MIGRATION AND INDONESIAN SOCIOCULTURAL CONTEXT ON MELLA JAARSMA’S INSTALLATION WEARABLE ART WORKS 1999-2009

• Main Author: Adelia, Fikha
• Format: Final Project
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/54426
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

This research examines how migration and sociocultural context are reflected in the works of Mella Jaarsma as a Dutch migrant artist who plays important role in the development of contemporary Indonesian art. Of all her installation and wearable art works on 1999-2009, this research focuses on ten samples of work: Hi Inlander (1999), Londo Ngemis and Bule Gila (2002), The Follower (2002), Refugee Only (2003), Peranakan Shelters Small and Medium (2004), ASAL - Floating Images (2005), My Name is Michaella Jarawiri (2007), The Last Animist (2008), Zipper Zone (Master of Your Domain) (2009), and Square Body - Kanda Empat (2009). Equipped by literature studies and interviews with Mella Jaarsma, the artworks were analyzed using Terry Barrett's methods of art criticism, postmodernism theories and concepts, migrant and glocal artist theories, and multiculturalist aesthetics. Based on existing data, her first installation wearable art raised the issue of layers of identity based on racial discrimination in Indonesia on 1998 and how ‘the indigenous’ faces ‘foreigners or immigrants’. She continued to depict, comment, and reflect on events and cultural realities that occurred in Indonesia, other countries, or global. Her medium has been consistent since ‘Hi Inlander’, mostly in the form of installation wearable art, with various material explorations, visual forms, and the involvement of other mediums such as performance and video, which she continues to do until now. The sociocultural context of Indonesia and her perspective as a migrant artist are highly reflected in her works. In making works, she turns communal and personal issues into symbolic costumes. As a migrant artist in Indonesia, her position is usually in the midst of the extreme points of the problems, making her keep distances and pay attention to ethical aspects and social norms of society by choosing to convey her messages through symbolic works in the form of clothes or structures that cover bodies, symbolizing protection. Her identity as a migrant also gives her both disadvantages and advantages: she was stigmatized as rich foreigner and a colonizer, but this stigma gives her stimulus to respond critically to the situation in the form of artworks. On the other hand, her foreignness helps the process of raising socio-cultural issues in Indonesia and globally from a more macro and distant perspective compared to Indonesian artists. She is concerned with the audience's experience in dealing with her works and is open to dialogue and different interpretations of her works.