Texs at the catalog for the exhibition Performing Artifacts : Objects in Question at ROH Projects, Jakarta, 2022
The exhibition Performing Artifacts: Objects in Question acts as an integral reflection upon Mella Jaarsma’s artistic practice between 2010-2022, which combines new works with a number of installations within this time period that have never been exhibited in Indonesia. Looking back upon her methodology as well as creative processes within the past decade, the work of an artist whose creations are based on research has taken Mella towards texts as well as a wider context pertaining to history, colonialism, anthropology, as well as post-anthropocene narratives. Her investigations into museum spaces, traditional cultural life in rural communities, meetings with local artists in specific places, has taken Mella into a point of reflection pertaining to the meaning of objects and things; to not see artifacts and art within a separate conceptual framework, but rather to bring the two into equivalence, mutually complementing each other.
From an academic standpoint, in its most basic definition, artifacts may be understood through a number of viewpoints, which are arranged based on the perspectives of certain fields of study. For an anthropologist, for instance, artifacts are understood as “relics” which had been used by humans in the past. A historian, on the other hand, understands artifacts as the opposite of artworks and is not considered to be a primary focus in understanding the history of art, something George Dickey wrote about (Smith, 2007)[1]. Within the academic context, then, the separation between art and artifacts poses an important form of categorization.
The artistic practice by which Mella Jaarsma has presented in this exhibition, as per its title, places objects within a position of inquiry, or re-criticized. Contemporary art practice has blurred these aforementioned boundaries, where artifacts become part of contemporary art works, bringing new dialogues and meanings. Clifford J (1991) states that: “Treatment of artifacts as fine art is currently one of the most effective ways to communicate cross-culturally a sense of quality, meaning and importance.”[2]
Mella Jaarsma’s projects related to artifacts in fact deliver us toward a number of questions, such as: does the utilization of historical artifacts and objects act as an extension of colonial gaze, especially due to Mella’s own identity as a European citizen? How can Mella distance herself from this colonial history which in the past has arranged or even taken many artifacts from rural communities and posed them as static objects framed in glass, or even worse, becoming part of a museum’s storage, never to be seen by anyone thereafter? Can it be that through the process of making her works, that Mella is herself exploiting further the narratives and contexts of these objects?
When I first looked into these works of Mella’s that are based on artifacts, a number of the same questions thereafter became a point of departure for me to retrace ideas, processes and approaches inherent within Mella Jaarsma’s practice. To me, these questions are important to consider when taking into account ethical issues that come from a translation of differing cultural contexts. Conversations with Mella as well as a deeper reading into the context of her works have made a number of things more clear related to the questions above.
Firstly, Mella Jaarma recognizes the presence of this dark history that has been caused by colonialism, not only in terms of initiating pillaging as well as the humanitarian crimes conducted by European countries in a number of places in Asia, Africa, Oceania or South America, but also the shifting of concerns in relation to values, morality, and ways of life pertaining to local communities which have been made to adapt towards European standards and formulations. These forcible standardization attempts have thereafter pushed away older values and objects, and ways of doing as well as craftsmanship have also gradually dissipated. Local knowledge seems to have been positioned as subordinate to new ways of living introduced by colonialism. These realizations are vital to understanding how Mella is herself cognizant of the realities of European actions that have been unethical or disrespectful towards the richness of local traditions.
Secondly, as it pertains to the pillaging of cultural objects which have become the property of museums spread throughout Europe, just as she initiated this project upon encountering a clothing artifact made out of tree bark in the storage of a museum in Vienna, Austria, with the intent of repatriating or returning this cultural object to its origins, Mella’s exhibition in turn attempts to insert a further offer to go further into and beyond the issue of ownership itself. If Candice Hopkins, a curator who often works with and links issues of tradition with contemporary art practices, views the primary issue of decolonization as something that extends beyond mere repatriation, but rather as a channel to reveal, recontextualize, as well as strengthen the position of narratives and local knowledge pertaining to such objects within today’s context.[3] Through a very careful process and direct involvement in her interaction with a number of communities, Mella Jaarsma expands the narratives embedded in various artifacts and reframes these objects within today’s socio-political complexities, as well as introducing the tension of such objects with decolonial as well as intersectional discourse.
Thirdly, related to the utilization of artifacts as “material” for a certain footing within a contemporary creative practice, visual languages which are initially categorized as primitive, totemic, or traditional, can be seen as a certain richness of expression as well as a visual vocabulary derived from a diversity of native cultures throughout the world when considered within new aesthetic discourse with a more decolonial tendency. Academic categorizations that have been implemented by various institutions, as well as museums, form a modernist tradition derived from the West that makes objects such as these oftentimes considered to be subordinate to modern artworks. Curatorial practices based on decolonization, which in a large scale for instance was referred to in Okwui Enwezor’s methodology in documenta11 (2002), which showcased art practices derived from the African region as well as post-colonial Creole culture, has brought a significant new color within the aesthetic theory of the past two decades.
Through the three preceding arguments, the initial questions regarding Mella Jaarsma’s position within the interweaving as well as tension regarding the power relations between an object and its historical context, may represent adequate arguments as a basis for a reading of her work. Of course, the bias of such a long colonial history may be difficult to be ignored in such a simple manner; however, at least these three arguments may provide a wider and clearer context so that the way we look or the gaze we have towards these objects may no longer have to be based upon assumptions or flashes of impressions based off those things that are seen on the surface.
Appropriation, Perception, Recreation
In the creation of works that extend beyond cultures, the effort of translation forms the basis of a very complex process in which perception and appreciation ultimately determines the position of an artist or an artwork in processing symbols, icons, as well as the shape of an object into something that contains new meaning. The work of translating such contexts requires an open mind, heart/feeling, as well as a visual awareness. Appropriation especially becomes a concept that requires searching and comprehending the history of such symbols, so that it becomes important to see how an artist develops access towards certain forms of knowledge. Throughout a number of definitions, appropriation primarily observes the relation of power between dominant groups, and because of this the reading and work of cultural translation is an action that contains a strong political dimension.
In conversations related to the context of aesthetic theory, more specifically, appropriation also opens up the possibility of a more charitable interpretation, whereby the practice of “borrowing” symbols may be seen as an effort to explore, and search for comparisons as well as bridge various forms of culture. James O Yang, who in his book Cultural Appropriation and the Arts, studies a number of cultural appropriation formats, that focus not upon the methodology of appropriation itself, but rather pertaining to the nature of originality determined to form style, motif, or subject to be adapted, or, to analyze how in a number of cases artifacts are erased from its original cultural origins (Mix, 2015).[4] In further developments, appropriation often receives a negative connotation as a mode of borrowing symbols, icons, or other cultural practices that tend to head towards commercialization. To mediate this tension, a new terminology has been coined: trans-cultural appropriation. In this process, Mosquera sees a process of adapting each other’s true culture in a manner that is simultaneous and multi-layered, such as how Japanese prints showcase Chinese influence, but simultaneously one may observe Western influences present through the intensity of Dutch trade throughout the Asian continent. The process of cultural adaptation therefore forms a position of reciprocity, a form of criss-cross, in which the question of originality and ownership has blurred through the history of displacement and exchange.
Artifacts Between Objecthood and Materiality
Through dismantling the structures of materiality and contexts in objects, Mella Jaarsma throws the viewer a question pertaining to perception, locality, appropriation and repatriation, in a scale that has a “grassroots” tendency. This personal approach in observing political meaning becomes an important point to underline, because she has gone beyond national or tribal boundaries, entering into a deeper dialogue pertaining to mankind. Performativity becomes an ephemeral offering with regards to a more comprehensive reading pertaining to objects and artifacts, but also in shaping a new understanding of reality of space and time. The vernacular forms present in Mella’s installations and objects also challenge the notion of materiality and temporality as it pertains to artifacts. Through the intersection of artifacts and artwork, objects and performativity, conceptual and historical, Mella Jaarsma presents us towards a situation that extends beyond the common conception over the body and that which covers it, as well as introduces an experience that exists between the threshold of the real and imaginary.
The work I Owe You is the result of a long term project developed during a residency in Vienna, Austria, which brought Mella to a community that lives in Lembah Bada (Bada Valley), in which she followed a process of creating tree bark material (as well as learning how to make it herself). This work took Mella towards a strong ethnographical way of working: reading documents in a museum, witnessing how those people live in today’s context while also building connections to colonial history. Mella created a series of works that is complex in nature, not only related to narratives, but also how images of history are reconstructed. In her installation, Mella recreates forms akin to local clothing made out of tree bark. These installations have been shaped to resemble something vertical, like a tree. When the performance is undertaken, the bodies of people remain static in this installation, wearing the tree bark like clothing or something that protects and covers their bodies.
The tree bark journey continues to another work, Pertama ada Hitam (At First there is Black), that takes the form of a collaborative work with Agus Ongge, a Papuan artist who creates paintings on tree bark. In 2007, Mella Jaarsma worked within the context of Papua, she created the work My name is Michaella Jarawiri where she worked with the symbol of the koteka as a part of a narrative pertaining to costumes and symbols of Papuan opposition.
In her conversations with Agus Ongge, they discussed the notion of how the tradition of painting on Papuan tree bark became most famous in the Asei area, and was only applied as a Khombow, or clothing worn by Sentani women who have been married. Through the process of colonialism as well as trading of objects, these tree bark paintings thereafter became souvenir commodities, and were no longer often used as clothing. Departing from this point, Mella Jaarsma’s installation focuses on the reconstruction of material and philosophy of tree bark as a “wrapping” for the human body and created a number of forms that connect the tree bark with the human anatomy. Pak Agus created a number of paintings in Papua and thereafter sent these works to Yogyakarta, reconstructed by Mella as installation, by emphasizing local ornaments imbued with meaning that have been passed by from generation to generation by the Sentani people. These motifs and ornaments are derived, for instance, from a number of local Papuan indigenous fish, plants, or symbols of purified souls.
Her encounter with the diverse fish-based ornaments in Papua within Agus Ongge’s paintings thereafter took Mella Jaarsma towards the story of the largetooth sawfish (Pristis Microdon), which was believed to be found in throughout the Sentani Lake area, repeatedly appearing in Ongge’s paintings. Its distinctive feature is its sharp nose that resembles a sword with rows of small saw-like features on its side. This fish was last caught by Sentani fishermen in 1974 and it has never been seen again since. The extinction of this fish was resulted by excessive exploitation of the natural environment, the polluting of the lake by communities surrounding it, as well as the use of gill nets.[5] The extinction of the largetooth sawfish became a symbol for the shift and change of the ongoing Papuan landscape due to massive scale developments that do not take into consideration local ecosystems as well as the continuity of all the creatures present in the ecosystem.
Mella stated, “The hunting of the largetooth sawfish started in the colonial era and this activity of hunting became in and of itself an artifact, an object for collection that we can find in a number of ethnographic museums around the world. The installation Sawyer’s Dust takes the form of a commentary towards the destiny of people to create artifacts and objects, for the purpose of art, to make oneself more beautiful, for status, and others. This work is a form of respect as well as acknowledgement towards history and the development of art based on tribal and ethnic communities, which I see as running parallel to the history of Indonesian contemporary art, which is often left unseen and unobserved.”[6]
Within these new works, Mella Jaarsma recreated the largetooth sawfish based on interpretation of her own thinking as an artist and the utilization of this material that is combining hard materials such wood, iron, with at once fluid but also fragile kinds of materials, containing cloth and foam. According to Mella, this work represents a way by which the artist may recreate the largetooth sawfish, as this fish has now become part of the past, and the effort to create a new form therefore becomes a step towards reimagining the future.
Mella looks for these largetooth sawfish artifacts in a number of antique shops in order to obtain real proof of a lifeform that no longer exists. A video interview she took with a number of antique merchants showcases how an artifact can move from one owner to the next, from hunting in the inlands to becoming a commodity or decoration in a luxury home, until which the history of these objects become more complex and multi-layered. Something preserved due to its value towards a certain land—containing a certain notion of sacred value or part of a shared identity, which then becomes an object with economic value.
In her projects I Owe You, Pertama ada Hitam, as well as Sawyer’s Dust, Mella introduced narratives that originate from the sound of local people—about how they attribute values towards artifacts and objects, to the ever-changing natural landscape to the ways or materials of creation that have to be adapted to today’s situations, coloring that is no longer natural, types of leather that are not as strong and resilient as before. Mella’s installation becomes a platform of sorts to understand locality within a much wider context, and at the same time, there is an artistic intervention towards the imagination in such conversations. In a manner that is very visceral, performers wear costume installations as if to exchange perspectives: actually, showing as well a more political, contesting gaze: whose perspective holds more authority?
Mella Jaarsma and Nindityo Adipurnomo’s collaborative work for the Setouchi Triennale 2019 in Japan, Pasang, takes the form of a response and recreation of a number of artifacts in Japanese daily existence within a small village on an island (Ibuki, within Takamatsu Islands region). Mella and Nindityo developed artifacts based on the community’s daily lives, old kimonos that are usually stored in cabinets, to be recontextualized in a new meaning and narrative, to stand on the same ground with their “shoes” and rattan based installations created as their contemporary counterparts. Mella and Nindityo thereafter also brought older ladies from the community to conduct a performance with these artifacts as well as new objects, combining personal memory with narratives regarding history and landscape from their own villages.
Another work shown in this exhibition Performing Artifacts: Objects in Question expresses an idea of artifacts that can be seen closely to the concept of post-human, beyond the Anthropocene, in a narrative that interweaves history, gender identity, the body, as well as future ecology. Through “animal” materials, Mella Jaarsma also questions how artifacts may become part of a history of relations between humans with other organisms, which cannot, thereafter, be separated from social constructs or the perception of such objects that have been shaped by moral values, ethics, economics, and politics.
The work Pure Passion was expressly created by Mella as an homage to I GAK Murniasih. Murni (1974-2003) was an artist from Bali who sparked provocative discourse pertaining to the bodies of women as well as sexual experiences through her symbols and visual lexicon. Pure Passion is inspired by a painting entitled I am longing for a couple of kids (1997, acrylic on canvas, 35 x 30 cm), which presents the female body breast-feeding two fish. Mella transformed this image into an installation in which the breasts are shaped by leather, and the fish are reinterpreted as small alligators. The visual effect of the two alligators feeding on the female body may be surprising initially, but this oddity also provokes a certain sense of memory as well. To Mella, this work becomes an offering for the audience to experience and feel something fierce, scary, funny, erotic, and taboo in a simultaneous manner.[7] The visual image of a breast-feeding mother in a public space— whether in art or mass media—in Indonesia is not so much seen as something scientific within the context of biology, but rather within the framework of breasts as a part of a woman’s sexuality. Because of this, presenting images of breast-feeding women or naked breasts remains a strong taboo within society.
The Lubang Buaya (Crocodile Pit) installation departs from a historical narrative regarding “Lubang Buaya”, part of the September 30, 1965 event. For most of Indonesian society, due to the sheer force of New Order propaganda, Lubang Buaya has been made synonymous to an area of torture and massacre of military generals, and six bodies of deceased generals have in fact been buried there. In the 1980s, this area was designated as a memorial to honor the military generals, while simultaneously act as a reminder towards the atrocities of the Indonesian Communist Party in the narrati of these murders, when what actually happened was actually the opposite—people who were considered “left-wing” were killed, thrown away, and erased from history, and not even monument, we never heard the State apologized on this massive violence towards the civil people. Mella shaped these collective memories constructed by rulers through a stitching of manipulations, erasure of historical facts within a performative simulation can be experienced by the audience that is at once verbal, direct, but also provides humor pertaining to a thrilling bodily experience.
Reflecting a decade of Mella Jaarsma’s endeavors toward decolonizing her own art making practice, one can see there is this shifting of the gaze, where Mella tries to be part of the insider, offers empathy and gives new narratives to the objects. The act of performing the new shape of the artifacts becomes an attempt to articulate the questions of the objects as body experiences, embracing the here and now. The performances reveal the sense of time and space, connecting human existence with those objects as extensions of their being and history, and from here arising the agency both for the objects and the artifacts. By creating performance works from the artifacts—where the objects were (re)questioned, artist such Mella Jaarsma therefore also put them in the position of social agents that need to be activated in order to make change of our perceptions towards the politics of identity and belonging.
[1] Smith, Owen F, “Object Artifacts, Image Artifacts and Conceptual Artifacts: Beyond the Object into the Event”, in ARTIFACTS Vol I Issue 1, page 2-5, 2007
[2] Clifford, J. (1991). Four Northwest Coast Museums: Travel Reflections In Exhibiting Cultures, Smithsonian Books.
[3] Hopkins, Candice, “Repatriation Otherwise: How Protocols of Belonging Shifting the Museological Frame,” in https://muac.unam.mx/constelaciones/assets/docs/enssays-candicehopkins.pdf
[4] Mix, Elizabeth, Cultural and Transcultural Appropriation in the Colonial Period, London, 2017
[5] Paino, Christopel, “Sejak 1974, Pari Gergaji Sentani tidak Terlihat Lagi”, Mongabay, 23 March 2021, accessed through https://www.mongabay.co.id/2021/03/23/sejak-1974-pari-gergaji-sentani-tidak-terlihat-lagi/, on 2 October 2022.
[6] Artist’s statement, 2022.
[7] Artist statement, 2012