As promised, here is the performance art component to the piece. I performed only once for the opening reception. I sought out help froma professional dancer and teacher Carolé Acuña on the choreography of the piece. She is a versatile artist: comedian, actor, dancer (flamenco and modern and yes, she once…
May 14, 2016 finally arrived. It was time to reveal this piece titled Wibatika irenea to the public. A second component to my vision is a performance art that I insisted on doing no matter how bad of an idea I thought it was, which will be in another post. Since…
I forgot that I never posted this until a friend reminded me that I haven’t. I was ambivalent about the process. It was difficult and embarrassing. I almost backed out of the show because I was feeling very self conscious and self judgmental about my piece. I enjoyed the process immensely…
In the back are two versions of letters that President Sukarno signed on March 11, 1966, which became a pivotal point in Indonesia’s history. In the letter, President Sukarno transferred his power over to General Suharto in the wake of a failed coup d’état, which was blamed on PKI (Indonesia’s…
My father’s biological father was a gambler. He gambled away any resources he had that would have been useful to raise 6 kids. So, his wife (my father’s mother) left to go back to China and took half the kids. She left the youngest child, my father, and the oldest…
This is a photo of my mother’s family, placed atop woven strips of fabrics to represent our Chinese and Indonesian heritage. Bhinneka Tunggal Ika is Indonesia’s official motto and is translated from Old Javanese as “Unity in Diversity.” I wanted to refer to the official motto especially when they were being discriminated…
My grandmother was largely the breadwinner of the family. My grandfather wrote booklets which he sold as a subscription. This did not earn very much money, so my grandmother developed skills to make embroidery for women’s shirts. She had 2-3 employees, according to my mother. My mother and her 4 siblings…
My mother resolved in her mind to emigrate out of Indonesia in 1965. It was after six generals were kidnapped and assassinated in a failed coup d’état that was quickly blamed on the Indonesian communist party. This resulted in riots, from which my mother escaped and at least 500,000 people getting…
Here is my small interpretation of how it feels to be Chinese Indonesian. The backdrop is a list of 16 laws that were enacted that directly or indirectly discriminated against Indonesian residents with Chinese ancestry. There were 45 laws made during Suharto’s regime (1966-1998). About 62 laws total were made…
There are two images here. One is in the background. They are of 5 sisters: my mother and her sisters. Their father wanted boys very badly. He got his wife pregnant five times, all of which resulted in girls. Still he did not give up. He gave them all boys…