How does one review the scope of Mella Jaarsma’s artwork in the fourth decade of her complex art practice? Certainly, it is not easy to extract and succinctly identify the key words that describe her interests that expand over a vast range of issues, as well as her daring exploration of a multitude of approaches and art media. Mella’s works present fluid possibilities of transnational readings from her perspective as a European who meets and engages in intense discussions as she observes particular phenomena.
Because the background of her composite identity and cultural context, a reading of Mella’s works is dominated by the discourse of identity itself, especially in relation to the narrative of clothing as body covering that is shaped and given meaning according to certain cultural values. Mella is intensely interested in how the construction of identity is formed by various agents and apparatus, passed down through imagined identity and then strengthened through a series of powers. A significant portion of Mella’s artwork discusses in depth the function of clothing, body covering, or body protection in sociological and anthropological contexts, linking it with events of the past that occurred when the piece was created and how Mella, as an artist, played with fantasy and her imagination in interpreting these various contexts of identity. Her work always highlights rich metaphors that play with materials as texts and as contexts, as choices of aesthetics and as media, as metaphor and as steps towards collective memory.
Between 2010 – 2020, Mella focused on issues raised by global events concerning immigration and its complexities that led to violence, human tragedies, subordination and racism, etc. The issue of migration and borders became one of the dominant issues of contemporary artists, especially because it concerned recurring questions about nation, identity, borders, and region. In addition, the concept of the Anthropocene, which addresses the impact of humanity on nature, also became a focus of many discussions, especially concerning the reinterpretation of the relationship of humanity and the environment. Many artists were then encouraged to return to traditional or indigenous knowledge that had long been concealed. Personal history narratives also emerged more often in artists’ research, especially as counter narratives to the primary historical texts that usually focus only on the victory of those in power. Personal narratives offer the possibilities that ordinary stories of ordinary people can become part of the historical record. Mella’s works during this decade reference themes that are generally found in global art practices and are relevant to current problems of civilization.
Mella works with many cultural contexts because as an artist, she travels, both on personal trips as well as participating in various residency programs and exhibitions. Her readings of social phenomena and events are enriched by a perspective that is differentiated by the accumulation of the experiences of these journeys. Thus, Mella’s works truly embody a global spirit, as if she is not rooted in only a single cultural context, but floats from one context to another. She also avoids the concept of a fixed identity in her art practice because she sees herself as having a split identity; she is an artist with a Dutch background and an artist who lives in Indonesia. For Mella, it is clear that identity is an on-going process that involves endless negotiation regarding labelling, stigmatization and justification between self and parties outside one’s self.
For me, this publication is not just a matter of selecting Mella’s best works that were created between 2010-2020, but a re-examination of the concepts of each piece and provision of a framework or narrative that allows the works to be read with a new perspective. Creating subthemes does not mean unilaterally grouping the works by their themes, but is important in viewing the overall trajectory of Mella’s works in the context of her approach and art practice. Hence, I have identified four subthemes to conduct a deeper reading of her work: one aspect concerns ‘form’, i.e., material, while another aspect discusses artists’ research, i.e., anthropology. The two other subthemes are concerned with themes or narratives, i.e., post-colonial discourse, and, finally, the body in Mella Jaarsma’s works.
RE-READING THE POST-COLONIAL CONTEXT
Most of the discourse regarding post-colonial narratives in art refer to the ideas of post-colonialists such as Edward Said, Homi K. Bhaba, and Gayatri Spivak, who attempt to dissect the ways in which the legacy of European colonialism continues in new forms through educational institutions, government systems, the economy, etc. In the context of art, this issue is directed towards how the history of art is written, how the struggle for authority between institutions unfolds, and also the domination of how to read the diversity of art practices that has always upheld Western perspectives that are formed specifically by events that occur in the West.
Analyzing the works of European artists who work with subjects in countries that had formerly been colonized is currently one of the most complex discourses in contemporary art. There are those who are skeptical and who feel that no matter what, the artist (Caucasian/European) retains a privilege or special status that places them in a dominant position as a member of a group that knows better or whose analysis is more valid. There are others who then see it in a more optimistic framework, where the European artist attempts to ‘redeem’ the guilt by creating works that are oriented towards a critical approach of the dark aspects of colonialism. Currently in contemporary art practice, William Kentridge (South Africa)[1], Renzo Marten (The Netherlands)[2], Andrew Gilbert (Scotland), are several of the artists that emerge in discussions about the position of the European artist in the discourse of colonial history. Several of their works (particularly Renzo Marten’s project) sparked controversy because, although they were critical of colonialism, they played with the idea of empowerment. In another perspective, after two decades, as read by Geeta Kapur, famous art historian and critic in India, the term ‘post-colonial’ has become increasingly like something that is ‘given’, as if it is only a course of study in several Western universities. Because of this, rather than viewing it as only an academic discipline, Geeta sees the necessity of emphasizing the important post-colonial values as practices of political and ideological mapping. She mentions in a globalised world, terms such as transnational and transcultural have greater purchase, but there is little that is contestatory about ‘trans’ – it covers gaps and differences, thereby creating an illusion of a continuity-in-difference… [3]
Mella Jaarsma’s works that investigate the subjects of influence of the colonial era attempt to stand free of the view and exploration of ‘exotic’ forms, in which the subject emerges as a representation of ‘the other’. With developments in identity studies in which power relationships are exposed and confronted, surely it is difficult to avoid the trap of exoticism. As an artist, Mella does not see ‘Indonesian society’ as just an Asian country that experienced colonialism for hundreds of years. Her experience of living in Indonesia, has become a part of her daily social dynamics, providing her with the opportunity to position history, events and culture in a relevant historical context. She does not choose her subjects intuitively, but selects them as they emerge from lengthy observation of interconnected objects and phenomena.
In 2010, Mella Jaarsma participated in a residency program initiated by Jatiwangi Art Factory in West Java.[4] The Great Post Road, the first major roadway project built under the administration of Herman Willem Daendels (in 1808 – 1811 ) and connected cities along the north coast of Java, passed through the village of Jatiwangi. Mella was interested to see how the history of this road formed a specific pattern in the new landscape of Java–under the Dutch colony that also reveals tension of various cultures such European, Javense, Chinese, Arab, but those complexity is covered up by the beautiful ‘mooi Indie landscapes. However, it passed through, particularly in the aspects of trade, religion, cosmopolitanism, and the variety of commodities. Her investigation into the use of space in the cities along the road led her to observations about Mooi Indie paintings on hubcaps on becaks (tricycle pedicabs) that are ubiquitous on the city streets. Mooi Indie landscapes were created as colonial images of the beautiful panoramas of the colonized territory from which the products of the earth were seized for the economic gains of the colonizers. Mella took pictures of the becak’s painting and asked local artists to paint and made copies of those mooi indie painting for the material for Landscaper. Several series of works were born of this exploration and relations formed between the artists and this particular community during the period of residency.
The piece High Tea addresses the culture of tea drinking, as well as the history of how tea developed as a commodity during the colonial period in the Netherlands and in contemporary Indonesia. This multimedia work features a site-specific installation, graphics, performance, and a video. Mella created an installation in the form of a costume designed as a tablecloth in a tea serving ceremony for Dutch aristocrats with teapots lined along the wall. These teapots featured photographs of images resembling the Mooi Indie style, pointing to the tea plantations developed by the Dutch in the 19th century. Meanwhile, the tablecloth that became the performer’s costume was made from cloth decorated with images of brands of local Javanese teas that were consumed at the end of the colonial period and the beginning of Indonesian independence. During the exhibition opening, the performer offered tea to the guests in a highly stylized manner. The title of the piece points to how the act of drinking tea, within the colonial context, became stratified with the differentiation between ‘the high’ and ‘the low’. In this context, tea—as a new object from the colonized land—was adopted in the new culture of the nobility, as part of ‘high culture’. Meanwhile, ‘low tea’ refers to the tea products that are mass produced and distributed as items of daily consumption to the present society. Another piece in this series is A Blinkered View – High Tea Low Tea, created for the exhibition ‘Suspended Histories’ at the Van Loon Museum, Amsterdam[5], (2013) in the tea room and kitchen, in which photographs comparing tea plantations during the colonial period and the present pose the question of whether the power relationship between the colonizer and the colonized also exists in the present between the investors of the plantation and its laborers.
In general, Mella calls this project an effort to re-examine the relationship between those in power and their subjects, between the oppressors and the oppressed. Another piece that was created during the Jatiwangi residency is The Landscaper. The construction of the Great Post Road was a lengthy project that claimed many victims and caused widespread suffering in the society. Mella noted the stark contrast embedded in the conception of the beautiful landscapes painted on the becak pedicabs along the roads, which were made possible by long-term labor bondage that caused intense suffering in the society. In developing her response, Mella created a wide skirt similar to those worn by Sufi dervishes, who spin themselves so they came into a trance. But Mella let the Sufi dancer fall into an eternal void. Mella was attracted to using the Sufi dervish as a metaphor because the beautiful landscape actually cannot be fully appreciated because of the limitations of human sight; it is only through spinning quickly that we can see the entire panorama.
Unlike the two previous pieces, for The Last Letter, Mella uses part of the colonial archive, the postcard. She collected postcards from family archives that were sent by people in Indonesia in the 1930s. (After 1940, Dutch residents were incarcerated in prison camps and did not have access to postcards.) She explored how space and time were encapsulated in a postcard. At the beginning of the colonial era, it took 18 months for a boat to reach its destination, which is a long time to send and receive news. Mella presented these archives to show how the Post Office, one of the cultural icons that was born in the colonial period, has now lost many of its markers and has entered a new, unimagined era, which includes a culture where postcards are rarely sent. As an artist, Mella also observes how postcards and the tools for sending news have their own aesthetics—beginning with handwriting, the cut and patterns of the cards, to the postage stamps. This piece is imbued with a strong sense of nostalgia; a concern about something that may soon be lost.
Most large projects on decolonialization focus on the effort to rewrite history by presenting the perspectives of those who are usually silenced or erased. Works that arise from the concept of revising history often present historical archives, such as documents, artifacts, old photographs, etc. A portion of the archives in historical revision projects have a strong relationship with personal narratives and are not always based on major events. Mella’s projects are presented more as metaphors to view the consequences of the past colonial period with what is happening in the present, where more little histories from forgotten narratives are brought forward, rather than an attempt to ‘straighten’ history.
Anthropology and Bypassing the Role of the Ethnographer
In contemporary art literature of the past two decades, particularly related to how the creation of art is based on anthropological research conducted by the artists, it is noted that the artists act as ethnographers. In the framework of building a counter narrative to the established and the given, an artist goes to a certain site, enters a new region, meets with members of the community and key informants, gathers data, facts and stories. They may also be interested in archives of the past that support the arguments of their counter narrative. Their methods are very similar with ethnographers who record, observe, interview, keep daily journals, photograph sites and objects, and usually make sketches. Museums featuring artifacts are also slowly opening to the possibilities of interpreting historical facts with new perspectives for readings that are more relevant to the present or even to the future, so that the relationship between anthropology/archeology, history and contemporary art is becoming closer in the contemporary art world.
Mella’s project, “I Owe You”, was begun in her residency at the Weltmuseum in Vienna, Austria, that owns a large collection of Indonesian artifacts from European who stayed during colonial period or through various expeditions. Mella was interested in seeing the museum’s archives that concern an ethnic group in Central Sulawesi that has a tradition of making clothing from tree bark. Clothing is an integral element in Mella’s creative practice. When European missionaries and colonialists arrived in this region in Central Sulawesi, they forced the indigenous people to replace their traditional clothing that was considered to be old and indecent with a more ‘modern’ way of dressing.
The project, “I Owe You”, carried Mella into the world of the ethnographer. After reading documents and looking at artefacts in museums, then personally observing life in the present society, and reconnecting the present with its colonial history, Mella created a complex series of pieces that were not only related with a narrative, but also with how historical images are reconstructed. In the installation, Mella recreated forms of the traditional clothing made from barkcloth. As part of the installation, Mella presents three videos that showed three different perspectives of the subject. In the first video, Mella presents the archival data that she found in the museum in Vienna that prompted a question about the authority over knowledge between the colonizer and the colonized that resulted in documentation of local knowledge to be stored a great distance away from the community source of the knowledge. In the second video, Mella documents the process of making barkcloth by showing community life in Central Sulawesi. The third video features a performance in which the performers wear the installation clothing that Mella created, then also presents the natural landscape that becomes the original context of the installation. “I Owe You” is a piece based on an anthropological approach that has developed into a long-term artistic project that emerges in several of Mella’s artworks.
The next piece based on an anthropological approach was a collaborative project with Nindityo Adipurnomo that was created during the Setouchi Triennale in Japan in 2019. They collaborated with the residents of Ibuki Island and made the work Pasang. It was particularly interesting because the majority of participants were elderly women who choose to continue to live on this island when most of the young people chose to leave to live in the city. Through this collaborative project, Mella and Nindityo collected the participants’ memories about living as residents of an island surrounded by the sea. They found a small shrine, used at fishing boats for protection. This form Mella revived in the use of costumes and sandals/shoes as metaphors for houses (stability) and vehicles (mobility). She also worked together with the women, using old fabric they had stored away, that would be sewn together as kimonos and worn with the rattan costumes and sandals in a performance. Mella and Nindityo also invited them to sing an old sailor’s song that had not been heard for a long time. This song was usually sung when the men went to sea and it was a very dear part of their personal memories.
EXTENDING THE BODY DISCOURSE
One of the important discourses and context of Mella’s work during the 2010-2020 period concerns the body and the social meanings surrounding it. Mella has been engaged with the theme of ‘the body’ for many years; for example, her initial piece, Pralina- A Fire Altar (1993), examined the concept of cremation and human corpses in relation to the cosmos and universal spirituality. Similarly, her pieces that use the metaphor of wrapping or covering become the background for significant discussions on conceptions of the body and identity. To be precise, Mella’s work presents an outer façade for discussing the inner world of the human body. Interestingly, in this most recent decade, Mella actually ‘dismantles’ the body, organ by organ, in its own form in its own place in its own body, and no longer a part of an outer wrapping. Mella then began to examine body parts, such as feet, navel, and female sexual organs, in different contexts and perspectives.
Mella developed a method of participatory creation in her piece, Binds & Blinds (2017), where she processed digital images of navels of hundreds of participants in this project. Through social media, Mella requested the public (people living in Indonesia) to send her photos of their navels and a statement agreeing that their photo would become part of an artwork. The idea of making an open invitation on social media for close-up photos of navels is the reflection of an artist of the digital and virtual world that gives birth to a new social reality. Taking selfie photos that feature faces and posting them on mass media has become a recent obsession that thrives on the internet. In the past five years, the increase of selfie activity has sparked the emergence of studies from a variety of perspectives, including photography, psychology, sociology, technology, etc., that focus on this phenomenon. Mella then turns attention away from the face to the navel, a part of the body that is usually hidden, that does not immediately uncover the sheaths of human identity. This is Mella’s effort to offer an ‘abnormality’, to challenge the perspective about the body and about one’s self in the world of Instagram that provides open space for the commodification of the human face.
The navel also relates to the metaphor of navel gazing that refers to self-reflection. This piece took shape in a society that exposes intolerance, has difficulty accepting differences, and marginalizes the weak. For Mella, self-reflection is important; it is important to observe our own body (by looking downwards) to reposition ourselves in a society that is constantly in motion. This gesture of “opening a platform” becomes relevant with the concept of openness. Mella also created a costume for a performer using the images of navels, inviting the audience to interact intimately with a part of the body that is usually hidden. Faced with something that is familiar, yet foreign, stirred the imagination of the audience.
The other body part that Mella Jaarsma has explored in her artwork is the sole of the foot. Her first series, Laws of Nature, represents Mella’s observations on how the human body adapts itself within natural limits. In her artist’s statement, she explained how the Laws of Nature relates to the series about the senses. “The world around us is formed by the laws of nature. We must be at peace with limitations, measurements, and human proportions … The laws of nature are also related to the connection between the body and soul; between feelings and thoughts.”[6]
The foot appears again in her collaboration with Nindityo Adipurnomo in an exploration of the narrative about mixed European-Indonesian culture and ancestry. The object of focus was not the foot itself, but its covering. The piece, The Coaster, uses the foot as a metaphor for a means of exploration and travel. This piece combines the function and form of ‘klompen’, wooden shoes, with the image of a ship that instantly transports our imagination to the history of colonialism. Since its inception, The Coaster, was intended to be a space for children to engage with history—not just to read about it, but to embrace a physical sensation that introduces them to a single collective memory. Klompen are functional objects that are then reconstructed to serve as metaphors that are more imaginative and contextual in the present.
Mella then focused on a part of the body that is more intimate to her existence as a woman. In the late 1990s, Mella met I Gusti Ayu Kadek Murniasih (Murni), a Balinese woman who had a very interesting life story and who at that time was not yet known as a painter. Cemeti Art House, the art space founded and managed by Mella in Yogyakarta, exhibited Murni’s works and spotlighted her courage in discussing taboos in the context of Indonesian society at that time.[7]
Murni was, perhaps, the first female artist in Indonesia who dared to discuss sexuality and broke through taboos about it. Because of this, her works and concepts were very inspirational for artists’ movements, especially for subsequent generations. Murni’s works felt extremely close to her experience as a woman in speaking honestly about her body. Mella succeeded in transforming this intimate quality into her own work, which was a result of reflection upon and rereading Murni’s works. The piece, Pure Passion – After Murni (2016), particularly, was inspired by the painting, I am longing for a couple of kids (1997, acrylic on canvas, 35 cm x 50 cm), which features a human female body nursing two fish. Mella transformed this image into an installation in which the breasts were made from leather and the fish became crocodiles. The image of two stuffed baby crocodiles nursing at a human breast is shocking, but the strangeness of it also seems to stimulate sensations of certain memories. For Mella, this piece offers the audience an experience to feel something harsh, terrifying, odd, erotic, and taboo all at the same time.[8] The image of a mother nursing in public space in Indonesia—including presentations in art exhibitions or the mass media—is often not seen as natural in a biological context, but rather is viewed in the context of female sexuality. Hence, images of women nursing or bare breasts remains a strong taboo in the society.
Another series that features are the pieces entitled, Rakus (2018), which were inspired by the character Durga, who in Hindu mythology is a woman who exists between goodness and evil, and is often said to have the powers of a witch. Mella presents these breasts in a strange form—large and long—which, I think, is important in underscoring confrontations with social aspirations of the ideal breasts that are disseminated through mass media propaganda. Another aspect that needs to be underlined is the portrayal of old women in demonizing characters also resembling local narratives such as Calon Arang, from Bali, for example, to give a negative stigma to old women. During the political shifting of 1965, the similar stigma was used to depict women who were members of Indonesian Women movement (Gerakan Wanita Indonesia/Gerwani), and the stigma stayed decades later, left them suffered of violence and social political discrimination. Since then powerful and fearful women are seen as a threat.[9]
In Mella’s works, aspects of the body are often directly connected to performance concepts, because part of her work is conceived as installation-based performance. However, I am interested in examining the discourse of the body that emerges in her works, and then seeing how the performance aspect strengthens Mella’s statements about the concept of the body. The bodies in Mella’s work during the period 2010-2020 stimulate further reflection on separate body parts: feet, breasts, the navel. Although Mella is interested in the issue of gender, not all of her work adopts gender as its theme. Gender is rather accepted as a given condition, so the perspective is a constant presence and becomes a part of the discourse about the contestation of power. What is interesting for me is that in Mella’s works that address gender, such as Pure Passion – After Murni or Rakus, the female body has a powerful sense of resistance, a position that is stronger than that of a victim. The effort to address and discuss taboos also emerges with an approach that is full of humor, which is able to appease tension and build dialogue with the audience in a discussion of their own body experiences. In addition to this, as she works in a variety of cultural contexts, the performance aspect of Mella’s works introduces the possibilities for the emergence of various feminist aspirations that are based not only on Western ideas of feminism, but also provide space to discuss experiences and concepts of the female body in different cultural contexts (intersectional feminism).
ON MATERIALS
Mella Jaarsma is an artist who is fascinated with all of the aspects of the materials she uses in her works. Almost all of the materials she uses have a close history with the subject of the piece. Initially, the discussion about materials used in art focused more on aspects of formalism and how it influenced the visual formation of a piece. At present, the discourse of formalism has become a part of the exploration of the historical aspects of the body of her work and the social political context, so that the material becomes a part of the narrative. The diversity of materials that Mella uses, beginning with more conventional things, such as cloth, paper, found objects, and extending to animal skins, makes the material aspect of her work an important point for approaching the discourse and concepts she presents.
Lubang Buaya (2014) [Crocodile Pit] is based on the historical narrative about the Lubang Buaya event of September 30, 1965. Because of intense New Order propaganda, the majority of Indonesians identify ‘Lubang Buaya’ with an area where six military officers were tortured, murdered and thrown into a well. In the 1980s, this area was officially designated as a memorial to honor the fallen generals, and as a reminder of the atrocities of the Indonesian Communist Party in the narration of these murders. Mella created a literal and direct visual interpretation of the phrase “Lubang Buaya” so she made an installation from a real crocodile skin, and invited audiences to put their head inside the mouth of the crocodile. Her choices of this direct visualization turns out to be a smart strategy to blur the political meaning of “lubang buaya” and let the audience embody the imagination before they connect the experience with historical facts.
Mella’s use of materials in her works becomes a way to expand the use of signs in communicating her ideas with the public. Mella has always been very interested in using non-conventional materials, starting with animal skins (frog, fish, snake, and others), then natural materials, such as coconut husks, rubber, wood, seaweed, as well as industrial materials, such as iron, chains, or found objects that are then arranged into different configurations. Her ability to select and rearrange materials into new shapes and formations, brings the art out of industrial prototypes that use metal or resin. However, the meanings are not always tied to one context or phenomenon. Mella often plays with and uses one particular material that can be infused with many meanings, and uses it as a part in a range of broad concepts, so that one material is used in several different works with different narratives—even though they appear to be related.
Mella’s preference to use natural materials that can be arranged in specific forms indicates her interest in crafts. Living in Yogyakarta, where agriculture was an integral part of life in the past, Mella saw how the people made functional objects from natural materials and developed an important local aesthetic in their craftsmanship. Several of Mella’s works that use natural materials refer to techniques or shapes that are close to the local aesthetic. The piece, Until Time is Old (2014), uses seashells that are arranged vertically as a headdress and is worn by pairs of performers. In this work, Mella responds to how the concept of body covering (clothing and head pieces) is often related to morality, which leads to the emergence of regulations that restrict how a person may dress.
Artists process the versatility and ubiquity of cloth and paper to produce creations with previously unimagined or forgotten meanings. Several works such as In Ravel Out (2018), for example, use materials such as animal skin, recyclable cassava bags, and newspaper to strengthen the concept of temporariness, or limited space. Mella is interested in seeing how one material transforms into another material, introducing a way for new functions and new life of objects. This installation is made of piles of transparent bags made from cassava fiber that are filled with paper from Tempo newspaper that is not longer published, but has moved to the internet. They are positioned as human heads in the form of clouds, serving as a metaphor for how human memory now is moving to a world that floats on a cloud. In this installation, these objects that are usually folded are expanded to increase in volume and fill the space. I think this work is truly a clever play with materials and meanings, rearranging simple objects into a reflection of an actual social phenomenon.
On Performance: Daily life as a Stage
Upon examining important aspects of the processes and concepts of Mella’s works, it can be seen that the diversity of approaches in her creative process and the wealth of exploration and artistic experimentation are vital to Mella’s existence as an artist. Following her previous three decades, her works between 2010-2020, reveal two peaks in her evolution as an artist. On the one hand, her work feels simpler in its commentary on social political phenomena, with a touch of humor that softens the sharpness of the social criticism. However, on the other hand, her interest in form—material and technical— gives her work during this period a complex visual attraction that relies on the deconstruction of symbols, recollection of memories or transformation of meanings.
In Mella’s work, performance is more in the nature of a performance act rather than performance art, where the concept of movement or interactive performance is the response to an installation that has already been created. This response is more spontaneous and fluid, and attempts to invite the audience to become part of the history of the work, while closing the distance between the two, so that the physical space around the work becomes more intimate. Often, the performer appears to be stationary, without moving at all, especially to emphasize the relationship between the installation and the human body. The bodies are wrapped in coverings or costumes that have been specially designed, and, of course, there is a meaning to everything used. The performer’s body is enwrapped with values and new meanings and new visual images that emerge from the costume and the installation that is worn, to address discourses such as identity, sexuality, morality, the Anthropocene, humanity, etc. And, I think, in the approach of this performance, Mella shows us how the framework of modern thinking often distorts experiences of the body into tiny pieces of reality that pass by quickly without meaning. The exhibition room becomes a stage and a showcase for the chaotic cross-relationships between bodies and personally recorded creatures and through her works we are given a collective space to redefine our experiences.
[1] William Kentridge (born 1955, South Africa), South African graphic artist, filmmaker, and art activist is best known for the hand-drawing animated films he produced during the 1990s. William Kentridge is an invaluable inspiration for discussing the ideas of exploitation and colonialism, and it is also important that we learn how to look at history from a losing perspective. In the works of early generations of artists like them, the great postwar narratives, stories of slavery and genoside were issues unearthed as part of an effort to formulate ideas of nationalism and nationality.
[2] Renzo Martin is a Dutch artist who created a series of works on race relations and colonialism, including his project Enjoy Poverty. Investigating the economic value of one of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s most lucrative exports (i.e., poverty), Renzo Martens’ provocative film Episode III: Enjoy Poverty (2008) remains an important intervention in the debate about contemporary art’s relationship with exploitative economics.
[3] Conversation with Geeta Kapoor by Natasha Ginwala on “Curatorial Practice in India”, published by afterall journal, accessed through https://www.afterall.org/article/geeta-kapur-part1
[4] Jatiwangi Art Factory is a collective initiative founded by Arief Yudi and several friends in Majalengka, West Java, who questioned the idea of centers and peripheries in the contemporary art scene in Indonesia. Starting from the awareness to look critically at the surrounding area in the post-colonial context and the influence of the construction of the New Order and the period after, JAF conducts participatory art work, collaboration with residents and village / district governments and invites artists from various backgrounds and disciplines to do residencies there.
[5] This museum building is one of the former offices of voc trading company (Verenigde Oost Indische Company) which marks the ongoing Dutch colonialism in Indonesia through the process of trading spices and other natural resources. The VOC was one of the largest European companies in the early 16th century. The initiative to hold an exhibition at one of the important sites in Dutch Relations is a landmark of history that is expected to be part of the process of reconciliation in the future.
[6] Artist Statement, Mella Jaarsma.
[7] After this show, Murni was often included in contemporary exhibitions until she died in 2004. After her death, her name disappeared until 2016, when a group of Balinese artists created a project in rememberance of Murni. They invited Mella to join the exhibition with her own work based on her memories about Murni or Murni’s artwork.
[8] Artist Statement, 2012.
[9] Intan Paramadhita, a feminist writer and academic, has expressed her views on how the politics of the New Order-period government had built the idea of women such as the figurehead of Calon Arang (through her reading of the book “Calonarang: The Story of The Patriarchal Victims of Women by the late Toeti Heraty, one of early generation of Indonesian feminists), Durga and later attributed to the history of the women’s movement represented by Gerwani in several interviews. Please read https://www.theliftedbrow.com/liftedbrow/2018/4/18/a-feminist-reframing-an-interview-with-intan-paramaditha-by-norman-erikson-pasaribu atau http://www.asianbooksblog.com/2019/02/elaine-chiew-converses-with-indonesian.html