Painting and poetry writing can be intimate and exclusive professions, but Frans Nadjira has mastered the art of blending the two together. Wayan Suardika explores this painter-poet’s way of thinking.

W e are all, as humans, faced with a number of demands and choices. In light of this reality, not many people allow themselves time to reflect on whether they are brave enough to struggle for the conviction they have in their hearts. As a matter of fact, many people give up things in their own lives, resorting instead to a life not actually intended by them. Only very few people make exceptions to this trend, and yet Frans Nadjira is one of those few, one who has had the courage to face his convictions.

Born in the fairly crowded harbour city of Makasar on 3 September 1942, Nadjira is representative of those people who dare to make choices in life. Despite others’ inability to understand the combination of professions he has chosen, namely painting and poetry writing, Nadjira has been prepared to take risks.

"There are certain factors which lead a person to his choice of a certain domain in life. Let us call this their profession," Frans Nadjira shares. "Such a choice can be due, first of all, to a conscious motivation - that is, the profession is chosen with the full conviction of one’s heart. On the other hand, there are those who are chosen by life or appointed by Nature to assume that walk of life."

Nadjira believes that the life he is leading at present — the life of a poet-painter — is a blending together of the two modes of existence — of choosing and being chosen.

The chosen one
Nadjira’s conviction about art as a permanent profession has remained with him from an early age, and he has gradually become spellbound by those dedicated to art. Since childhood he has trodden the path laid down by these artists. It is since that time, too, that his talent in painting and poetry writing has taken its shape.

As a child he was once announced as the winner of a drawing contest held in his home region, and he also won an East-Indonesian short story writing competition organised by the University of Hassanudin. His early successes then persistently motivated him and paved an artistic path for the future.

When Nadjira consciously chose to be a painter and a poet, he felt that being an artist was for him a life calling. He happily responded to this calling, readily accepting and facing a number of associated challenges. He absorbed both physical and mental suffering and accepted them as a spiritual challenge.

During his life Frans Nadjira did have hard times. He once worked as a laborer at the harbour, and at another stage as a woodcutter in the jungles of Kalimantan. At this point, an encounter with a number of bandits in the jungle nearly brought an end to his life. Further down the track he tried to raise chickens as well as involving himself in various other blue-collar jobs. Such experiences, however, eventually had a positive impact on his life, bringing a sense of maturity to himself as an artist and to his art works.

In the context of art in Indonesia, especially in literature and painting, Frans Nadjira is unique. At a biennale in Jakarta, in which Nadjira participated, a critic considered the presence of his paintings as very influential, because in those works he was able to offer something unique among the various creative innovations presented there.

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