Beware of artists bearing bamboo
by Vincent Ciccarello
People passing by the South Australian School of Art (SASA) Gallery in recent weeks couldn’t have helped but notice a giant cardboard and bamboo Trojan Horse occupying the entire gallery space.
The horse didn’t get there by some supersized "sailing ship in the bottle" trick - it had been sculpted from the ground up by celebrated Indonesian artist Heri Dono, with the help of artists and students from the three Helpmann Academy visual arts partner schools, and even a few passers-by.
Dono has just ended seven weeks as artist-in-residence, supported by the Helpmann Academy. The site-specific Trojan Horse was the dominant artwork in the open studio exhibition, The Dream Republic, which dealt with repression of free speech and art terrorism.
Using installation, painting, puppetry and performance, Yogyakarta-based Dono, engages with contemporary issues and Indonesian mythology to explore the position of the individual within society.
He said that with this project he aimed to demonstrate that where the legendary Trojan Horse may have "been used for purposes of evil, it can also be used for purposes of good.
"The Trojan Horse is symbolic of the previous times in history in which acts of war have taken place from inside the line of defence of a country," Dono said.
"Similar strategies to the way in which it was used by the Greeks to invade Troy have reoccurred in history – the Spanish civil war in the 1930s, and the attacks on the USA on September 11, 2001."
It was also a reference to artists’ capacity to subversively engage in activist and political actions, to infiltrate organis-ations and institutions, and to cross boundaries under the cover of art.
Unlike most exhibitions, The Dream Republic had a closing – rather than opening – event, which featured performances by Dono and a gamelan orchestra. And, if you’re wondering, the Trojan Horse was destroyed the next day.