Indonesians in Focus: Godot Sutejo

By Wombat | March 31st, 2006 | 1 Comment »

Yogyakarta is full of brilliant artists in many art forms. One such person is Godot Sutejo. However, Sutejo is not only an artist but an avid collector of radios, as Yogyakarta contributor Slamet Susanto found out.

Godot Sutejo: Artist and radio collector
Slamet Susanto, Yogyakarta

Godot Sutejo, 53, a well-known Yogyakarta artist, has a rather unusual hobby — he collects old radios.

At present he has 60 of them, none of which have been on the market in a long time. To ensure that the radios can be operated, they have been adjusted to run on 220 volts of electricity, and as many of the required spare parts are no longer available, Godot sometimes has to cannibalize one to repair another.

“However, I only take parts from radios that are already beyond repair and can no longer be sold,” he said, grinning.

Patience and great care are needed when looking for old radios. To get a better idea about where he is likely to find them, Godot reads history books, especially those with sections about journeys made by foreigners in Indonesia.

He has studied historical photographs and visited former centers of the Dutch colonial era in his search.

Godot is interested in old radios because for him they tell him the history of the entertainment world. “Radio was the precursor of the current entertainment media,” said the father of three.

Unless you look at one carefully, an old radio set, he said, is just like any other decorative object. Closer examination will reveal that it is a beautiful work of art that can produce an enjoyable sound. Old radios use valves, so, unlike modern radios, the sound cannot be heard the moment they are turned on.

Godot, who was born in Tameng, Wonogiri, Central Java, said old radios gave him a sense of tranquility. He said he felt at peace with the world while appreciating the beauty of an old radio and listening to the sound it produced.

“As an artist I must be creative. However, sometimes I have a mental block. Thanks to my collection of old radio sets I can refresh my mind,” he said.

He said he first became interested in old radios while he was working an artist at Ancol Dreamland in Jakarta. One day he dropped in at the house of a friend, also an artist, and saw an old radio set there.

He was very curious about his friend’s old radio set and so bought one for himself, probably not realizing what he was starting. At one point he had a collection of over 100 old radio sets. He has limited space for his collection, however, and many of the radios are now broken beyond repair, so these days only about 60 remain. He acquired all of them at very low prices because few of the previous owners thought they were of any use or value.

Sometimes the acquisition were not easy. Once he had to make an extra effort because the owner, while no longer using his radio, refused to sell it.

It took Godot a week of patient visits with the owner to persuade him to part with it.

Of all the old radios in his collection, Godot loves his 1950 Philips model best because of its unique shape: Its two sides are identical.