Creative Response: My Shadow Space

Objective: Personal reflection and artmaking.

• Think of a place in your community that feels mysterious, forgotten, or full of stories.

• Create a drawing or digital drawings inspired by that place, then using a scanner and Adobe Illustrator, translate your drawing into a digital image.

• Print out and transfer onto Lino or etching to produce your own printmaking artwork. Extend with colour, texture, or symbols to show how it feels.

Suggested artists to explore: Timoteus Anggawan Kusno, Alfin Agnuba and Leyla Stevens.

If you are in the classroom, use this link to view the works high-res 16albermarle - Ex #21_artworks

This work portrays a dark episode in Indonesia’s history known as the “Penembakan Misterius” (Mysterious Shootings). From 1983- 85 thousands of Indonesian people were murdered, mostly men, and mostly in the middle of the night. The authorities reported the victims were all “Preman” (gangsters) as if this somehow justified their murders, although many were just young men with long hair and tattoos. In this image, Alfin documents the places in Yogyakarta where some of the bodies were found, in particular at two busy bus terminals. When commuters arrived in the mornings they were confronted by a shocking and gruesome message. The perpetrators were never caught or brought to justice, although it is widely understood they were the Indonesian military, acting on the orders of Soeharto.