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Habitual de la ritual
2005
10 sculptures, 19,5 x 14 cm
Resin





indieguerillas

indieguerillas was formed in 1999 by a group of freelance graphic designers. They have been contributing their works to various graphic exhibitions in their hometown, Yogyakarta. In 2002, together with other young writers and artists from Yogyakarta, indieguerillas initiated the founding of outmagz, a critical pop magazine. indieguerillas's active members today are Santi Ariestyowanti (born in 1977 in Semarang), Miko Bawono (born in 1975 in Kudus), and A. Wahab (born in 1972 in Jakarta). All are graduates from the Indonesian Institute of the Arts (ISI) Yogyakarta.

For the CP Biennale 2005, indieguerillas creates small sculptures, a bit like action figures. Why action figures? First of all, because of our background as a graphic designer, making it necessary for us to be indirectly (or is it directly?) in contact with all things “pop.” Well, action figures are one of the many products of the popular culture that caught our interest. Thus, our work can be regarded as our effort to do a graphic design on three-dimensional surfaces. There have been truly nice sensations that we gained when we finished our first prototype, especially as there are those among us who have never worked with sculptures before.

We choose the theme of “corruption” as the background of the work. Yup, this is rather boring. However, we will try to look at the theme of corruption from within. We know, don't we, that corruption has become a culture ingrained in our beloved country. Let's just talk about the small things. We all must have done some forms of corruption, whether we meant it or not. Take me, for example. During my college time, I reveled in time corruptions—during lecture hours, I dilly-dallied in the mall. I corrupted my parents' money, too: saying that I was studying in Yogyakarta while in fact I was taking a leave and busily performing in bands, consuming the money intended for college. Ironically, when the students were demonstrating in 1998 to overthrow the New Order—and one of the accusations was that it was a corrupt regime—I, too, joined the demonstration!

So there you go. We'd like to think that we're not the only ones doing small-time corruptions. So, at least, before accusing people of something, stop a while and see whether we also do what we have charged them to do. Better still, we might stop doing these small time corruptions. Imagine if every one in Indonesia does exactly this (well, a little imagination won't do any harm)… corruption may become history and our country will lose the one cultural trait that has made us very well known throughout the world. (Artist's Statement)

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