Sujud tak Terwujud: Anak-anak Gaza, Baby in Red
2022 - 2024 | acrylic on canvas
Haris Purnomo (born in Klaten, 1956) is an Indonesian contemporary fine art artist. Haris completed his education at Sekolah Tinggi Seni Rupa ASRI in 1984. He actively fought for contemporary art to be accepted in the Indonesian art world with the PiPa (Kepribadian Apa) group, a critical group in the 1970-1980s era that promoted contemporary artistic idealism. Since the exhibition entitled Luka (1984) with PiPa group, Haris has been absent from the world of Indonesian art for more than 20 years. He reappeared after his solo exhibition at Nadi Gallery, Jakarta in 2006.
Haris' name is increasingly being taken into account in the world of fine arts after winning The Schoeni Public Vote Prize, Sovereign Asian Art Award, Hong Kong in 2017. His works have been exhibited in various cities in the world, such as Shanghai, Taipei, Miami, Seattle, New York, Zurich, Milan and Prague and is involved in several leading auction houses.
Some of his recent exhibitions include the solo exhibition Beyond the Mirror Stage, MiFA Gallery, Melbourne (2013), Baby in Transcendent Space, Primae Noctis Art Gallery, Lugano (2012), The Babies: Allegory of Docile Bodies, Bentara Budaya, Jakarta, and CoCA , Seattle (2009), and Di Bawah Sayap Garuda, Nadi Gallery, Jakarta (2006).
Haris Purnomo is an artist whose speciality is babies. The babies in his paintings appear to be born in perfect condition. His/her limbs are complete, his/her body is healthy. These little creatures lie on their backs, roll over, lie on their stomachs and crawl. These innocent gestures fill the entire canvas, presenting an absurd panorama of babies.
The babies' bodies were tattooed with fire, dragons and skulls, motifs that symbolize power and death. The sharp scratches suggest that the tattoo on the baby's body is permanent. Innate immunity is unable to protect delicate skin from tattoo incision. The violent tattoo on the baby's body becomes a birthmark (Javanese: toh) which will predict his/her future fate. In Haris' eyes, the world has been stigmatized by the violence that has marked human birth since day one. This pessimistic view and stigma deny the miracle of birth. This is the first paradox depicted by Haris.
The violent motifs that he painted diligently and delicately, giving the impression of sweet ornaments and the expressions of innocent babies. However, this motif hides a gloomy view of the fate of the babies who are still cradled in the warmth of the shawl (Baby in Red, 2022). This gives rise to the second paradox.
New tattoo motifs appear in Haris' paintings: missile muzzle and guided missile. A video of the bombing of several hospitals in the Gaza region during the recent Palestinian-Israeli conflict has inspired his new painting, Sujud tak Terwujud: Anak-anak Gaza (Unmanifest Prostration: Children of Gaza) (2024). The war has killed dozens of babies. The bodies of babies tattooed with weapons of war are depicted piled up into the distant horizon, a post-apocalyptic landscape of a world in ruins, with no hope of winning the future.