This work and some other works developed in 2011/ 2012 were inspired by the Peranakan culture. The Peranakans in Indonesia created a specific culture, which is more than adding individual elements of the three main ethnicities – Chinese, Indonesian, and Dutch.
Indonesia’s ethnic Chinese community is recovering its poise after years of persecution under the President Suharto’s 32-year authoritarian regime. Since 1998 they are able to reclaim their existence in public by celebrating Chinese New Year, creating festivals and China towns.
I created a performance at ‘Pecinan’, China town in Semarang, bringing a ‘pikul’. I carried Dutch blue tiles along the streets, looking for a place in between food stalls. I invited the people to exchange the tiles with anything they wanted to barter, except money. Science, knowledge, religion and trading objects have travelled the world and with this performance ‘Tukar Tambah /Trade Up’ I tried to trigger a discussion about the strength of hybrid cultures. On a hundred blue tiles I added phrases related to Indonesia’s multi cultural history; something to think about when the tile is brought home.
Link to ‘The Coasters I’, ‘Coat of the declined’, ‘The Frontiers’ and ‘The Pioneer’.