As the title implies, the exhibition explores the different insights into the word ‘body’ – both physical and architectural, as form and habitat – to illustrate the relation between gendered bodies and vernacular cultures and traditions in Indonesia. To this extent She is House is a prompt to consider the house as a site of birth and return, a ritualistic space of existence.

 

Featured in the exhibition are mixed-media, video and performance installations by four prominent Indonesian artists, Mella Jaarsma, Maharani Mancanagara, Citra Sasmita, and Natasha Tontey. Each of them, in different ways, examines the intersections between body, gender and power in Indonesian societies, and observes how traditional cultures are preserved, challenged or, ultimately, changed. Of relevance are the places of birth or cultural reference of the four artists: Java, West Sumatra, Bali and North Sulawesi. Known for their historical importance, each of these islands and local cultures foregrounds diverse belief systems and community-based practices in which matrilineal narratives run in parallel to patriarchal ideology.

The artists (Mella Jaarsma, Maharani Mancanagara, and Citra Sasmita) with the curator will be present on the opening night on Saturday, June 3, at 6 p.m. in 333 Gallery, Warehouse 30. As part of the educational programme for this exhibition on Sunday, June 4, at 2 p.m., there will be an artists’ talk moderated by the curator. The exhibition catalogue including a curatorial essay and extended literature will be launched at the gallery on Sunday, June 18, at 2 p.m.

About the Artists

These female artists from the Indonesia have been internationally acclaimed and prolific in contemporary art scene, contributing to a number of solo shows and group exhibitions in the leading museums, galleries, and Art Biennales around the world.

 

About the Curator

Loredana Pazzini-Paracciani, a prominent independent scholar and curator of Southeast Asian contemporary art, is one of the appointed curators for the Bangkok Art Biennale 2022. Her articles have been published in several renowned academic journals.