Yeo Workshop
Skip to main content
  • Menu
  • Home
  • Artists
  • Exhibitions
  • Viewing room
  • Events
  • Art Fairs
  • About
Menu

Citra Sasmita: Ode to the Sun

Past exhibition
10 January - 29 February 2020
  • Works
  • Overview
  • Installation Views
  • Press
  • Events
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Citra Sasmita, Limbo of the Mother, 2020
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Citra Sasmita, Limbo of the Mother, 2020

Citra Sasmita

Limbo of the Mother, 2020
Acrylic on traditional Kamasan canvas
70 x 90 cm
Copyright The Artist
Enquire
%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22artist%22%3ECitra%20Sasmita%3C/div%3E%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22title_and_year%22%3E%3Cspan%20class%3D%22title_and_year_title%22%3ELimbo%20of%20the%20Mother%3C/span%3E%2C%20%3Cspan%20class%3D%22title_and_year_year%22%3E2020%3C/span%3E%3C/div%3E%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22medium%22%3EAcrylic%20on%20traditional%20Kamasan%20canvas%3C/div%3E%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22dimensions%22%3E70%20x%2090%20cm%3C/div%3E

Further images

  • (View a larger image of thumbnail 1 ) Citra Sasmita, Season's Ballad, 2020
  • (View a larger image of thumbnail 2 ) Citra Sasmita, Season's Ballad, 2020
Dismantling the narration of historical canon using a feminist perspective is not merely changing the existing important figures with wom­en's body and thought. It is considerably a deeper process which...
Read more
Dismantling the narration of historical canon using a feminist perspective is not merely changing the existing important figures with wom­en's body and thought. It is considerably a deeper process which tries to deconstruct the social system and people's way of thinking by referring to historical narratives instead of changing the existing figures and accommodating gender-based characters. Therefore, the artists who work to dismantle and re-write historical narratives usually re-read the unbalanced and raise new perspectives on women figures by acknowledging their agency.

Citra Sasmita, a Balinese artist, not only tries to re-read the historical canon on how women are positioned within a certain socio-political context, but also indirectly explores the path of art history-which is also patriarchy biased. She has been running this reading project for about five to six years, and during the last two years of the project, she intensified the process whose result was presented in Biennale Jogja XV Equator #5. The historical canons in Indonesia are mostly produced by the highest power-written by kingdom poets or philosophers circulating around the power. One of the most referred canons is called Babad or Kitab. This kind of text is used as a historical reference for the next generation. It means those Kitabs have 11institutionalized" a patriarchal system, and they are supported by the power to be consid­ered the truth. Citra is interested in Kitab Kakawin written during the Javanese Hindu era and brought to Bali as a canon. Preserved in kingdoms, up to now this kitab is also considered one of the highest achievements of Javanese Literature. Kakawin is often seen as a source of knowl­edge to study the life of ancient Javanese and Balinese. While actually a fiction based on the life in a palace, it is viewed as a depiction of life in the mentioned context. Therefore, exploring Kakawin as a main source to see women's position in the social life of ancient Bali­nese, Citra realizes that there exists a border: it's a social life in a palace culture written in men's perspective (the writers who wrote the canon).

In various visual traditions around the world, women's body are presented naked to show men's sexual desire. In Kitab Kakawin, wom­en's body is often associated with nature; one organ is associated with fruits, for instance, or a woman is wearing natural jewelry. Citra tries to break the body free from the connotation of sexual power and desire, and place it in a more anthropocentric context, designating a purer human existence. In some figures, their bodies are made as having a lot of organs, like with two or three heads, and several hands. While Citra might not mean what we interpret, her depiction of women's body with several heads and hands leads me to the image of post-human. There are recurrent symbols, like fire and trees, that direct us to think them as an effort to underline the relation between women and nature.
Close full details

Exhibitions

Citra Sasmita: Ode to the Sun
Share
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr
  • Email
Previous
|
Next
5 
of  6
Download List of Works

Related artist

  • Citra Sasmita

    Citra Sasmita

Back to exhibitions
Manage cookies
Copyright © 2023 Yeo Workshop
Site by Artlogic
Join the mailing list
Instagram, opens in a new tab.
Facebook, opens in a new tab.
LinkedIn, opens in a new tab.
Twitter, opens in a new tab.
Ocula, opens in a new tab.

This website uses cookies
This site uses cookies to help make it more useful to you. Please contact us to find out more about our Cookie Policy.

Manage cookies
Accept

Cookie preferences

Check the boxes for the cookie categories you allow our site to use

Cookie options
Required for the website to function and cannot be disabled.
Improve your experience on the website by storing choices you make about how it should function.
Allow us to collect anonymous usage data in order to improve the experience on our website.
Allow us to identify our visitors so that we can offer personalised, targeted marketing.
Save preferences
Close

Join our mailing list

Signup

* denotes required fields

We will process the personal data you have supplied in accordance with our privacy policy (available on request). You can unsubscribe or change your preferences at any time by clicking the link in our emails.