S.E.A. Focus 2023: Jumaadi, Almost Natural

“Like the Puppet before the Master, they are displayed and waited to be touched. Like the landscape before being the subject of a painting, like a boat before the sea, like a wedding gown before the bride.” 

The material of choice is a nod to the cherished yet dwindling artform of  Wayang Kulit (traditional shadow-puppet theatre), typically in play with  musical arrangements and swift movements. It is a prominent reference point for the usage of buffalo hide and the storytelling in Jumaadi’s paintings. The labour intensive preparation of the ancient craft requires the hands of skillful artisans. Fast disappearing in the modern world, Jumaadi preserves the intangible heritage by engaging with the community to produce his vision. 

Using buffalo hide as a painting material is also Jumaadi’s way of connecting himself to his cultural history. It bridges a time when the animal was central to rustic Indonesian living, etched in every ritualistic milestone of life: birth, unions, economy. This references Jumaadi’s deep influence by Indonesian local tradition and cultures, paintings, rituals and textiles. The traditional medium is no longer a thing of the past, becoming more contemporary as is its popular western counterparts such as ceramic, belgian linen or even french watercolour paper. 

Jumaadi’s practice also traces his relationship with his motherland to his own migratory behaviours. His late teenage years were spent moving around Indonesia, from his birth place Sidoarjo East Java to Yogyakarta, and then Sydney where he attended National Art School at age 23, and has since spent half of his life between. 

“Maybe Home is something permanent and we are not, we are living in it and we are seeking for it at the same time. Perhaps it [home] is something that we constantly built, added, reimagined, loved, sheltered.“ 

Having the migrant experience both on home ground and beyond, his practice gained a profound take on themes of displacement, love and loss. Contemplating what home means, Jumaadi recalls a lingering memory of Sidoarjo East Java, alongside an unsettling feeling of needing to return one day but comfortable where he is at. Seemingly striking an acceptance of the ever-transient state. 

In Almost Natural, the environment holds a strong visual, but also the emotion it encapsulates. Thick canopies shrouds each depiction, and the living foliage creates a way to hold time. Using the theme of nature and the environment, Jumaadi explores the dialogue that happens in each relationship, life stages and places. They are rooted in aspects that are present in him, as he’s holding together the time that’s changing. The duality of the masculine scale and delicate floral details evokes a sense of fragility that comes with intricate beauty, even on the thick callused material. Such expression is a progressive take on his ever evolving environment with self and time. 

When it comes to self, the body is Jumaadi’s vehicle to experience life and a tool to investigate the many possibilities of his reality. Driven by curiosity, he is compelled to construct his own world, crossing into the realm of blown up proportions - exaggerated and distorted figures of the human body and agriculture. Multiple heads (Tree House, 2022), dangling bags of foetuses (Baby Tree, 2022), dress wearing tree (Native Flora, 2022) are questions of fiction in a nonfiction world. In between the consciousness lies an essence of romantic love, shaped by close physical proximity of his depictions. Naturally drawn towards the high contrast of life’s abstractions, many of his drawings are of couples that are about to either embrace or to depart from one another. Frozen in a momentum of closeness but nearly departed. 

A true romantic at heart, the artist still believes that love can exist with distance, “like we love the moon or the stars, we love an old time story.”

His light-hearted approach to darker themes is revealing of many layers. One thing that shoots across is the jarring juxtaposition in his human expression: “love and loneliness was always a part of it.”

Jumaadi is a multidisciplinary artist who works with a wide range of mediums – painting, drawing, installation and performance. He is currently based both in Yogyakarta, Indonesia and Sydney, Australia. By drawing from his vast sets of backdrops, and merging it with his personal experiences, he produces his own unique set of visual vocabularies.