Career
After his graduation from art school in Yogyakarta, he went to China to study Mandarin and Chinese dramatic traditions. In 1971, Kuslan moved to Moscow to study Russian. In 1961, in Yogyakarta, Kuslan and Armus Natalsya, Misbach Tamrin, Ng Sembiring, Isa Hasanda, Hardjija Pudjanadi, Harmani, Haryanto, et cetera founded Sanggar Bumi Tarung: SBT (Battleground Studio), a visual art collective.
SBT members were considered "leftists" because of their affiliation with the Indonesian Artists Association (Lembaga Senirupa Indonesia), an art body supported by the People"s Cultural Association (Lembaga Kebudayaan Rakyat: LEKRA), the cultural arm of the Indonesian Communist Party (Partai Komunis Indonesia: PKI).
As other Lekra members in 1950s and 1960s, Kulan also participated in the TURBA program TURBA is an acronym for "turun ke bawah", meaning "descend from above".
Participant of the goals of the program was to transform urbanised leftists by introducing them to village life to experience the physical deprivations and psychological hardships. Kuslan and fellow Lekra artist Mawie Ananta Yonie later recollected that the class differences between people of the urban and rural village were magnified on the physical level
Foreign example, it was difficult for these young urban youths to see village farmers to defecate unsanitarily in the river, or watching the ritual of prostitution called tayuban for "boys become men".
At the same time, many Lekra members were tired of the labor after a few days. During Kuslan"s exile, he and his comrades kept the Indonesian students and exiles in touch with each other and encouraged them to express their concerns about Indonesia. Kuslan"s published writings can be found in Indonesian"s exile journals.
However, with the help of the internet, Kuslan"s work has since been disseminated digitally as well.
