Painted Black on Their Faces | Dadang Christanto

6 - 30 September, 2017

Dadang Christanto is a family victim of the Indonesian Genocide and Massacres of 1965-66. The mass killings saw an anti-communist purge, targeting alleged leftists including ethnic Chinese, often at the instigation of the military and the government. Conservative estimates place the number killed at between 500,000 and 1 million, with some recent estimates reporting 2 to 3 million people killed.

Dadang’s father was one of the millions killed. The impact of this horror has informed Dadang’s art making from his student days, through to his current exhibition, ‘Painted Black on Their Faces’. Along with Dadang’s personal loss is the burden he carries of the personal stories of so many others.

This is the ‘narrative of genocide’ explains Dadang. The many stories that people have had to keep and live with other the decades. His friend remembers seeing bodies floating in the river, some with their faces painted with black tar. Was this to disguise their identity? No one knows and there is no way to know. To this day the Indonesian government is reluctant to acknowledge these massacres. It is not taught in schools, has been written out of history textbooks and received little introspection from Indonesians themselves.

As a generation ages and dies there is real possibility that the narrative will be forgotten and history rewritten. For Dadang he can never forget, although he does say he forgives. He will return to this theme again and again, his wish is to bear witness to this darkest time in Indonesian history.