My inspiration for this artwork was F.X. Harsono’s ‘What would you do if these crackers were real pistols?’ (1977). I chose to study and analyze this artwork because I love the way it makes the viewer think and question. I also really like how it is interactive and people can freely share their thoughts and opinions with the world. I think that it is very interesting to compare people’s answers to the same question across a large span of time, and see how they vary.

To make an accurate interpretation of the original artwork, I had to research the Direct, Further and Personal links to the installation. The direct link in my artwork is the reference to the title of Harsono’s piece, symbolised with the stencils of ‘10 words, 1 question’. The further link is the number 11,393, referring to the amount of days President Suharto was in power for. Finally, the personal link is the danger sign with the four national languages of Singapore, the country in which I live.

For my artwork I chose to use brighter, colours that stand out more to represent how even in dark times, if there are just little bits of good that shine above the bad, there is hope. This inspiration came from the group of artists Harsono was apart of (the New Arts Movement or Gerakan Seni Rupa Baru) that sought change in Indonesia through new art forms and contemporary practices. The main colour in Harsono’s piece is bright pink, which stands out clearly against the darkness of the rest of the installation. I decided to use his idea of pink for my piece as well. The second layer of my artwork is several different sized squares in slightly different shades of pink. The different shades of pink on the rice cracker guns inspired me to create a gradient of pink squares across my painting.

My artwork has many layers to it. The depth of all these layers adds the illusion of three-dimensional space, on a two-dimensional surface. My first layer is hard to see underneath the other layers, however it is an ombre of dark blue to light greenish-yellow; created by mixing blues, greens and reds and sponging them onto a rectangular wheat-board, painted white.
The second layer was made by painting different shades of pink onto different sized wooden blocks. These were then stamped diagonally onto the board in an ombre of light to dark, with the darker squares being larger than the lighter squares. The darker squares were also placed on top of the lighter area of the first layer (the green part) and the lighter squares on the dark part of the first layer (the blue area).
I then used inspiration from the title of the original piece to sponge a giant question mark made with blue, green and white paint mixed together in a gradient, into the middle of my artwork. The sponge helped to create a very nice soft texture on top of the harder textures of previous layers. Beside the dot of the question mark is the number 1 and ‘words’ is written on the left. I wanted this to represent the title of the original piece; of how there are 10 words and 1 question, and how that brought the freedom of thought to many people living under the authoritarian ruler of Indonesia when Harsono made his installation.
The fourth layer is a yellow triangle with the word ‘Danger’ written in Tamil, Malay, Mandarin and English. This is a sign that can be found in Singapore to mark dangerous areas. The danger relates to the guns in the original installation and how many people felt in danger living in Indonesia under the authoritarian rule.
On my top layer are question marks layered on top of one another to emphasise my previous thoughts about the title of this piece and the number 11,393 which is the number of days that the Indonesian authoritarian ruler, President Suharto, was in power for.

I faced challenges in time management. In the end, I was able to complete my artwork, however I did have to rush towards the end. I also had some problems with the stenciling of the numbers and question marks, this was because when I was sponging the paint onto the canvas, my sponge was too wet, resulting in a thin, wispy, not fully clear layer of paint. Nevertheless, in the end I think that my work came out very nicely.

I was successful with the printing of the pink squares using wooden blocks. I really liked the rustic texture and look that the wooden blocks left on my art piece.

My artwork is an interpretation of F.X. Harsono’s powerful installation, but it is much more. It is a piece of work that highlights the importance of the freedom of speech and the freedom of thought, it shows people the need for everyone to be heard and for everyone to have a say in the things that impact their life. I hope that my art makes viewers think, wonder and question, creating a space open for budding curiosity, just as F.X. Harsono’s ‘What would you do if these crackers were real pistols?’ did for me.