artwork from otherpeople’s secrets. One student said: “Before, I thoughtartists were to express themselves. But now I realize thatartists can empathize with other people’s pain in theartwork.” Much of the art education here seems to becentered on the rather romantic, 19 th century Westernidea of art as the product of some genius artist whoexpresses his inner emotions, or pure aesthetics, removedfrom society. For most art students, the participation ofthe audience in creating artwork was unthinkable. I wasvery much moved by the CMU art students’ empathyand willingness to internalize and create art from otherpeople’s pain and sadness. Six students completed smalldrawings and collages, after which I interviewed themon video about what they were thinking in the processof art making. Finally, I exhibited their work togetherwith mine in new drawers in Indonesia.One of those interviewed was an art student who saidthat the secret that affected him most was one in whicha man was mistakenly arrested and imprisoned by thepolice. Later this person became a lawyer in order tohelp those who are wrongly accused. That student madean abstract black drawing.“I did this drawing and kept working on it again andagain. It was like a catharsis of letting go of the effectof the secret I read. I kept on drawing until I felt fine,getting rid of the fear I felt from the secret.”“Normally when I make an art work, it comes frommy inner feelings or my own experiences. This timeit was different. I was affected by the suffering ofanother. It was a new experience for me.”From his words, it is apparent that art and art makingis a tool for both empathy towards and recovery fromtrauma, which is not necessarily the artist’s own.YogyakartaOn my next stop, I performed the project at theCemeti Art House in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Unlikeall previous cases, the Cemeti has no affiliation with anacademic institution. It started as an artist-run gallery ofcontemporary Indonesian art, founded about 25 yearsago by Mella Jaarsma and Nindityo Adipurmono, twointernationally well-known artists. The house is one ofthe most respected art institutions in Yogyakarta, wherecontemporary art and artists seem to be thriving. TheCemeti certainly has been the center of much artisticand political energy in Yogyakarta. It provides a galleryand office space as well as residential quarters for artists,and is now hosting a residency program with ArtoteekDen Haag in the Netherlands. The residency program,LANDING SOON, is a three-year exchange programwhich provides two spaces for artists from The Hagueand one space for an artist from Indonesia for periodof time.Most people who came to the installation, apart fromthe general public, were artists. Over time, I collectedabout 80 secrets, after which I conducted one roundof talks with artists that was attended by over 40people. This was followed by a very vigorous discussion.Interestingly, almost all of the secrets collected at theCemeti have one common theme, namely sex. Sexualrelationships and sexuality in general seem to be theparticipant’s main secrets from their families. Manysaid that this was due to religious beliefs as, unlike theother countries where I had previously conducted thisproject, Indonesia is overwhelmingly an Islamic nation.Young people’s sexual activity seems to be stronglycontrolled by society. This does not mean that the youngare sexually inactive, but rather that their activities andfeelings need to be hidden from authority inside andoutside the family.One female participant suggested that many writersAsian Transformations in ActionThe Work of the 2006/2007 API Fellows