Srikandi by Lucia Hartini 1993
a) Lucia Hartini painted Srikandi in 1993 to depict her ability to face challenges in life in the material world. It is a nearly life size painting with near perfect likeness to the artist herself, presenting herself as a female warrior.
A muscular woman with arms akimbo, draped in a long blue cloth, stands with confidence in the centre of the painting. The woman gives off a sense of authority and strength. Hartini wanted to depict a daring female knight character of the Javanese shadow theatre. The woman clenches her fists, holds her head up, pushes her chin out and stares straight at the numerous eyes before her with absolutely no fear.
The walls behind her zigzags into a distance. The vanishing point and the lines created by the brick walls give the painting a sense of space and depth. It also separates the background into two: the walls and the sky. The sky suggests that it was either sunrise or sunset as the artist painted the sky with a slight tinge of yellowish-orange for the top, while the bottom consists of dark gloomy clouds. A luminous spherical object which is most probably the moon rests gently in the sky, giving a very soothing and peaceful feeling. Hartini created the sense of space by the way she placed her subject matters, with the woman in front, the walls zigzagging, leading the viewers’ eyes to the back, and the sky all the way in the background. However this composition seems rather unrealistic as the walls seem to float in the sky and the ratio of the size of the woman and the walls is unproportional to real life.
The artists played around with the contrast of the texture of the subject matter. The hard, solid and angular brick walls are placed next to the soft clouds with undefined shapes and also the flowy and fluid blue drapery. There is also the contrast between the colours used. Hartini used complementary colours, blue for the sky and cloth, orange for the bricks and skin tone of the woman. The use of complementary makes the female warrior stand out even more and makes the image more vivid and impactful.
As for the brushstrokes, they are nearly invisible to the human eye and every stroke seems extremely careful, smooth and well-blended. The artwork is painted in great detail, showing each and every fold of the cloth, the cracks of the brick walls, and the popping veins of the woman. The artist also painted the highlights and shadows of the drapery and of the arms of the woman.
The painting is painted in a surrealistic manner, with an unnatural composition but with extremely elaborate and realistic subject matters.
b) Lucia Hartini’s art are reflection of her own self and her interpretation of her environment. Hence her artworks are closely related to the socio-political conditions of Indonesia, where they believe that all females are to know how to cook, look pretty and bear children for the family. The status of a female always depends on the male and they are always regarded as “subordinate” to man, an obedient subject to the male orders and admonition.
Hartini herself is a victim of sexism in Indonesia. During her time, most contemporary were man and she was one of the very few female artists who make a living fully from painting. Although she is married, her husband seldom goes home and she has to raise her children alone. Therefore, she developed the habit of painting after tucking her children to bed. This is a possible influence of the frequently occurring moon in her paintings. A pale yellow moon can be seen in the background of Srikandi (1993).
Before painting Srikandi, Hartini had a hard time struggling to be herself due to her social status as an artist and the expectations of women in society. Afterwards, she felt that she should not be frightened anymore. Hartini feels that women should represent themselves as autonomous subjects having potential which is different but no less capable than that of their male counterparts in this shared world. Hence she painted Lucia Hartini, depicting female knight standing proud and tall, daring and powerful. The female subject’s gaze transfixes the eyeballs of society’s judging and scrutinising.
Lucia Hartini was born into a natural, quiet and peaceful environment, where she spends her childhood walking around and playing. Hence, she feels strongly for the environment and after she grew up, she had a strong longing for a similar natural environment. Thus she likes depicting outer space, planets, and biomorphic rocks from her imagination, also explaining the clouds and moon in Srikandi.
Hartini often depicts her subject matters in rhythmic fine lines like reciting a mantra over and over again, and she lets herself get carried away as though she is meditating. This makes her stray away from reality and hence she often paints unrealistic scenes of her own imagination, where the world is fantastic and dreamlike. This explains why Srikandi’s composition is so fantasy like and strays away from the real world.
Lucia Hartini uses colours to express her feelings, happiness and unhappiness, from her daily life onto her canvass. Hence the blue used in Srikandi most likely represents the calmness in her heart, no longer fearing the society’s scrutinising and the orange bricks represents strength, telling herself to stand strong and remain unfearful. The orange glow of her skin gives off a radiant and healthy feeling, making Srikandi look braver and more confident.
