Family Portrait

2016 - Photography (Photography)

75 x 60 cm

Akiq AW

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In the Family Portrait series, Akiq AW documents reliefs and statues in Jogja, Indonesia that present an image of the ideological nuclear family. Following Indonesia’s communal and political conflicts, and its economic collapse and social breakdown of the late 1950s to the mid-1960s, the second Indonesian President Suharto established the “New Order” regime. During this period, there were efforts to control the national birth rate through a programme called Keluarga Berencana (Family Planning). A key idea of this program was the depiction and normalization of a nuclear family with two parents and two children. During the peak of New Order, from the ‘70s through to the ‘90s, in every neighborhood and at every village entrance, the nuclear family was represented in the form of reliefs, statues, and gates. The New Order was committed to achieving and maintaining political order and economic development through a strong political role for the military, the bureaucratisation and corporatisation of political and societal organizations, and selective but effective repression of opponents. After the New Order ended, the Keluarga Berencana program did too, but some of the reliefs and statues remained.

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Akiq AW is primarily a photographer whose ongoing projects investigate everyday life and how humans face reality through innovation and strategies of their own creation. He is also part of Mes 56, a Yogyakarta artist collective.

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Colors:

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• family.n.01
• parent.n.01
• child.n.01
• politics.n.01
• government.n.01
• portrayal.n.01