Siti Adiyati

[1][2][3] With Gerakan Seni Rupa Baru (GSRB), Siti Adiyati was part of an "academic rebellion" that pushed for the separation of Indonesian art from institutional bureaucracy.

[5] Siti Adiyati was accompanied by fellow ASRI students and artists like Hardi, Bonyong Munni Ardhie, Nanik Mirna, FX Harsono in her views.

[5] These five artists were part of the main groups calling for a renewal of ideas in Indonesian art, creating room for debate and discussion among ASRI students.

For the sake of saving Indonesian painting it is time to give our respects to this establishment, namely to bid farewell to those who were once engaged in the battle for cultural art.

[5] They would not call themselves GSRB until their final exhibition in 1979, which was when the group also published their manifesto, Five Lines of Attack of the New Indonesian Art Movement (Lima Jurus Gebrakan Gerakan Seni Rupa Baru).

[5] In her 1977 installation, Dolonan (Toys), Siti Ardyati takes from the iconography of wayang, often discussed as a court tradition and a form of 'high' culture.

[5] First shown in Jakarta in 1979 for one of the Gerakan Seni Rupa Baru exhibitions at the Taman Ismail Marzuki, the installation Eceng Gondok Berbungan Emas (Water Hyacinth with Golden Roses) served as a critique of Suharto's New Order and the social inequalities that it produced.

"[9][10] In the 70s, the socioeconomic divide in Indonesia had become increasingly pronounced, with the New Order's 1967 Foreign Investment Law bringing new business opportunities for the people and the military.

[3] The rose, for instance, was popular with upper-class Indonesians in Jakarta as an imported luxury good, with a single stalk equal in price to a kilogram of rice.

[3] While roses served decorative purposes for the wealthy and powerful, the hyacinth could be transformed from a weed to be used as organic fertiliser and animal feed.