Project Description
Huile sur toile
Dimensions : 57 cm x 68 cm
Signed lower right : Tio Kiem Hieu
Dated and countersigned on the back : 1957
Betjak Djakarta drivers (Betjak drivers)
Smbodj (Tio Kiem Hieu) Born in 1931 (Purworejo – Java – Indonesia)
Indonesian artist painter d & rsquo; Chinese.
Becak is pronounced “Bet-cha” (with a soft “t”) and in an earlier spelling (dutch) was “betjak”.
“The becak is the Indonesian embodiment of the ubiquitous pedicab, or rickshaw, found everywhere from New Delhi to Taiwan, and even today as a tourist attraction in London's Soho and parts of New York.
But this is Indonesia, and especially Java, which is the real heart of the pedicab. The becak is as much a motif and symbol of Indonesia as the silhouette of a wayang kulit puppet, or the smell of a clove cigarette. Le becak, a pedal-powered three-wheeled bicycle with a passenger seat, is the descendant of the original hand-pulled rickshaws that originated in Japan in the 19th century.
Design and style vary from country to country, and even from one city to another, but in indonesia, the passenger is seated in the front, with a breathtaking view of the busy streets. Despite the best efforts of municipal governments, becak continues to provide transport and employment to millions of people in Indonesia.
There are literally hundreds of thousands of becaks in Indonesia, but that was not always the case, and despite their timeless image, they are actually a relatively recent addition to the cityscape.
The Becak only for goods before the First World War
Before World War II, the becak was virtually unknown.
There were tricycles used for transporting goods for many years, but it is only in 1936 that the first passenger-carrying becak hit the streets of Jakarta.
The Dutch authorities immediately hated the new invention, worrying about safety and congestion, and setting the tone for the government's attitude towards becaks so far. They could have acted to eliminate them completely, but history intervened.
Japanese influence
In 1942, Japanese Imperial forces land in Indonesia, ousted the Dutch and brought about an even more oppressive form of colonial rule.
As Indonesian National Identity Struggles to Light, cities were suffocating. The Japanese tightly control the availability of gasoline, ban private ownership of motor vehicles and eventually strangle old bus and tram networks.
Horse
It will no doubt be painful to commuters facing the stalemate of modern Jakarta and Surabaya to know that both cities once had comprehensive and efficient public transport systems..
The only major source of urban transport that survived under the Japanese was the horse-drawn dokar, which fulfilled the roles occupied by both becaks and taxis.
But a horse was an expensive commodity, difficult to feed at a time when many people suffered from hunger, and they quickly started to disappear too. Enter the becak, so far a quirk and a novelty.
Cheap, low maintenance and requiring no fuel other than the strength of its driver, the becak quickly became the main – sometimes the only one – means of public transport.
Post-war turmoil and the long struggle for independence meant that organized transport networks never really recovered. Locking the stable door was useless after the horse left, and the dokars never came back in numbers. But the becak has proliferated.
Expansion
In 1953, there were about 40 000 people in Surabaya and, in 1981, becak drivers constituted approximately 3% of the city's workforce. In the years 80, there were many more 100 000 in Jakarta…””
|
* excluding postage |
To acquire this work, contact us at : 06 08 15 23 92 or email contact@galerielesechappeesdelart.fr |
600 € *