In May 2006, a big earthquake hit Yogyakarta, the city where I live. Many houses were totally destroyed except for some concrete constructions; a few cupboards were still standing here and there. When everything is destroyed, how do we build again? Do we rebuild the old or do we build something new? Do we have the ability to improve?
These works (costumes/shelters/tents/flags) are made of photographs printed on canvas, depicting rubble and leftovers of former households of the empty land near my house in southern Yogyakarta, Indonesia. From these digital prints, I made shelters. The shelters are meant as satirical comments on the relationship between NGOs and the communities they are trying to “save”. After 2006, a number of organizations came and took over areas where common people used to live before the disaster. Different NGOs, divided by religion, country and vision, would make their claim over these areas for recovery projects. They placed their flags, fenced up their land, started their field-work and wrote proposals in their specific NGO jargon.
Link to artwork ‘This Place is Mine’, 2006