STATEMENT OF WORK

My recent work seeks, by way of spiritual vegetal forms, to reconcile the beliefs of the east and the west. Growing up in Indonesia infused me with magic and an understanding of the supernatural, through stories part of everyday conversations. Yet at the same time still rooted in the earth. Coming to the West, the idea of nature, and my introduction to science fiction precipitated a different kind of strangeness. My work also struggles for spiritual release from traditional religious systems and an interest in a relationship with an unmediated life force. This force grows, infects and strains to connect. An appearance of Javanese Sanskrit in my drawings merges and disappears throughout roots and branches. The color palette of browns and greens replicates the foliage and motifs of Central Java where my family is from.

Systems of branching such as trees, rivers, and nerves have become an overflowing source. My work grows from charting a map of my own body, its physical sensations, mental failures, moments of inspiration. Drawing itself allows me to move through these forms and construct worlds. Constructing out of unknowns of the past, snippets of family history and languages often erased and forgotten. The use of my materials connects me to a sense of childhood visually. My goal is to let the work spill out of the self to other avenues of narrative such as ancestral history, language, a deeper exploration of the wild and feelings of alieness within myself and be able to share and connect this story to a broader audience.