May 09, 2024 Last Updated 5:01 AM, May 8, 2024
  2. Home
  3. Topics
  4. Arts

Arts

Writing for God

Writing for God
Piety and consumption in popular Islam

A new artistic order?

A new artistic order?
The arts scene has changed radically since 1998, but some of the old uncertainties remain

Where are you (not) from?

Where are you (not) from?
Sundanese have a habit of putting each other in their places

Marginal and tattooed

Marginal and tattooed
A group of Jakarta punks challenges the criminal stigma attached to tattoos

Ten years of hoping and waiting

Ten years of hoping and waiting
A photo essay about families of the disappeared

Global fashion, remixed

Global fashion, remixed
Indie designers rework commercial iconography – and the business of clothing production

Music for the fight, movements for the soul

Music for the fight, movements for the soul
Fight-choreography in West Java is a source of cultural pride

Oey Hay Djoen (1929-2008)

Oey Hay Djoen (1929-2008)

A world of reading

A world of reading
Local writers help combat illiteracy in rural Banten

Teaching and remembering

Teaching and remembering
The legacy of the Suharto era lingers in school history books

Angel sparks controversy

Angel sparks controversy
Journalists strike after West Java’s most famous newspaper ‘withdraws’ poem.

Festival Mata Air

Festival Mata Air
A community takes a fresh look at water

We refuse to become victims

We refuse to become victims
Indonesian, Australian and Timor Leste artists collaborate

Punks, rastas and headbangers: Bali's Generation X

Quite unknown to the tourists, Balinese youth are creating a dynamic musical identity that refuses to be colonised. EMMA BAULCH joins the death thrashers for an evening of metal.

Diany Sinung: from poverty to painting

GLORIA FRYDMAN talks with successful artist Diany Sinung about her favourite subject, other women.

Two Sumatran films

The National Library of Australia now has the most comprehensive collection of Indonesian films available outside of Indonesia. Two films in this collection come from Sumatra.

Agung Kurniawan: 'My main theme is violence'

TOM PLUMMER talks with a graphic artist in Yogyakarta whose work is drawing international praise.

Poem from prison

From Sajak-sajak cinta dari balik terali (Love poems from behind bars) by Bambang Isti Nugroho, published by Penerbit Widya Mandala, Yogyakarta, 1994.

Rock'n'Roll radicals

DAVID HILL and KRISHNA SEN scour the music shops. They find that foreign music is now as Indonesian as batik. From Hindi film to 'Indie' punk rock, foreign musical genres are being indigenised, and imbued with Indonesian political meaning.

Writing on the wall

Remember the election last May? MAS SUJOKO was there and listened in to the people's vote, recorded on walls all over Yogyakarta.

Latest Articles

Labouring in vain?

May 03, 2024 - HASNA A. FADHILAH

The Labour Party (Partai Buruh) was revived in the wake of opposition to the Omnibus Law on Job Creation, but failure in the 2024 election shows they failed to connect...

Book review: Uncovering Suharto's Cold War

Apr 19, 2024 - VIRDIKA RIZKY UTAMA

Film review: Inheriting collective memories through 'Eksil'

Apr 12, 2024 - WAHYUDI AKMALIAH

A documentary embraced by TikTokers is changing how young people understand Indonesia’s past

Indonesians call for climate action through music

Apr 11, 2024 - JULIA WINTERFLOOD

Self-education and lived experience of the impacts of climate change, are driving a grassroots environmental movement

Book review: Clive of Indonesia

Apr 05, 2024 - DUNCAN GRAHAM

Subscribe to Inside Indonesia

Receive Inside Indonesia's latest articles and quarterly editions in your inbox.

Bacaan Bumi: Pemikiran Ekologis – sebuah suplemen Inside Indonesia

Lontar Modern Indonesia

Lontar-Logo-Ok

 

A selection of stories from the Indonesian classics and modern writers, periodically published free for Inside Indonesia readers, courtesy of Lontar.