“TREAT OR THREAT?”: CRITICISM OF THE TREATMENT OF WOMEN IN GENDER INEQUALITY THROUGH PERFORMANCE ART

• Main Author: Karuna Dharani, Renitta
• Format: Final Project
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/75791
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

The performance art piece “Treat or Threat?” aims to highlight the way society and legal system treat women in an unequal gender system. The fear of being in certain situations (walking alone at night, wearing certain clothes, interactions that lead to sexual harassment, etc.) is a concern for most women, including the author. This explains that spaces that should be safe in society, are safe only for the majority, in this case, men. As a minority are forced to survive in that space with resignation, accepting that they have no power. The author focuses on the discussion on the scope of how most women are treated inhumanely through objectification, deprivation of security rights, and injustice in social life. In creating this work, the author examines the theory of art as symbolic action, the theory of social domination, and the conception of a safe space for understanding and formulating ideas. This idea is then elaborated with a study of the concepts of medium video performance and durational performance. Focusing on body movement, the performance medium is confrontational, thus encouraging author to present multiple layers of ideas. This work is a long durational performance that also features a video performance. The author uses the idiom of package unboxing and idiom of clarification video with symbolic elements, such as the use of bubble wrap material. Selection of the title “Treat or Threat?” at the same time, it becomes a question asked by the author because various behaviors towards women that seem to protect and support them actually pose a threat to them.