Life in a tropical country with high levels of poverty can sometimes be transient. People are always on the move, trekking from village to city in search for work, only ever staying in one place for a short time. The city renders this visible with views of homelessness, market sellers sleeping next to their stalls, refugees and the undervalued of society. Their shelters are often minimal, moveable constructions made for protection from the elements.
In ‘Rubber Time II’, three figures are rolled into different materials: a mattress, zinc and batik shirts. The legs sticking out of these rolls are cast in fiberglass, but made to look as life-like as possible. The works were activated at the opening night through a performance in which I myself laid quietly on the floor between the inanimate figures, wrapped in a roll of buffalo horn and cow leather. This work attempts to create a tension between those that are alive, asleep, or dead.
In 2007/2008, theatre director Yudi Tajudin and Teater Garasi (Yogyakarta) took ‘Rubber Time II’ as a starting point for the interactive theatre piece ‘Je.ja.lan’.
Link to Je.ja.lan dance-theatre project
Link to Rubber Time I