The relation between the body and vernacular cultures and traditions in Indonesia is portrayed through artworks during "Body, Community, and Society: She is House" which is running at 333 Gallery, until July 2.
Four female artists from Indonesia -- Mella Jaarsma, Maharani Mancanagara, Citra Sasmita and Natasha Tontey -- will take viewers to explore the different insights into the word "body" -- both physical and architectural, as form and habitat.
The exhibition focuses on gendered bodies which are oftentimes excluded or accorded minor narratives but that are part of the same cycle of life. Situated along this line of thought is the proposition "She is House", a prompt to consider the house as a site of birth and return, a ritualistic space of existence.
The show is a platform for the four artists to examine the intersections between body, gender and power in Indonesian societies, and to observe how traditional cultures are preserved, challenged or, ultimately, changed.
Of utmost relevance are their places of birth or cultural reference -- Java, West Sumatra, Bali and North Sulawesi. Known for their historical importance, each of the islands and local cultures foregrounds diverse belief systems and community-based practices in which matrilineal narratives run in parallel to patriarchal ideology.
Their mixed-media works, video installations, paintings and performances engage with the ways in which cultural behaviours are formed in local traditions and examine the significance of rituals and communal practices in reinforcing or dismantling those same behaviours. By expanding the notion of the body to that of a home, a body of people or a body of knowledge, the works question the formation of social hierarchies, the transformation of cultural knowledge and the possibility of new knowledge that evolves from the embracement of otherness.
333 Gallery is located at Warehouse 30 on Charoen Krung 30 and opens Tuesday to Sunday from 11am to 6pm.
Visit 333gallery.com.
