This is so me to leave explanatory stuff out until the last page. That's because I'm so optimistic -- my mind, whose entire life is its own and never depending on me except when it got a migraine, keeps on tick-tocking like: maybe, regardless of everything, I wouldn't have to say a word about this and that and so and such. Time and time again this mind was proven utterly wrong, but it's so loyal to things like that and thus never gives way to commonsensical notions such as "You can't digest info that you don't have".

Anyway, just as I have repeatedly mentioned on other pages [click here, or here, or here for flashbacks, and here for an exemplary neighbor that I had], it's never easy to tell you about how I live. Here is some kind of a last resort; I'm trying to paint my own portrait via others that, to their everlasting grief, happen to be among the people I used to know. I squeeze the territory down to focus just on my Yogyanese neighborhood -- they, after all, have almost never been exposed, and these pages were meant to host that particular place anyway [click here for how I live there, or here for accounts of some daily Indonesian life].

I perhaps live a different life from yours, and this difference involves the people we are surrounded by. The environment I was brought up, grown up, and living in for the past three decades without any interruption have been teeming with the so-called 'artistic' entities and enterprises. 'My' people are always people who make, perform, exhibit, and write about stuff. In other words, they are mostly producers, not consumers, of artsy things.

To further complicate things, I 100% know that a few of those whose stuff I put here at my personal cyberyard resent being made to perch side-by-side with artisans; this overwhelmingly silly and foolishly vain and nonsensically groundless idea has always been Indonesian artists' incurable illness. But what the heck, this is my dungeon, so the dragons therein are my prerogative. The point has nothing whatsoever to do with even quality; let alone sharpened division between arts and crafts.

I make things whenever I'm sick of words. For some of my neighbors it works the same, while some others do it daily regardless of the weather. Still others' official occupation is as painters but they make statues for sheer fun, meaningful interlude or occasional 3-D project.

SWordStreet box © 2002 Nin/So What

Whether as a hobby or a living, the activities mark them differently from others, such as office- or factory-goers. And most of the time there is no distinct line acting as separator between a hobby and a job, here. Your job is, as a matter of course, not you, but everybody I know only do what they do because they somehow must do it although no one tells them to do it and they do it for virtually nothing but the thing itself (if you can dig this, I guess you're as insane as I am). I mean, most of them have no bosses, no time-table, no definite schedule, no co-workers, no supervisors, even though somehow the State still finds it sensible to nag them for income taxes, and bills always find a way to get to them anyway.

That is the kind of life I know of. Of people with tattoos on their souls -- ones they could never erase, ones not found upon account execs of U.S., Co. or workers of Japan, Inc., who could swap jobs without any significant problem nor change. People with those tattoos are commonly perceived as being spiritually richer and mentally freer and in the whole happier -- but of course there is a downside there, namely, you never have any money.

So -- I still haven't even tried to explain anything, have I? But they said Homo sapiens could gather anything; among which is, at least so I hope, some sort of automatic understanding.

Peace.

Samples of my 'chumbawamba' that lays siege upon the house.

From a 'simple' natural fiber tassle, usually sold for around 68 cents (US$), made by Wahyu Hestiningsih here hung in my library.....

[Nin's personal collexion]

.....to an obvious demand of artistic skill in the making of this mere US$ 7.00 worth teak bunny by Andri, my neighborhood keeps on breathing.

[Nin's personal collexion]

Arie Kemut made his series of metal cord musicians in action for the first time five years ago. Everybody keeps telling him to run for President or something because he could only sell them for less than 45 cents (US$) each, but the problem is he loves the process.

[Nin's personal collexion]

Danto works with sandstone and templestone -- the first yields to every challenge that finishing a sculpture sometimes means doing one all over again, and the second keeps on the motto "Never surrender". You should have been glad you never love working on such unfriendly stuff. This cat is worth around US$ 17.20.

[Nin's personal collexion]

They categorize this sort of thing 'art'; my little sister BJ's ink and acrylic drawing on canvas c. 2002. The price of BJ's drawings and paintings usually hovers between US$ 228 and US$ 4,000.

[Nin's personal collexion]

Yani Halim's dawg. One of my favorite Indonesian artists, Yani works/plays in a sanctuary in an old, small East Javanese town -- but far from alone. He has six dogs yelping around every single second of his life. Dog food relies on his works that got the K-9 family somewhere around US$ 285.

[Nin's personal collexion]

A part of S. Teddy D.'s installation art, with an additional temporary resident there (BJ's kitten). The table is made by Dodi Gho'ib. Teddy's drawings and paintings are worth around US$ 300 to US$ 5,000 each; the cheapest of Dodi's furniture is US$ 34.20

[BJ's personal collexion]

The loud bunch of Teknoshit -- a Yogyanese punky rock band, by now on MTV Asia menu -- opened up Hitam [Black], a tiny cool shop double-functions as a tattoo and bodypiercing parlor a few months ago.

These metal pins sold for 70 cents (US$) each are pieces of their homemade salables -- besides, of course, their CD's -- US$ 5.75 for one album.

[Nin's personal collexion]

An example snatched from Tri Suharyanto's various wooden, silver and leather stuff; a Javanese batik ring container. He sells the kind for US$ 4.57 apiece.

[Nin's personal collexion]

Handmade greeting cards, the ones Suyanti loves most; she makes them just because her hands got itchy if being left idle. Well, my cats also think exactly the same about their paws; gosh, I hate them. Anyway, Yanti doesn't do this for money, so they are priceless -- but once she submitted to a nagging acquaintance that insisted on paying for a greeting card she made; she let it go for 35 cents (US$).

[Nin's personal collexion]

Another rose © 2003 Suyanti

[Nin's personal collexion]

Blue Spring © 2000 Nin/So What

My white clay birdie. The cats love this kind of breakables.

Jingle All the Way © 1997 Nin/Kucing Yogya

My X-mas decoration made of dried leaves, wood and beads.

Penyet's woven rattan, bamboo and corrugated iron candleholder. He never sells, but a guesstimate based on what are in the market would take us near the correct worth between US$ 1.75 and US$ 2.50.

[BJ's personal collexion]

Growing up in the potters-infested Kasongan Village, Bantul District, Yogya, Joko Sulistianto could make statues like this terracotta dog with eyes closed. Perhaps he really did. It only gives him US$ 1.15 anyway.

[BJ's personal collexion]

But this is 'art': Heri Dono's painted terracotta critter. By far Dono is considered as the only Indonesian painter that made it as a globetrotter [click here for a counter-example], even as a big chunk of artsy folks never like his style [click here for his painting]. Some others dub this schaudenfraude; they probably couldn't afford Heri's paintings anyway, which have been sold for around US$ 25,000 per canvas.

[BJ's personal collexion]

Ugo Untoro, another Indonesian artist I kind of like most, is officially a painter -- but his best pieces are to me dolls and doll-like whatevers, like this papier-mache self-portrait. Ugo's paintings fetch him around US$ 5,714 each.

[Nin's personal collexion]

Santo Banana's terracotta cat. He also works with beads and paints, but I think his best is so far clay-based this and that. Santo's cute feline is worth around US$ 4.30.

[Asada Kanae's personal collexion]

Sandra Dewi's theoretically everlasting roses, made of mahogany wood and dyed palm sheets. Sandra's workshop is by any standard dark, all you could see upon entrance from broad daylight is her smile. The rose tree is US$ 8.11.

[BJ's personal collexion]

Another Sandra Dewi's produce, a real life excellence -- intricately woven natural fiber tote bag. The chrysanthemums are made of pastel-dyed suede. She can part with it for US$ 7.42.

[Noel Suhanto's personal collexion]

Some of the neighbors I have just made to parade here found the monetary worth of their works accidentally; the original intention was just to do the stuff and go to sleep.

Later on, not all of them adopted the newfound source of income as their profession.

But the thing is, the painters would still paint if no one buys any; the potters still work on it even if the outcome attracts nobody; that's the potion that unites them all in this kind of fraternity.

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