From the many characters and subject-matter which have emerged through Mella Jaarsma’s work process, one which stands out prominently is the intent to practice art as an entry point into the discourse on cultural identity. Not without a reason, Mella pioneered this characteristic model of her work upon witnessing, observing and becoming involved in various social and cultural tensions, at least since the mid-80s, when she decided to live and work in Indonesia ‘ a distant domain which not only provided her with many inspirations and aesthetic ideas, but also enriched her living experiences.In the context of the contemporary art scene in Indonesia, Mella’s position is unique. She simultaneously plays two active roles: as a manager of a gallery and as an artist. At the end of the 80s, Mella began to be recognized in Indonesia as an ‘activist’ who introduced the model of managing an alternative art space with the founding of Cemeti Art House in Yogyakarta.
This art institute which she pioneered has made an important contribution to the development of art organizations in Indonesia, in the midst of minimal government support and a confusion of evaluation standards of art works caused by the boom of art in Indonesia in the early 80s. On another side, Mella is also a productive artist. Her works represent aspecific perspective of a ‘migrant artists’, who is capable of intelligently working with local materials and issues. However, it must be emphasized that she is not the typical ‘Western artist’ who comes and seeks exotic values in the East. Indeed, it is the opposite, as Mella’s works are able to shift and turn around all viewpoints which construct cultural identity ‘ between ‘Occidental’ and ‘Oriental’, between ‘those who see’ and ‘those who are seen’, between ‘me’ and ‘others’ ‘ as stereotypical and rigid binary opposites. In general, Mella’s works express questions concerning the differences of human lifestyles in a broad understanding: spirituality/religion, social classes, communal identity, political perspectives, ethnicity, morality, tradition, etc. In a global context, the city of Yogyakarta, where Mella resides, is indeed only a small world filled with these differences. However, from her experiences as a member of Indonesian society, in addition to her social-cultural background as a European artist, Mella is able to promote questions relevant to cultural problems which are latent in conflicts everywhere in the present world. We can place Mella’s sociological background as the hermeneutic anchor which influences and underscores all of her works.
Mella has a very particular interest in the existence of idioms and symbols in society. Her solo exhibition, ‘Think It or Not’ at Bentara Budaya Yogyakarta (1997) placed symbols as the central problem. Symbols were understood to be signs which had multiple meanings. On the one side they are characteristically private/individual, and on the other side, they are communal/social. The works in this exhibition focused on the procedure of giving symbols meanings in the society as a process that was arbitrary. It was proposed that symbols have a context and history of their own in a specific sociological environment ‘ they will never be universal. Mella considers that associations of a symbol which are believed in by a certain group will never truly be fully adopted by any other group.
However, Mella’s works are actually far from symbolism ‘ in fact, she has never meant to create meaningful symbols. Indeed, her method employs the familiarity of the use and meanings of daily objects as phenomenological reality. As seen in the exhibition, ‘Think It or Not’, Mella used objects and imagery of frog’s bodies that had been skinned to provoke certain associations with sex, death, birth, victims, etc. She found the skinned frogs that were bought and sold in a traditional market in Yogyakarta for daily consumption, particularly those of Chinese descent. Through several paintings and objects, Mella composed an interesting juxtaposition between the ‘naked’ frogs and her own memories of frogs. At that moment, she began to become aware of the use of symbols as something that was individual, but had the potential to become a contradiction when it collided with communal understanding. This period is important as an initial phase which began her research and art projects about cultural identity.
The use of materials and idioms in Mella’s projects from 1997 – 2006 truly indicate an intensive exploration of ideas. We can interpret the continuity of Mella’s artistic journey from one project to another as a process which has a cultural meaning. The idea of the ‘frogs’ that began in the exhibition, ‘Think It or Not’, developed in a series of works, ‘Hi Inlander (Hello Native)’ (1998 – 1999). This series took the form of wearable objects made from animal skins (frogs, fish and chicken) that were arranged and sewn into traditional veils worn by Muslim women. Mella appropriated the veil as a symbol that directed our associations towards the identity of Muslim women. In the context of the Indonesian community’s understanding, the use of frog skins as the material for a veil has the consequence of being provocative because in Islamic tradition, particularly in Indonesia, frogs are considered unclean (hence forbidden) to be consumed.
The process of changing the material use of the naked’ frog’s bodies can be interpreted as an interesting process of shifting thoughts, especially in relation to the binary opposition between ‘body’ and ‘skin’, between ‘filling’ and ‘appearance’. It must be understood that the use of the frog skin in ‘Hi Inlander’¦’ is not an expression of cultural confrontation, nor is it a metaphor which intends to confront a certain community’s identity. This work was born from the direct contact Mella experienced in the social situation in Indonesia at a time when issues and the conflict of differences of race and religion were very sensitive. The use of the skin veils here reconciled the social reality which claimed that one’s identity could be determined by the wearing of symbols, features, or signs that actually can be artificial. This symbol in the form of a costume could not actually ever express true identity, moreover it is often used by a group for pragmatic purposes.
Mella continued to borrow the idiom of the veil in a series of works that used a variety of materials: cocoons, squid, seaweed, political party emblems, buffalo horns, kangaroo skin, goat skin, army uniform cloth, etc. These materials were chosen because they each were able to express a different narration. For Mella, the characters, features and appearance of the materials in each veil could not be replaced by other materials because she felt that they each embodied their own specific history and meaning. Mella’s projects which involve clothing are related to the discourse of body politics.
Since the beginning of 2003, Mella began to expand her thoughts about ‘skin’. Similar to her borrowing of the idiom of the veil, she then adopted the form of a tent. The tent was constructed simply to resemble a costume which could protect only one (human) body, as seen in the serial work, ‘Refugee Only’ (2003) and was continued in the series, ‘Shelter Me’ (2005). These two series of works represent the latest phase of Mella’s artistic journey which is increasingly complex in exposing increasingly varied narratives, however they still exhibit her continuing efforts to understand the problems of symbols and signs as they relate to cultural identity.
In the series, ‘Shelter Me’, the materials borrowed and used represented a hybrid situation.This reflects how the problem of identity is actually relates to the reference of our memories regarding positions which at this time will never provide a stable, sheltered space.
Agung Hujatnikajennong
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Agung Hujatnika a.k.a Agung Hujatnikajennong, was born in Tasikmalaya, Indonesia, 1976, is a lecturer at the Fine Arts Department, Faculty of Art and Design, Bandung Institute of Technology, Indonesia. Besides working as curator at Selasar Sunaryo Art Space, Bandung (www.selasarsunaryo.com), he has been contributing essays to national and international exhibition catalogues, mass media and journals. He has conducted exhibitions, curatorial projects, research, and written publications relating to Indonesian art, including “Taboo and Transgression in Contemporary Indonesian Art” (Herbert F. Johnson Gallery, Cornell University, USA, 2005), ‘AVICON – Asia Videoart Conference’ (2003 and 2004, in Tokyo and Bandung respectively) and ‘O.K. Video, Jakarta Video Art Festival’ (National Gallery of Indonesia, 2003 and 2005). He has participated in curatorial residency programs in Canberra (at Drill Hall Gallery) and Brisbane (at Queensland Art Gallery), Australia, granted by Asialink, 2002; and in Tokyo (at Nanjo and Associates), Japan, funded by The Japan Foundation, 2004. Since 2002, he is also actively involved in projects at ruangrupa, Jakarta
(www.ruangrupa.org)