For ART SG Platform 2026, Yeo Workshop presents a constellation of works by Citra Sasmita drawn from three of her major international presentations: the 24th Biennale of Sydney, the Hawai‘i Triennial 2025, and her installation at Frieze New York. Together, they reflect her expansive cosmology - one where ritual, womanhood, and ancestral knowledge move fluidly into contemporary space. Anchoring the presentation are Sasmita’s two monumental suspended Kamasan painting scrolls Timur Merah Project X: Bedtime Story 2023-2024, originally commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney, and recently exhibited at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan. Installed to create a space of repose within the fair, the works invite visitors to sit on floor cushions beneath them, offering a moment of stillness and grounding amid the surrounding activity.
Flanking the presentation are two large textile works titled Cosmic Dance, depicting open hands—one of Sasmita’s recurring motifs—which gesture outward in welcome and function as offerings, channeling energy between the artwork, the surrounding space, and the visitors who gather within it. From the Hawai‘i Triennial, Sasmita’s cowhide paintings continue her deep engagement with fire as an elemental force, drawing from Balinese ritual practices where cowhide is integral to communal ceremonies. The paintings reflect fire’s duality—its power to destroy, purify, and renew—mirroring cycles of creation and dissolution that underpin healing across cultures.
Across these works, Sasmita’s practice bridges cosmology, ritual, and contemporary feminism. She speaks to art’s potential to touch the divine, carry ancestral memory, and resonate viscerally—what Balinese philosophy describes as “taksu”, the spiritual charisma that animates a work of art. Her presentation at ART SG offers an encounter with that energy: intimate, restorative, and profoundly alive
