How does an artist turn haunting memories into powerful artworks that speak for himself and on behalf of countless lives? Mahdi Abdullah’s paintings serve as social commentary on the realities that the artist has witnessed and lived through, and allow us to rethink the chaotic world we live in today.
Imagine young people silently watching the outside world from behind a piece of wall, bullets and paper boats lying on the ground, humans in raincoats piling up and overlapping each other, a faceless woman in tears held hostage, while a volcano erupts with a golden chariot on fire. All these details are featured across 31 artworks by Indonesian painter Mahdi Abdullah in his solo exhibition “Memory and Body Mythology,” currently available for viewing at Vin Gallery.
One of Indonesia’s most significant painters, Yogyakarta-based artist Mahdi Abdullah is well-known for his works of realism that depict his anxiety towards realities he has witnessed, while focusing on the life of common people from his hometown of Banda Aceh. Long-lasting social conflicts, violent events and the devastating 2004 tsunami in Aceh has left him with trauma that demands to be released and expressed through art.
Whenever violence, natural disasters, social and political conflicts happen, Mahdi’s past memories resurface, leaving him disturbed and compelled him to turn them into art: paintings, installations, sketches and notes in the form of drawings.
Taking unidentified humans in raincoats as the main point of departure for the exhibition narrative, Mahdi Abdullah combined his personal experiences and haunting memories with current social conflicts and wars around the world, and turned them into powerful realistic paintings. After witnessing a demonstration at the Indonesian National Monument (Monas) in Jakarta in 2008, Mahdi became more interested in the crowd's colorful raincoats worn because of heavy rain than the demonstration itself. Raincoats became a form of body language as Body’s wrapper (with capital B) in his recent works, representing Indonesia’s equatorial climate and serving as a contemporary symbol worldwide.
Mahdi’s artworks speak of his experience surviving violence and witnessing current events, and include historical and cultural elements specific to Indonesia. Although the tragedy and trauma in his works are portrayed indirectly, sometimes with calm and dreamy colors, the works are still powerful enough to haunt our memories and make us question the condition of our world at this moment.
He portrays armed conflicts, social conflicts and identity conflicts subtly in detail, which requires careful observation and critical thinking from the audience. He offers dualism via contrasting images of life and death, virtue and evil, visible and invisible, humans and the animalistic nature of man, past and present. For instance, ‘Shooting Love’ (2024) depicts a man and a woman “in love,” with the woman held hostage under a peaceful blue cloudy sky. Meanwhile, ‘Garizrah dan Laku Waktu’ (2021) shows two young men wearing raincoats — one is headless with two crows — silently and patiently watching an “unknown event” in blood red color through a piece of wall, while waiting for months and years to pass by.
A glimpse of colonial and post-colonial Indonesian history can be also found in some of Mahdi’s works. At the exhibition’s opening event, the artist agreed with the observation that the umbrella’s colors in ‘Bayang Melindung, Lindung Membayang’ (2019) resemble colors of the flag of the Netherlands, with a wayang character (Javanese shadow puppetry) being covered by a piece of transparent cloth. The work also features a man with a pair of white wings standing next to a young man in a pair of Converse shoes, with bullets, paper boats and broken objects lying on the ground. The aftermath of violence can be found through the painting, understandable with the context that Indonesia has experienced a long history of Dutch colonialism and internal armed conflicts.
Meanwhile, ‘Kuasa Ramalan dan Terbakarnya Kereta Kencana’ (2020), translated as “Prophecy Power and the Burning Chariot,” portrays an alternative landscape of Yogyakarta, with two unknown men sitting with powerful postures on a paper armchair, negotiating, while red apples, a symbol for temptation and sin, falls upon them. In the background, a faceless silhouette of Prince Diponegoro (the national hero of Indonesia) appears behind them, Mount Merapi erupts, a golden chariot is on fire, and naked bodies lie on the ground.
With clear brushstrokes and colors that emphasize accurate characters and settings, dreamlike scenes and symbolic images, Mahdi’s realistic paintings slightly cross the line into surrealism. Flawless details such as the folds and shading of raincoats and the physical features of humans and animals reflect his mastery of conventional painting skills, and his ability to construct thought-provoking scenes. Using realistic representational techniques and aesthetic theory of object accuracy, he has developed realism as his own artistic language that speaks for the pain he and his community has endured, for countless resilient lives around us, and for the future generation to reflect on the possibilities and challenges of our world.
“Memory and Body Mythology” by Mahdi Abdullah is now on view at Vin Gallery until 24 August 2024. More information on the exhibition can be found here in the Facebook page.
