JP/Ika KrismantariIntuition has been indispensable in the work of Yogyakarta-based artist and theater director Citra Pratiwi.
Since the beginning of her career, Citra has relied on intuition to guide and inspire her, not only in the creative process but also in her evolution as one of the emerging thespians in the country’s theater scene.
The winner of the 2012-2013 “Empowering Women Artists” award from the Kelola Foundation revealed that she decided to become an artist based on instinct.
The idea of becoming an artist came to her when she was a student at Sanata Dharma University in Yogyakarta majoring in management.
“I was pretty actively involved in campus theater and suddenly I wanted to study at art school because I really wanted to get serious in the field,” the 30-year-old reminisced.
Behind her parents’ backs, the woman applied to the Indonesians Arts Institute (ISI) of Yogyakarta, informing her parents only after she was accepted, knowing that it would devastate her mother. Her mother ended up not speaking to her daughter for months upon hearing the news.
The fact that Citra was raised in a family that never considered art to be something serious might explain her parents’ anger.
Citra said in an interview with The Jakarta Post that she had been enthusiastic about art since she was little, attending dance lessons and joining a theater group in high school. Unfortunately, her penchant for art was never fully addressed as it was acknowledged as merely a hobby.
No wonder it took her family by storm when they found out Citra had decided to drop her management studies for a future in art.
But the doubts and questions soon subsided after Citra displayed her strong commitment to the choice she had made.
“I proved it with good grades and they managed to respond to my mother’s worries,” the ethnomusicology graduate said.
Apart from the fact that her current career is not related to her academic background, Citra said ethnomusicology had helped her to understand more about the world of art performance.
“It trained me how to identify factors behind good performances,” said Citra, who had the chance to put all those theories to practice when she joined the local theater company Teater Garasi in 2001.
The woman said it was her experience in Teater Garasi that inspired her to become a professional artist.
Together with the group, Citra had the chance to perform in numerous plays staged locally and internationally.
Besides being an actress in Teater Garasi, Citra has also explored the art world with her works as a curator and young performance researcher.
The multitalented artist, who has a background in traditional Bali and Javanese dance, has also been involved in a number of art projects beyond theater, including dance, film and art installations.
“I am opened to all mediums … the target is not the medium but how to make visitors feel,” she
said of her exploration of different art forms.
The winner of the 2007 Art Prize from the Education and Culture Ministry has also collaborated with local and international artists from many disciplines.
In 2007, she was invited by the US government for a cultural exchange organized by the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing
Arts, and two years later she was invited to join a dance forum in Lisbon, Portugal.
Throughout her 11-year career as an artist, Citra has performed in Singapore, Fukuoka and Tokyo in Japan, and Berlin, Germany.
Despite being exposed to various art forms, Citra felt her passion remained in theater until she had another hunch that told her to become a director of her own plays.
“I just felt the desire to make my own shows and I decide to follow the intuition and tried to make it happen,” she said.
Her first play was a monologue entitled Ophelia: Misteri Kolam Kematian (Ophelia: The Secret of the Death Pond) in 2007. Inspired by one of Shakespeare’s masterpieces, the performance was staged in Yogyakarta, Jakarta and Lampung.
Her second play with Teater Garasi was Kereta Kencana (The Golden Chariot), an adaption of a play by renowned poet Rendra based on a re-reading of Eugene Ionesco’s Les Chaises (The Chairs), performed in Yogyakarta in 2008.
However, Citra’s career experienced an expected turn after she married sculptor Yuli Prayitno and gave birth in December 2010.
Citra was aware of the daunting task of becoming a mother and quit Teater Garasi with a heavy heart to concentrate on raising her daughter, Khaliilah Gandes Prayata.
In the end, Citra is not only a great artist, but also a mother willing to do anything for her child.
Besides busying herself with art, Citra is also an active member of the Indonesian Breast-feeding Mothers Association. She is a lactation counselor, assisting mothers with breastfeeding problems. She also makes frequent visits to almost 20 integrated health service posts (Posyandu) in her area every month for consultations and campaigns.
Although enjoying motherhood, Citra refused to halt completely her activities in the other world she is passionate about. With a group of fellow artists, she initiated the Migrating Troop before officially resigning from Garasi. The new group, which she called a Yogyakarta-based performance alliance, continues as Citra balances her role as a mother and creator of the group.
With Migrating Troop, Citra has produced four performances, the latest, The PussyFoot: Learning to Make Fire, staged in Yogyakarta and Singapore.
The director said the dance theater piece was a criticism of religion, relations and violence that targeted women as victims.
All Citra’s artworks have one thing in common — they always bring women’s issues to stage. But once again, she said her tendency to make women central in her work was something intuitive.
“I never plan that I want to create a play about woman. I just follow my instinct,” she explained.
Intuition still plays an important role in her creative process as she admitted she still picked up ideas anywhere and anytime.
“There are things that I cannot write on script and finally I just draw them,” she said.
But now, the artist says she is learning to not only depended on her intuition but also to explore other skills in theater management to make the creative process in her theater group more efficient and effective so Citra can be both great artist on the stage as well as great mother at home.
