Born in 1959 in Central Java, Indonesia, Agus Suwage studied graphic design at the faculty of fine art and design of Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB). However dissatisfied with his work as a graphic designer and illustrator, he became a full-time artist and has since exhibited extensively within Indonesia as well as globally. Through the use of self-portraiture Suwage explores socio-political issues and human conditions. Critical of the society he is in, the tone of his works often uses wicked humour and satire to evoke a reaction, rather than direct expression of outrage and anger.‘Curtain’ is part of the series of works Suwage developed during his residency at the Singapore Tyler Print Institute (STPI) in 2009, exploring the subject of censorship, particularly self-censorship. The series, exhibited at his third solo show in Singapore, draws visually and thematically from the controversial installation, ‘Pink Swing Park’, presented at Jakarta’s CP Biennale (2005). Digitally processed, a man and woman in nude, an actor and model respectively, were featured against a pastoral background while a pink swing, transformed from a becak (rickshaw), took centre stage. Misrepresentations from the local media and objections from racial religious hardliners led to the forceful and premature closure of the CP Biennale and the passing of the anti-pornography law in Indonesia in 2008. Here, a curtain of text extracted from the anti-pornography law threatens to overwhelm and obscure the female figure portrayed, an analogy of how this law threatens to do the same to the beauty of the female nude in Indonesia.
