Budaya Visual Urban: Estetika Instagramable dan Transformasi Lukisan Sokaraja di Banyumas

Abstract

The decline of Sokaraja Painting galleries since the 1990s has often been interpreted as a sign of the fading of a local folk painting tradition in Banyumas, Central Java. This study views the transformation not simply as the disappearance of artistic production or a reduction in the number of painters, but as a change in the social function and visibility of Sokaraja Paintings within everyday visual life. The study aims to examine this transformation in the context of contemporary urban visual culture, particularly through exhibition practices, documentation, photography, and Instagrammable aesthetics. A qualitative approach grounded in visual culture studies was employed through field observation, semi-structured interviews, visual documentation, archival research, and digital media tracing. Data were obtained from the former Sokaraja Painting gallery district, cultural activities and spaces in Sokaraja and Purwokerto, and digital documentation related to Sokaraja Paintings. The findings show that the weakening of the gallery and market ecosystem has reduced the position of Sokaraja Paintings as a dominant element of everyday visual life, but has not eliminated the tradition. Its continuity has taken new forms through exhibitions, festivals, archives, documentation, visual experiences, and the circulation of digital images. In this context, Instagrammable aesthetics refers to visual conditions that enable artworks, spaces, and experiences to be photographed, framed, documented, and potentially circulated through social media. This transformation is conceptualized as a Crisis of Representation, while the process of strengthening the connection between the paintings and Banyumas locality is formulated as Performative Localism. The study further develops Post-Decorative Visuality to explain the changing mechanisms through which Sokaraja Paintings acquire social presence, from a predominant emphasis on decorative function and ownership toward a configuration that also encompasses experience, memory, documentation, and image circulation. The findings demonstrate that the continuity of visual heritage can occur through changing modes of visibility and social relevance within contemporary urban visual culture.