Speed, Spontan and Climax

Interview with Radhinal Indra by Rukii Naraya, translate by Alodia Amanda Margareta

Just imagine.
A very big laptop, and two men playing its keyboard. And suddenly a scene from hentai movie appeared on the screen.
Then those two men moved to a box that’s usually used to move the cursor on laptop screen.
Those two men, me and my friend named Indra, he clicked the “play” button and together we watched the “show”.

 In the middle of the show, I asked Indra.
“Radhinal indra is a troubled 23 years old chaps,” Laughing, this guy from Bima, Nusa Tenggara Barat, answered my question and told me his childhood story.

“I lived there for 17 years, and never went out from the island”
“I used to think that big cities like Jakarta, Bandung and else were like in those TV series, and it’s true, apparently!”
“In high school, the only thing I knew was drawing, so the last 3 years of my high school I kept on drawing and didn’t really think about the final exam”
“Because I thought that it’d be better to draw, and I bought the answer of the final exam” he joked. 

“Since I was little, getting visual references in my village was very difficult. When I was 5, there was grandma’s black and white television. And every afternoon there were Ultraman and Kamen Rider Black played on tv.”
“I really wanted to have that picture showed on tv. Because it was almost impossible, I had to remember every little detail of Kamen Rider Black’s Mask, BIO, Ultraman and the other. After that, I drawed what I had recorded in my mind. And back then paper was a rare thing. I even drew on the back of calendar!”
“Well, maybe because I already get used to remember details since I was a little kid, my visual recording skill is unconsciously trained, very good.”

“My mother finally realised. She saw that I liked to see pictures, and eventually she let me subscribe to Bobo magazine from elementary school until junior high school. Because I like to read and see pictures, my skill concepting and interpretation are very well developed. Most likely because I like science and observation.”
“There was a trial section and Boleh Tahu rubric on Bobo” “Whoa it’s favourite!”
“Firstly television, and then Bobo, they might be the trigger of how an Indra does his art, I think” I said.
“I think so”
“Hahaha”

“Now, after knowing a bit more and living in art, if you are asked ‘what is your reason to draw?’ then what would be your answer?”
“I think it's simple why i illustrate something, when i see some inspiring object, whenever wherever it is, i always get another thing beyond the things my brain projected, lately i realized it's FEELING. and this kind of feeling, i want to communicate to others, when we talk about illustrating something, the key is the message. but my concern is the feeling of the message, not the message.”
“By that, im doing more than illustrate something in my work.”

“Have you ever tried other media?”
“Oh yeah I started in drawing, and then painting, then I went back to drawing.”
“When I dealt with painting or designing, every decision was very well calculated. When I did that I often lost the ‘feeling’, and I decided to went back to a medium that is more direct”
“You don’t have to think! And it’s usually full of feeling”

“Okay, Ndra you often make vulgar artworks, some are so vulgar”
“Hahaha”
“I actually developed those artworks from some time ago”

“Being a designer is very tiring actually. That makes me think too much, calculated, anxious, and the works ended sterile and dry.”
“I’ve ever considered to resign, planned a full of feelings vacation! That is the result”
“To be honest, I really like things that are a bit obscene”
“When I was in elementary school I read Bobo, in junior high school until high school watching 3gp video on handphone was booming, and I was a bit addicted”
“Nasty”
“Hentai its an addict”
“I think this is the other side of me that I used to be ashamed to put it on my works.”
“And so the experiment began?”
“Yes!”
“Most of my works I’ve made are created with instant feelings.”
“For example, you get morning erection, don’t you? Well, that is the right moment!”
“I can make 5-6 artworks in 3 hours. Because my works are the works of sexual activity itself”
“FULL SPEED, MINDLESS, no distraction… PASSIONATE, EXPLORATIVE SEXY MOVES, SPONTANITY, and CLIMAX!!"
“The average duration of a healthy sexual activity is about 30-40 minutes. I’ve never tried, actually. Well, my average time to draw something is more or less the same, so it has the same feeling!!!”
“Hahahaha”
“Well, maybe I can ask you too about what you feel when you see my works.”
“Yeah just like what I’ve said. Vulgar. But you’re right, I can feel the ‘feeling’" I said.
“Vulgar?”
“I think we do need vulgar things, because layered meanings in today’s artworks are overdone, there are so much expert out there.”
“Directness, perhaps… the thingness of things, the feelness of feels.”
“Vulgar is not the right word for it”
“Hahahaha”
Then silence.
I watched black and white drawings that were there in front of me.
Indra took a gulp of his ice mint tea.

“Well anyway who is an artist that becomes your reference or your idol, Ndra?”
“Matthew Collings, broadcaster, art critic and artist.”
“He is very smart, and he has the guts to give an honest opinion to a work, his writings are creative and has a right vocabulary to describe an inspiring object. My concepting and frame of mind have been influenced by him since I entered college.”

“And, Martin Creed, totally conceptual artist.”
“When I saw The Lights Going On and Off, 2004, it’s brilliant!”
“Martin Creed doesn’t get much supports in his artworks but he stands for how brave we are to make decision about which idea is better or not. is art about decision”
“He is funny, when he’s asked something serious he’ll get baffled, and he always talks random, just like his works”
“Hehehe”
“Aaah ya ya ya”

“Btw” “Aren’t you scared your works will be banned or you’ll get beaten, Ndra?”
“BANNED??”
“Haha! Ouch…” “Hmm… let me think” “One of my cousins is FPI activist, actually”
“Hahaha”

 We laughed together, even with no idea what we laughed at. But suddenly Indra’s head touched Ctrl key, his hand touched Alt key and my feet pressed the Del. Restart!
And that conversation hadn’t been saved.

2013
Radhinal Indra
www.radhinalindra.tumblr.com