DREAM
"THE PRESSURE TO ALWAYS REPRESENT OUR “ASIAN-NESS”, ESPECIALLY FROM MY ORIGIN COUNTRY, INDONESIA, IS MORE LIKE A CULTURAL BAGGAGE."
On how she navigates the gap between her identity and origin
I don’t always intentionally relate my works to my identity or culture, but it is automatically included as it is part of my being. An important thing that I don’t relate to, is the idea of being a representative of a culture. Since my early career, I have always been clear about how every human has their own way to be as they are, no matter where they come from or their skin colour. The pressure to always represent our “Asian-ness”, especially from my origin country, Indonesia, is more like a cultural baggage.
My experience living in Germany and having to adjust myself between two different cultures definitely holds a place in shaping my performances. There were times where I had to deal with the stereotypes of being an Asian woman in Germany. Such experiences helped me study my mental process. With my performances, I always try to be honest about how I feel or how I think without showing something that is too personal. This is a difficult area in performance art since everything starts from a personal point of view, but I think people don’t need to know everything about my personal life to get into my work. A work should be able to stimulate people to think within the capacity and structure of their minds.
On how performance art let her challenges the conservative notion of bodies in art
To do a performance art, there is actually a resistance from the body since it is not very conventional. Historically, there are a lot of discrimination that appears when you’re using your body in your work. When I first started doing traditional dance when I was a child, I was always rejected because they said my body was too strong compared to the ideal puppet-like Javanese body. That was my earliest moment learning how we can be discriminated from the shape of our body. Performance art, on the other hand, is a medium that has this spirit of resistance towards the presence of the bodies. Since I also like dance and being on stage, I feel like I found my home when I discovered performance art. It is more challenging than creating a good set of choreography since it is concept-based, but to be able to present the body as a concept of an honest reflection of our thoughts through art is more important for me.
"MY PERFORMING BODY IS NOT JUST A TOOL THAT I USE TO EXPRESS MY THOUGHTS, IT IS A BOND OF TRUST BETWEEN MY SOUL, MY IDEAS, AND MY ACTIONS THAT BECOMES SOMETHING."
On how Phantasmagoria relates to her work
A word that I like to use is “grotesque.” It also describes something that is between reality and the imaginary, something that is psychological. Having Butoh practice as my background, I learned how to unveil the psychology of the body. For example, how to be able to travel inside your body and communicate with your blood using memories that are hidden in your body. The philosophy that your psychological condition or mood influences your organs, similar to the philosophy of Chinese medicine or many other traditional medicines. I found this to be particularly apparent whenever I do a long-durational performance. I make a lot of dialogues with my body, depending on the subject that I’m working on.
During the repetition of actions in my long-durational performance, it appears that images started to fall. These images, through time and repetition, transform into something else. This is something that I experienced while I am performing as well. Repeating a set of actions is my attempt to get through different layers of mental states and unveil the images that are moving and becoming. Through repetition, I am letting go my ego and giving my body the opportunity to become something else. My performing body is not just a tool that I use to express my thoughts, it is a bond of trust between my soul, my ideas and my actions that becomes something.
MELATI
Melati Suryodarmo (@suryodarmomelati),
Performance Artist
Melati Suryodarmo, renowned Indonesian performance artist, has been creating powerful and riveting performances for more than 25 years. Focused on exploring identity, energy, politics along with the relationship between the body and environment, her performances are highly durational and physical. She believes that her body is pertinent to the performance but not representative of the concept. Through her movements she seeks to delve deeper into the problems of limitations and identification.
Written byNikita Hilda Yusman, Vrinda Maheshwari & Jamie Lee
Photography by Chermaine Cheong & Leonard Wong
"THE PRESSURE TO ALWAYS REPRESENT OUR “ASIAN-NESS”, ESPECIALLY FROM MY ORIGIN COUNTRY, INDONESIA, IS MORE LIKE A CULTURAL BAGGAGE."
On how she navigates the gap between her identity and origin
I don’t always intentionally relate my works to my identity or culture, but it is automatically included as it is part of my being. An important thing that I don’t relate to, is the idea of being a representative of a culture. Since my early career, I have always been clear about how every human has their own way to be as they are, no matter where they come from or their skin colour. The pressure to always represent our “Asian-ness”, especially from my origin country, Indonesia, is more like a cultural baggage.
My experience living in Germany and having to adjust myself between two different cultures definitely holds a place in shaping my performances. There were times where I had to deal with the stereotypes of being an Asian woman in Germany. Such experiences helped me study my mental process. With my performances,
I always try to be honest about how I feel or how I think without showing something that is too personal. This is a difficult area in performance art since everything starts from a personal point of view, but I think people don’t need to know everything about my personal life to get into my work. A work should be able to stimulate people to think within the capacity and structure of their minds.
On how performance art let her challenges the conservative notion of bodies in art
To do a performance art, there is actually a resistance from the body since it is not very conventional. Historically, there are a lot of discrimination that appears when you’re using your body in your work. When I first started doing traditional dance when I was a child, I was always rejected because they said my body was too strong compared to the ideal puppet-like Javanese body. That was my earliest moment learning how we can be discriminated from the shape of our body. Performance art, on the other hand, is a medium that has this spirit of resistance towards the presence of the bodies. Since I also like dance and being on stage, I feel like I found my home when I discovered performance art. It is more challenging than creating a good set of choreography since it is concept-based, but to be able to present the body as a concept of an honest reflection of our thoughts through art is more important for me.
"MY PERFORMING BODY IS NOT JUST A TOOL THAT I USE TO EXPRESS MY THOUGHTS, IT IS A BOND OF TRUST BETWEEN MY SOUL, MY IDEAS, AND MY ACTIONS THAT BECOMES SOMETHING."
On how Phantasmagoria relates to her work
A word that I like to use is “grotesque.” It also describes something that is between reality and the imaginary, something that is psychological. Having Butoh practice as my background, I learned how to unveil the psychology of the body. For example, how to be able to travel inside your body and communicate with your blood using memories that are hidden in your body.
The philosophy that your psychological condition or mood influences your organs, similar to the philosophy of Chinese medicine or many other traditional medicines. I found this to be particularly apparent whenever I do a long-durational performance. I make a lot of dialogues with my body, depending on the subject that I’m working on.
During the repetition of actions in my long-durational performance, it appears that images started to fall.
These images, through time and repetition, transform into something else. This is something that I experienced while I am performing as well. Repeating a set of actions is my attempt to get through different layers of mental states and unveil the images that are moving and becoming. Through repetition, I am letting go my ego and giving my body the opportunity to become something else. My performing body is not just a tool that I use to express my thoughts, it is a bond of trust between my soul, my ideas and my actions that becomes something.
