Prihatmoko Moki
Prihatmoko Moki, born in 1982, is an Indonesian artist who lives and works in Yogyakarta. In 2009 he graduated from the Indonesian Institute of Fine-Art (Yogyakarta in), in the Printmaking Department. In 2012, together with Malcolm Smith (AU) he founded Krack! Studio based in Yogyakarta, a studio and gallery focusing on printmaking. He has participated in numerous group exhibitions, both nationally and internationally.
The work Prajurit Kalah Tanpa Raja (‘Soldiers Lost Without the King’) on the Pentagonal Icositetrahedron addresses the social context of Yogyakarta. As a ‘Special Region’, Yogyakarta has autonomy within government and has a king as its leader. In the generation of the artist’s parents, the king, named Sultan Hamengku Buwono IX, was popular and loved by the people. The situation is shifting now his son, Sultan Hamengku Buwono X is in power.
Yogyakarta, with its many city developments, is changing fast. It is no longer a friendly and convivial place for the people who live here. There are many problematic issues, like the increasing number of hotels causing water scarcity, the increasing traffic congestion, and the fact that there are no more public spaces for the local residents, except for malls. Moreover, a communal way of life is more and more replaced by a focus on the individual. For Moki, the government has contributed to this situation, as they only seem to be interested in investments and corporations. There are many slogans and protests about this, including the movement Jogja Ora di Dol (‘Jogja is not for sale’), Jogja Asat (‘The drought of Jogja’), etc.
In this drawing, Moki displays dying soldiers of Jogja Kraton (the sultan’s palace) as a metaphor for citizens who are disorientated because of the absence of the their previous, beloved King.
Exhibitions
