Tohjaya Tono (Indonesia-Bangkalan)
Tohjaya Tono (born in Bangkalan, Madura) is an artist who works mainly with drawing media. The material that Tono uses as his drawing paper comes from everyday items such as cardboard packaging. Tono believed that the experience of spontaneous drawing of fragments of life that occurs directly on the spot can give dimensions and values far surpasses any technical materials. In Biennale Jogja XVI Equator #6 2021, Tono will present works that are vastly different from his previous practice, it will be in the form of a large-scale installation made from scrap metal.
Before chooses to be an artist, he studied Public Relations in Jakarta and has worked for a national newspaper as a design staff. In the end, he continued his study in Painting at the Jakarta Institute of the Arts through a scholarship. In 2002 he decided to move to Yogyakarta and joined Taring Padi (an art movement focused on activism on social issues such as agrarian conflicts, to labor rights etc.) and the Kinoki film community. While developing an art community called Kidung Anak Negeri in collaboration with Indonesian Migrant Workers in Hong Kong.
“Tamu Lahan” (2021)
Installation, mixed media, video projection
Variable size
“Tamu Lahan” is a visitation of observation and surveillance, as a submarine became a metaphor for the attempt to occupy an area. The video projection shows “the view from the deck” —same as the depiction in paintings and sketches from European voyagers in the XV century—which showed the landscape of seashore and islands in Indonesia.
The effect of a country’s power and geo-political background has a major impact on the exploitation of natural resources. The monopoly of the seashore area is highly possible to be connected with the investors, oligarchy and authority’s interest. It’s not a secret that they do a lot of undisclosed transactions which can’t be seen in media, it’s also being covered up with advanced narration of job creation law or tourism destination development.
