If one were to stroll down the street of Yogyakarta today, one can’t help but notice the incredible street art that seemingly adorns every available wall in Indonesia. By walking, the viewer gains personal access to each new piece he or she comes across. To the motorist, Yogyakarta’s streets resemble a blur of vibrant yellows, greens, purples and reds all passing by so fast one is reminded of old Star Trek shows. Locals don’t pay much attention to Yogya’s graffiti, as many Indonesians even find them to be a nuisance. The sheer volume of murals visible in a fairly small geographical space (~1200 sq miles), it seems impossible that these walls were nearly empty just fifteen years ago.
Yogyakarta, or simply Yogya for short, is located in the south-central region of the Island of Java, Indonesia’s most populous island. Located just a few hundred miles from Indonesia’s capital Jakarta, Yogya is widely regarded as the academic and cultural center of country. Home to some of the country’s greatest universities, Yogya is a definite college town. A city of just over 3 million people, of which nearly half are in their twenties, Yogya may be viewed as a major port so to speak for the exchange of new ideas and trends. One of those trends, and the focus of this website, is the emerging graffiti movement first appearing in Jakarta and Yogya in the early to mid-1990’s as a corollary to the “Reformasi” Movement in 1998.
1998 marks a pivotal year in Indonesian history. Long the victim of imperial governance, led by the charismatic Sukarno Indonesia finally achieved independence from the Dutch on Aug 17th, 1945. Yet it wasn’t until 1998 that the first elections were held, as Sukarno consolidated his power into a dictatorship (eventually usurped by Soeharto who would rule for nearly thirty five years). Soeharto had the ability to be a very cruel and ruthless leader, periodically cracking down on any dissidents willing to challenge his authority. His blatant greed and negligence was for the most part tolerated by the Indonesian people, that was until the economic devastation felt by most Indonesians felt when the Asian market’s crashed in 1998. To provide some context, consider that the Indonesian currency, the rupiah, plunged to only a tenth of its pre-1998 value. A trend that has yet to rebound nearly ten years later.
These were the political circumstances surrounding the introduction of graffiti to Indonesia's streets. Some of the works are political, some are reactionary, but in truth most are a celebration of the ability to produce the murals at all. In fact most of the most inspiring work has no significant link to politics at all. While spending this past summer (2007) in Yogya, I had the opportunity to take hundreds of photos of the street art I encountered. I was also able to speak with some of the groups responsible for some of the pieces presented in this website. Some were produced during the creative renaissance during the mid-1990's. I will show you a sample of the works produced during the times, as well as provide some context for each photo. I have been asked to keep identities of the artists anonymous however, so the explanations will be basic. Hopefully in the next year or so I will complete a much larger site filled with my personal collection and inspiring others to contribute as well.
