Alit Sembodo’s work has always been characterized by dramatic throngs of diminutive human figures in intense activity dominating his canvasses. Born in 1973 in Magelang, Central Java, despite a short- lived artistic career dying at the age of 30, he created a number of significant and noteworthy works. His artworks were often exhibited and he won the Pratisara Affandi Adi Karya Prize in 1999 when he was still attending the Indonesia Institute of the Arts Yogyakarta. He combines a powerful narrative talent through his illustrations to comment on society. Thus Alit’s paintings have shown the tendency to become a media for social commentary, and he has become an icon among contemporary Indonesian artists.
The talented late artist was able to narrate a story, or rather describe a chain of events in a single painting. It was almost as if he was painting a comic, using caricatures with exaggerated body movements and the bright colours that punctuate the otherwise monochromatic painting, to direct the viewer’s gaze to the next scene playing out on the canvas. At first glance, the viewer’s attention is only drawn to the bright colours of red, yellow and blue on the canvas, but on closer examination; the directions that the figures are facing, their outstretched arms and bent legs, as well as the patches of empty black background that are no doubt strategically placed, draws the viewer further into the painting. Sembodo’s myriad of intertwined figures, chaotic and in disarray, often suggests commentary on contemporary Indonesian society with its multifaceted visual language.