Lucia Hartini's works represents the struggles and fears of the Indonesian society that she lives in. The traditional culture in Indonesia views women as the weaker gender and are only able to be homemakers, housewives who take care of children, cook and do housework at home. There are also very few female artists in the Indonesian society as compared to male artists.
She has expressed her struggles through her works like Spying Eyes and Sri Kandi. Spying Eye depicts the society's traditional view on women, as represented by the eyes around the brick walls, staring at the female figure. The female figure could represent Lucia Hartini, whereby she is in a foetal position, floating above the ground. This shows that Hartini feels very vulnerable, weak and passive about the society's inequality and unfair, unequal views on the different genders. She feels constrained by such a view as a female artist in Indonesia. She has an obssession with eyes and is frightened by eyes as the eyes represent views of others in the society. She feels that someone is always watching her and judging what she does and thus, she painted the eyes to show how others are staring at her, judging her. The cracked brick walls also represent her struggles in the society as she did not like people viewing her in the traditional way and to judge her. She is trying to overcome this obstacle and be brave to overcome what others view women in society and her.
Sri Kandi is also a sequel to Spying Eyes as in Sri Kandi, she painted her emotions and her confidence and determination to confront all judgments of others. "Sri Kandi" is a Javanese traditional puppet that represents a Mahabrata epic, warrior women in the past. Hartini depicts herself as "Sri Kandi" to show that she is bold and brave, and has changed from someone who is powerless, vulnerable to someone who can overcome her struggles and problems. Sri Kandi represents Lucia Hartini. Also, the female figure which represents Hartini in the painting is wearing blue cloth. Blue cloth represents that she is strong as the female warriors in the past wore blue. Her body language in Sri Kandi also represents how strong-willed she has become and that she is determined to overcome others' judgments. The blue drapery from her dress also extends out and is lying on the brick walls, showing a sense of stability that Hartini feels towards her struggles in the past. She no longer feels constrained by the society's traditional judgments. The zig-zagged brick walls in the painting also extended out into the background of the painting, straightening out. The zig-zagged walls extended out as a straight brick wall, and might represent how she feels that things have straightened out and she is brave, no longer worried about others' judgments.
Lucia Hartini has explored dreams and imagination as she sought to discover herself through her works. Why did she create dream-like imagery and do you think she has been effective in using dreams as part of her works? Discuss with reference to her named works.
Lucia Hartini created dream-like imageries to express and carry her personal and social messages as Indonesia had a traditional culture that found straightforward critical and confessional discourse unacceptable. Therefore, Hartini could not paint realistic scenes of the society and could only express her struggles in the society through dream-like imageries and by using allegorical or symbol-laden styles. This is so as to not subject to further criticism.
For example, in Nuclear Explosion in a Wok III, Hartini expressed her anger with the society through the nuclear explosion, which is also in tones of reds and orange. She has been effective in her works as she is able to carry her messages and ideas through art in a restrained manner as she could not be very direct in the society.
She also created dream-like imageries to express her ideas indirectly. Her dream-like imageries, which are placing subject matters with no relations, and has a setting that is not seen in real-life context but can only be imagined or appear in dreams and fantasies. She also painted in highly academic, accurate brushstrokes, producing realistic forms of humans, cosmo and scenes.
In Sri Kandi, she made us of symbols and colours to express her feelings and emotions. The blue dress represented how she felt brave, bold and strong to overcome others' views and judgments that are traditional but unfair to the different gender, as blue was the colour that female warriors wore in the past. She also depicted herself as "Sri Kandi", a famous "women warrior" of South East Asia, representing how courageous she has become. Hartini has been effective in using dreams as part of her works as she made use of symbols to represent a meaning, emotion that she feels and her struggles in the society. She also made use of dream-like imageries by painting cosmos that has relation to nature elements as she grew up in a natural and carefree environment, and she yearns to return to that environment where no one would judge her in this current society.
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