DEWI (LITERALLY: GODDESS) —AN INTERCESSION

Truly, Nadiah is a sculptor. All of her drawings that we know so far were worked on by the sculpting method, in which she built her own ritual. Precisely, her drawing practice is a tradition of her own making, I think we should call it: Sculpturesque drawing. This time, for Dewi , Nadiah drew in the simplest sense: She treated her charcoal as a tool for stroking and “colouring”. In Dewi, Nadiah’s drawings had “colours’’ other than the black from her drawing tool, charcoal. Through the series of drawings in Light in Landscape Study and Sculpture in Landscape Study, Nadiah introduced “colours’’ with the attitude of a sculptor: Applying other materials, gold leaf and copper leaf which were naturally different from charcoal—thus they immediately became the “colours” in the drawing.

In Dewi , there was not a single figure. Not all of the objects that Nadiah had worked on also had an origin form. There were forms that we could immediately recognize such as braid, dagger, pelvic bone, and seed; there were forms that we might not immediately recognize such as cocoon or amulet container; and there were also abstract forms which would rely on my baggage of knowledge of things, if I wrote them down. If they had no origin, should we identify them as something? Probably. For now, I think it’s sufficient to recognize these non-existent forms as a possibility, as an openness—they could be anything we need in the landscape of Dewi .

The horizon, which had never been absent in the series of drawings in Light in Landscape Study and Sculpture in Landscape Study, was Nadiah’s attempt to construct a new landscape in her working process, a new scope in her artistic practice. Some of the materials that Nadiah explored in Dewi were new to her. Never before had she worked with lamps, stainless steel slings, buffalo hide, or goat hide. What was all this novelty for? To build a new realm, a new world! For whom? For her, for her friends, for her neighbours, for her environment, and for those who need it later. Dewi is a community, said Nadiah, in our chat after the display of works was over. Dewi is a possibility, I said. Dewi is about energy, Nadiah replied. Dewi is an idea, I continued. The conversation was endless. It didn’t need to end—at least for now.

Let’s get to know Dewi! Hope you all enjoy the surprises! Thank you for the hard work, cooperation and friendship, Nadiah! Enjoy the exhibition! Yogyakarta, 17 June 2023

Grace Samboh

Grace Samboh cannot stay still, Grace is in constant search of what comprises a curatorial work within her surrounding scene. She jigs within the existing elements of the arts scene around her, be it as a researcher, a writer, a curator, a producer, etc, for she considers the claim that Indonesia is lacking art infrastructure especially the state-owned or state run as something outdated. She is attached to Hyphen —, affiliated to rubanah Underground Hub, and is currently undertaking a doctoral program at Arts and Society Studies, Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta. Her recent curatorial endeavours are Jakarta Biennale 2021: esok; serta Collecting Entanglements and Embodied Histories, a collective project between Galeri Nasional Indonesia, maiiam Contemporary Art Museum, Singapore Art Museum, Nationalgalerie – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, and Goethe-Institut (2017–2022). Some of her recent writings can be read in journals such as parse (Gothenburg University); Southeast of Now (nus Press); and jurnalkarbon. net (ruangrupa); or in books such as Curating After the Global (mit Press, 2019); Making Another World Possible (Routledge, 2019); Tom Nicholson: Lines towards Another (Sternberg Press, 2018).

1. “Patung Pahlawan” [“The Heroes Statue”], in Monumen dan Patung di Jakarta [Monuments and Statue in Jakarta], 1993. Jakarta: Dinas Museum dan Sejarah Pemerintah Daerah dki Jakarta, pg. 76–77.

2. Wani in Javanese means ‘brave’; we can also think of wani as the short for wanita (which means ‘woman, lover, wife’; the notion of being ‘owned’ comes from the word vanita in its original language, Sanskrit.)

3. “A Conversation between Nadiah Bamadhaj and Lee Weng Choy”, from the catalogue Anthropocene Series: A triptych by Nadiah Bamadhaj, exhibited in Singapore as part of s.e.a. focus curated: hyper-horizon, 20–31 January 2021. Kuala Lumpur: A+ Works of Art, 2021, pg. 13–14.

4. Chiseling and carving, for example, are basic sculptural techniques that are subtractive in process.

5. “The story of my silencing was deafening—both in scale and form,” Lee Weng Choy in conversation with Nadiah Bamadhaj about The Submissive Feminist”, from the catalogue The Submissive Feminist, a solo exhibition by Nadiah Bamadhaj, at Kiniko Art Space, Yogyakarta, 5–26 June 2021. Kuala Lumpur: A+ Works of Art, pg. 32.

6. “A Conversation between Nadiah Bamadhaj and Lee Weng Choy”, from the catalogue Anthropocene Series: A triptych by Nadiah Bamadhaj, exhibited in Singapore as part of s.e.a. focus curated: hyper-horizon, 20–31 January 2021. Kuala Lumpur: A+ Works of Art, 2021, pg. 13–14. (Underlined for emphasis, by the writer.)

7. The Submissive Feminist, 2021, pg. 32.

8. “Essay by Alia Swastika”, from the catalogue Mengamankan Ekspektasi [Securing the Expectations], a solo exhibition by Nadiah Bamadhaj at Art Jakarta, 26–28 August 2021. Kuala Lumpur: A+ Works of Art, 2021, pg. 2–6.

9. “Artist’s statement” from the catalogue Mengamankan Ekspektasi [Securing the Expectations], 2021, pg. 8–9.

10. The Submissive Feminist, 2021, pg. 31.

11. My long notes regarding jb2021 esok can be found in the postevent catalog. See: Grace Samboh, “Bekal untuk besok-besok: Waktu, kegagalan, kehendak, kesuksesan, keterbukaan, dll.” [“Provisions for days to come: Time, failure, purpose, success, openness, etc.”] in Farah Wardani (ed.), Beyond Esok: Notes & Postscript from the Jakarta Biennale 2021. Jakarta: Komite Seni Rupa, Dewan Kesenian Jakarta, 2022, pg. 30–45.

12. Exhibition room introductory note by Jakarta Biennale 2021: esok curatorial team (Akmalia Rizqita “Chita”, Grace Samboh, Rachel K. Surijata, Sally Texania, dan Qinyi Lim). The other two works mentioned here: the International Friendship series (2013-present) by Che Onejoon who investigated the creation of gigantic bronze monuments in various African countries by an artisanal North Korean studio; and Song Ta’s March of the Volunteers Songta Remix (2019), which is a rework of the national anthem of the People’s Republic of China in a contemporary spirit.

13. See: Bojana Piškur, Grace Samboh, & Rachel K. Surijata in conversation with Nick Aikens, 2023. “Aligning Research and The Non-Aligned” in Nick Aikens (ed.), Rewinding Internationalism Scenes for the 1990s Today. Eindhoven: Van Abbemuseum, pg. 41–56.