About

Artist’s statement

I like to work with clothing and I see my works as bodily modifications of the social space in between layers of skin, clothing, sartorial inhibition and housing/architecture. We are like impermanent buildings with a façade of which the inside is changeable. The second skin that we wear is like a house in which we can appear and hide; we have to be ready to leave or inhabit it.

Everyone who confronts my work relates to it from their particular background, culture and personality, and therefore experiences the work in different ways. I want my work to relate to these specific audiences, to address some of their taboos and interpretations.

I like to confront the public with my work while it is being worn by life models, questioning the positioning of the self and the other. My works are a comment on the human fascination of “showing” and “showing off”. How did we view others in the past -for example the world exhibitions that took place in Europe in the 1900s where people from other cultures became exotic amusements- and how do we look at others in the present?

Biography

Mella Jaarsma has become known for her complex costume installations and her focus on forms of cultural and racial diversity embedded within clothing, the body and food.

Mella Jaarsma (b. 1960, Emmeloord, Netherlands) studied visual art at Minerva Academy   in Groningen, Netherlands from 1978 to 1984, after which she left the Netherlands for Indonesia in 1984 to study at the Art Institute of Jakarta and at the Indonesian Institute of the Arts in Yogyakarta from 1985 to 1986. Mella Jaarsma’s works have been presented widely in exhibitions and art events in Indonesia and abroad. Among her solo exhibitions are Performing Artifacts; Objects in Question, ROH, (Jakarta, 2022,) The Size of Rice, Aplus, (Kuala Lumpur 2021), Bolak Balik, Jendela Art Space (Esplanade, Singapore, 2017); The Carrier, Baik Art (Los Angeles, USA, 2016); Potong Waktu, Nadi Gallery (Jakarta, Indonesia, 2014); De meeloper / The Follower, Artoteek Den Haag, ( The Hague, The Netherlands, 2006); Asal, Etemad Gallery (Tehran, Iran, 2005).

Mella Jaarsma has also participated in different important group shows such as Biennale Videobrasil, (Sesc24, Sao Paulo, 2023) ArtJog, Jogja National Museum, (Yogyakarta, Indonesia 2023), Jogja Biennale, Jogja National Museum , Yogyakarta, 2021) The Setouchi Triennale, Ibuku Island, (Japan, 2019), Dunia Dalam Berita, Macan Museum, (Jakarta, 2919), The Thailand Biennale, (Krabi, Thailand 2018); Sydney Biennale, Art Gallery of New South Wales, (Sydney, Australia, 2016); The Roving Eye, ARTER (Istanbul, Turkey, 2014); Suspended Histories, Museum van Loon (Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2013); GSK Contemporary — Aware: Art Fashion Identity, the Royal Academy of Arts (London, England, 2010); Re- Addressing Identities, Katonah Museum (New York, USA, 2009); Beyond The Dutch (Centraal Museum Utrecht, 2009), Fashion Accidentally, Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA Taipei) (Taipei, Taiwan, 2007)., etc.  In 1988, together with Nindityo Adipurnomo, she co-founded Cemeti Art House, one of the first spaces for contemporary art in Indonesia, which to this day remains an important platform for young artists and art workers in the country and region. Mella Jaarsma lives and works in Indonesia.

Curriculum Vitae

Born

October 9th, 1960, Emmeloord, The Netherlands
Lives and works in Yogyakarta, Indonesia since 1984

Education

Solo Exhibitions
a selection since 2000

Group Exhibitions
a selection since 1999

Performances

Art Projects

Residencies

Grants

Awards
(on personal art practize and Cemeti Art House)