In Citra Sasmita’s universe, naked women with long, flowing black hair are often engulfed in flames. Some sprout trees from their heads, their necks, or even their pelvises. Others metamorphose into snakes or birds. Still others wield swords and severed heads. Channeling creative and destructive energies, these divine beings, depicted in states of perpetual transformation, are deeply intertwined with nature.
A powerful voice reclaiming the narrative of Balinese art, Sasmita is best known for her bold reinterpretations of Kamasan scroll paintings, which originated in East Bali in the 15th century and have historically been the practice of men. An ancient Balinese art form rooted in Hindu epics, Indonesian mythologies, and palace tales of love and romance, war and death, or heaven, earth, and hell, Kamasan depict various stories of heroic men. In Sasmita’s “Timur Merah” series (2019–ongoing), which loosely translates to “The East is Red,” she challenges and reinvents these patriarchal narratives and inherited mythologies through a distinctly feminist perspective.
Traditionally, women in Kamasan paintings are either overtly sexualized or villainized as demons, while men claim the spotlight. Sasmita disrupts this convention by placing women, portrayed as powerful, autonomous beings who defy societal constraints, at the heart of her post-patriarchal tableaux, while still following the strict rules of the form’s crowded compositions, ornate motifs, and vibrant color palette.
Sasmita, who also draws from the epics Ramayana and Mahabharata, said the “Timur Merah” series aims to “position women as central figures, as many ancient texts and paintings traditionally depict male heroism, while women are often relegated to mere decoration and reproductive roles.”
She often populates her iconography of strong female archetypes with depictions of her female ancestors as a way to pay tribute to how they helped her “find meaning through art,” she said. “They faced many hardships, and I capture their memories, as they endured various situations—from Dutch colonialism and the Japanese occupation to the political violence of 1965—showcasing their resilience.”
The self-taught artist is now having her first solo exhibition at a major institution, “Into Eternal Land” at the Barbican in London (on view through April 21). The show brings together newly commissioned, site-specific works that explore themes of ancestral memory, rituals, gender dynamics, and the precarity of the natural world. The exhibition’s title may be viewed as an invitation to embark on an introspective journey toward spiritual enlightenment.
“I was immediately drawn to how Citra Sasmita flips the script of so many socially conditioned narratives and ideas through her work: she confronts and questions the oppression of women’s voices, power, and place in history, the marginalization of craft traditions, the violence of colonialism in Indonesia, and more,” the exhibition’s curator, Lotte Johnson, told ARTnews.
For Sasmita, art is not merely something to be seen but a vehicle for greater transcendence. She has converted the Barbican’s Curve gallery into a ritualistic site, each work serving as a guide for a contemplative—or even sacred—encounter. Her signature panoramic scroll paintings wrap the circular walls, while dangling hair braids encircle python skin scrolls in shrine-like installations. Elsewhere, banner-size textile compositions, embroidered by female artisans in West Bali, depict hybrid woman-plant beings, and a ground turmeric mandala offers a space for meditation.
“Citra’s work is always beautifully choreographed in relation to the space around it—she has an incredible spatial intuitiveness that is influenced by the Indonesian practice of using the body as the basis for all measurements,” Johnson said. “She brings you physically and conceptually into a whole cosmology that she has created through her work.”
