Java - Yogyakarta 2 (Street Art)
28. november 2025, Indonesien ⋅ 🌧 27 °C
Image #1
Small display of poster type artwork with a poem written in Farsi, about unrequited love I believe.
“I wish I had known from the beginning... that in the chest and the heart of yours you have a fashion for... this wound of always being tired. I wish I had known from the beginning that in your hands you have a key to... forever closed”
Image #2
Affandi Koesoema, known as Affandi, is an Indonesian abstract/expressionist painter. Someone has stencilled him onto a wall with a spray can. Maybe as a mark of respect.
Image #3
Snowy the dog (from Hergé’s Tintin). Possible dazed or inebriated (as he had a penchant for the odd accidental tipple in the Tintin stories)
Image #4
Poster art with an environmental message. The top one translates to “By planting we survive” and the graphic of the low battery tree is a clever way to denote earths depleting resources.
Image #5
I researched the quote in this image, "I can't be a singular expression of myself. There's too many parts, too many spaces,"
Apparently it’s is a line from Solange Knowles (Beyoncé’s sis) song “Can I Hold the Mic" off her album When I Get Home.
The quote seems to examine the complexity and nature of identity.
Image #6
Couldn’t see a tag so couldn’t look the artist up. I loved the portrait of this person.
Image #7
Again, one that I couldn’t find anything out about. These eyes look out from a location on the wall of a narrow alleyway between our accommodation and street with our favourite cafe.
Image #8
The lady with the bird. Amanda loved this one. The lady (Mother Nature?) holds our planet, a vine and a tiny bird, while the city looms behind. Maybe a comment on looking after what we have?
Image #9
This image is a photograph of a pice of artwork created by Indonesian artist, Tamara Pertamina "Garuda: Predator OR Protector" is a work by this transgender artist and contains themes of gender identity, national identity, and human rights in Indonesia.
Garuda is an emblem and significant cultural symbol for Indonesia. It is the mythical and divine great golden eagle of Hindu and Buddhist lore - the king of birds, ridden by Vishnu and is a powerful, half-human, half- bird representing divinity, protection, and national identity.
Tamara’s art questions the nation states role as either a protector or a predator for transgender individuals (known locally as waria).
Image #10
A legendary depiction of a sparrow type bird down an alley in the Prawirotaman neighbourhood. I think it’s by an artist called Yunanto Getlups.
Image #11
The Kotagede area of the city has many murals
Image #12
Another wall mural in Kotagede.
Image #13
Also in Kotagede. A great mural of someone hanging up batik prints to dry, possibly.
Image #14
This was on a closed shop front for a mechanic or small auto garage.
Image #15
A stencil by Sumatran street artist Anagard. His Bio states he is a professional street artist who specializes in stencil technique and is a graduate from Indonesia Institute of Arts in Yogyakarta. The character portrayed appears on several pieces we saw and seems to be part human, part animal. His art often depicts animals from the country he visits and comments on social issues, reflecting on the relationship between humans, nature, and government. He says that he uses animal heads in his images from his local myth, local philosophy and religion, as ancestors believe that is our behaviour related with life of animals.
Image #16
A Banksy-esque figure with CND t-shirt doing some graffiti art. Art of the doing the art itself.
The tag says Wak Yong who could be Adril Wak Yong, an Indonesian artist
Image #17
A lady with a can of spray paint stares out defiantly, I couldn’t see a tag but really like the way she stares out.
Image #18
I think this is another piece by Anagard. Similar strange hooded creature with bird feet, holding a heart in a string
Image #19
An almost pop art mural of a person licking an ice cream.
Image #20
A large piece by Anagard. A child with a headdress peers through binoculars. Keeping an eye on us all, maybe?
Image #21
A large mono mural with lots of detail and different motifs. Mutasi Jawa is possible a name for a movement or style of Indonesian street/urban art,
This is a collaborative effort by Ismu Ismoyo (a muralist/visual artist) and Guntur Susilo (a batik artist), who have worked together on various art projects and exhibitions. In their words, it depicts the changes in Javanese culture that occurred between 2010 and 2015, particularly in Yogyakarta. One of the changes they wanted to convey was the conversion of agricultural land into buildings. Ismu explained that his idea stemmed from his observation of the increasing number of hotels and apartments in the city. How this also led to conflict, such as the one in Kulon Progo. It emphasises that the conversion of agricultural land that led to conflict stemmed from the need for money. Therefore, he painted fragments of this story on a piece of money.
Along with addressing change, Ismu also wanted to emphasize his mural with a characteristic inherent in Javanese culture: batik. Based on this, Ismu collaborated with a Wonosari batik artist named Guntur Susilo. Considering that the message of change is particularly prevalent in Java, the two men, agreed that the batik motif complemented the intended message: a commitment to the struggle for Javanese cultural values.
For Guntur, batik is a part of culture that needs to be preserved. Therefore, he believed that by depicting it through murals, everyone would have the opportunity to see it every day in the public space - a wall in a street. "That way, when people see these murals, at least their memory of batik as part of their culture can be reawakened," Guntur commented.
Image #22
The half human half bird (?) offer something in her hands. We do t know what that is as her hands have been cut off by the corner of the wall of the building. This may have been intended as part of the narrative.
Other similar stencils are also in the edges of buildings and so have a strange appendage where the hands should be.Læs mere