It’s a Woman’s World
ISA Art and Design gallery supports female creatives and their contributions to the community in the art world and beyond
On International Women’s Day each March, we remind ourselves to provide space and support for women in every aspect of life, including in the arts. Female artists with their diverse stories have the power to influence their community and the wider society. In raising each narrative, we can positively impact the collective recognition of female artists. The position, role, and recognition of female artists in the art ecosystem changes across the generations. All forms of ecosystems inevitably experience changes in both structure and function over time. Hence, ISA Art and Design chose the title “Succession” for their crossgeneration female exhibition this month, analogizing female artist artworks’ changes and progression to ecological succession.
Some of the ecosystem changes may only be local fluctuations that are minor and thus, less significant in comparison. Other changes may
“Appreciating artistic and formalistic exploration is equally essential to observing the issues and political issues they raise”
be so big and influential that they affect the system as a whole. In due time, changes and development of the ecosystems affect artistic and formalistic exploration. Including in female artists’ work coming from diverse territories and backgrounds, influences come from various events and moments in time; diverse ecosystems create stimuli that affect the behaviour and the organism’s intervention to the stimuli. The response can be in the form of social cognition, perception, value or concept.
Ecological succession creates vast plurality over time, triggering questions towards one’s roots. Each period of each ecosystem presents different sets of challenges for its inhabitants. In each generation of women artists, female artists take a chance on exploring their territorial identity, both psychologically, spiritually, culturally and geographically to discover and make sense of the visual language that was considered relevant and comfortable for them. In facing the changes happening across generations, these
artists are constantly looking for, searching, and hoping to rediscover women’s existence today through their works.
Appreciating artistic and formalistic exploration is equally essential to observing the issues and political issues they raise. Identities are not only built by the world around them but also by everything personal within a person.
Dolorosa Sinaga, for example, is an Indonesian sculptor among the pioneers of contemporary artists. Since the 1970s, she dismantles the myths and aesthetic objectification of the female body. The richness of ideas and narratives in all of Sinaga’s 600 pieces reflects the sculptor’s life; moreover, this artistic and political journey does not limit her reach and movement to just the arts.
On the other hand, Fika Ria Santika, who was born in 1987, comes from the Minangkabau cultural background of the West Sumatra highlands. Majority of the Minang culture communities adhere to matrilineal Muslim values that uniquely coexist with a dominant patriarchal culture. In her works, she narrates her cultural experiences and backgrounds of being born in Bukit Tinggi and raised in a family that does not practice traditional symbolisms in their daily life. For Santika, understanding the meaning of oral and symbolic elements that govern the everyday life of the Minang people, in general, becomes a challenge for her.
Meanwhile, Tara Astari Kasenda was born in 1990 when globalization and the relentless connectivity had impacted life in all corners of the world, including Indonesia. The influence of global culture entered her generation’s lives growing up, and cultural identity began to blur. In developing her work, Kasenda finally draws a relation between the concept of personal beauty and the current zeitgeist.
By looking at these artists’ artworks across generations, the audience could see clearly that contemporary women’s narrative is not just a repetition of the past. While it can be a continuation from the past, it contains proof of progress and future challenges. As such, “Succession” focuses on the struggles of women both as individuals and collectives. It also highlights the strives of female artists in occupying creative spaces.
This exhibition demonstrates the ISA gallery’s seriousness in supporting female artists and giving a place for their narratives to be seen and heard. “Succession” also marks the inauguration of ISA Art and Design’s new gallery, which coincides with International Women’s Day and its first anniversary. For more information regarding this exhibition and ISA Art and Design’s other shows, please visit www.isaartanddesign.com.