Citra Sasmita learnt the Balinese custom of Kamasan portray from the Hindu priestess Mangku Muriati, certainly one of few ladies allowed to practise the method. In Sasmita’s huge work on cow cover, she challenges Kamasan portray’s presentation of ladies ‘for his or her sexuality, their procreative operate’ and as a substitute conjures ‘nature’s female vitality’. In visions encircled by flames, feminine our bodies give beginning to timber, rivers and oceans. Sasmita alerts our entry right into a posthuman world with ‘a brand new data that has not but been written’.
Forward of Frieze New York, Sasmita’s first solo present within the US, introduced by Yeo Workshop, she displays on the main target and collective vitality she finds within the mountains, easy methods to reconcile artwork and nature, and what it means to carry a brand new cosmology into the concrete actuality of New York.
Livia Russell Are you able to speak about your new work for Frieze New York?
Citra Sasmita The title of the exhibition is ‘Vortex in The Land of Liberation’. It’s a mirrored image on how folks are actually trying to the East for a lifestyle and philosophy. I’ve been desirous about how shrines and temples are created to commemorate the historical past and land of a spot.
The set up contains hanging cowhide work with beads, and a suspended omega-shaped portray. The omega form refers to Rangda, a strong feminine witch determine in Balinese mythology, whose data comes from her tongue: no matter she speaks is a prophecy. In Balinese philosophy, we now have inherited an idea referred to as Tri Hita Karana – a trinity that connects spirituality, the human and nature. This idea helped me to see my set up as a ‘theatre of the physique’. I invite folks to enter my cosmology, to navigate their very own emotions there.
LR Up to now yr, you’ve exhibited everywhere in the world – London, Sharjah, Hawaii, San Francisco, Sydney, Mallorca. How has this influenced your new work?
CS I’m actually delicate to the context during which I exhibit my work. Going to Hawaii helped me to get a way of US and Indigenous histories. Of their connection to the land, nature and the volcano, the Indigenous folks of Hawaii are similar to the folks of Bali. At East-West Heart in Hawaii, I noticed a mural made by the Indonesian maestro Affandi. In Knowledge from the East, Affandi paints the hand of God as vast and lengthy because the Pacific Ocean. The hand holds three figures: Semar, a determine from Indonesian mythology, Mahatma Gandhi, a logo of peace, and the Chinese language thinker Laozi. From Affandi’s mural, I discovered easy methods to carry summary ideology right into a pressure for motion and a dedication to nature.
For Frieze, I need to create a spirituality that may be accepted by individuals who stay in ‘concrete jungles’, whose nature is concrete buildings. In my set up, metal constructions hook up with the city area, whereas the partitions are painted inexperienced. In Bali, we see inexperienced within the timber, within the leaves, however within the metropolis, inexperienced is a color – it has a semiotic operate, it’s tells of the feeling of nature.
LR How does gender determine in your imaginative and prescient of nature?
CS Putting the girl determine because the protagonist in my portray is my political assertion as a feminist. I’m responding to Balinese patriarchal narratives I’ve inherited during which ladies are introduced for his or her sexuality, their procreative operate, as trophies. I problem this gaze by making all of the figures in my work ladies. Nature has a female vitality. In my work, a girl’s physique is giving beginning to a tree, a river, an ocean. A volcano is commonly seen as masculine due to its eruption, however it’s additionally female. Lava flows slowly, gently, and that softness offers us time to run to security. Mom Nature nonetheless cares for people, even after we deal with nature as an object to be destroyed within the title of progress.
Our folks nonetheless consider nature represents our physique and its organs: the rivers are our veins, the ocean is our blood, the mountains are our breasts. If we destroy nature, we additionally destroy our physique. Nature is the macrocosmos, our physique is the microcosmos. Right here, artwork stays built-in with ritual and social tradition. In Bali, it’s much less about commercializing artwork and extra about seeing artwork as door that opens on to new data. To make a brand new cosmology in my work, I play with the expertise of a girl’s physique giving beginning, the way in which the womb opens to new life.
LR The omega form feels additionally distinctly womb-like. Are you able to speak extra concerning the significance of your materials decisions?
CS The supplies I take advantage of – cow cover, beads, minerals – are associated to the cultural reminiscence of Balinese ritual. Cowhide is utilized in ceremonies in Bali that occur as soon as each 50 and 100 years to mark an enormous reconciliation with nature. After I make work with beads, minerals and cowhide, I’m performing my very own reconciliation with the artwork world. The cow is sacrificed to purify the land, in a prayer towards catastrophe. I see my art work in an analogous manner: it’s a purification.
I mix a number of material in my work. In Bali, ladies weave for his or her entire lives, and so they cross down their creations as heirlooms. I’ve inherited material from my mom and grandmother. The reminiscence of their our bodies is within the material. You place all of your data of being a girl into the material. I really feel a powerful calling to make use of material as my predominant materials. It creates a type of advanced cosmology. Earlier than the Thirties, when European portray started to affect of the artwork of Bali, we solely made artwork for devotion, to brighten temples. We didn’t consider within the sturdiness of artwork. We might cremate artworks, however the inventive data would stay in our our bodies, able to be reincarnated.
LR How do you method the custom of Kamasan portray?
CS I’ve been researching Kamasan portray for six years. I discovered the method from Priestess Mangku Muriati, who negotiated together with her father to be allowed to color. Historically, the lads are taught the methods and narratives of Kamasan portray. They design the composition of the theatre of the canvas, whereas the ladies are the colourists, which is extra labour-intensive work, involving grinding the pigment from stone and making glue. The boys nonetheless get the credit score.
Feminine painters navigate the outdated narratives with a distinct gaze. They depict extra feminine figures, they present Balinese ladies combating within the battle towards Dutch colonialism, which is never proven by male Kamasan painters. My iconography is just like that of Kamasan portray, however I’m exploring extra anatomy, language and expertise. I’m creating a brand new coding of philosophy, reasonably than illustrating outdated manuscripts.
LR How do you navigate previous and future via Kamasan portray?
CS One of many teachings of our manuscripts is that there’s something illogical about our consciousness, that it’s already written. When you dig deeply, you discover that our manuscripts should not solely speaking about historic occasions, but additionally about prediction, fiction, opinion, the calendar. The complexity of this offers countless inspiration for me. I’m excited by how our iconography can have an archetypical relationship with one other tradition on the planet. After I go to Brazil, for instance, Balinese iconography touches that of the Amazonian folks, and equally in Asia or Hawaii. There’s a language that resonates.
In my portray of a vortex – symbolized by the snake and fireplace – we’re coming into a posthuman world, a meta world, not solely digitally, however in our acceptance of a brand new data that has not but been written. The day I hung my portray in Hawaii, the Kilauea volcano erupted. It’s an providing to the land. I began to consider that it’s a must to see nature as superhuman. I feel we’re already coming into that type of mindset.
LR What does time within the studio imply to you?
CS My studio is situated in Ubud. I hire the area and pandopo from the household of the excessive priest Brahmana Budha. After I end a canvas, I simply roll it up and put it within the nook of the room. The area is surrounded by nature. Wanting up and seeing the timber, I really feel the inspiration for my work develop. The vitality of the mountain offers me focus; it brings me to a meditative state. I can not begin a portray if I really feel any anger, disappointment or resentment. I must clear my physique and my thoughts earlier than starting. It’s very laborious to sketch on cowhide, so I’ve to start immediately with a pen. It’s about intention. If I make a mistake, I add one thing spontaneous. As people, we all the time need all the things good, however accepting a mistake can also be very enlightening.
I work with two assistants who assist me with the beadwork. I actually prefer to work in a collaborative manner, involving a group of ladies in my portray. I can sense the collective vitality from them, and it’s actually triggered me to consider what sort of language I need to use in my portray.
LR Are beads a brand new materials for you?
CS I started utilizing beads after I made the work for my Barbican present [2025]. Traditionally, beads have been vital in maritime commerce, however in our tradition, beads are used to cleanse – or neutralize – vitality. When the Balinese construct homes, they bury treasured beads and minerals resembling diamond, gold, silver as a way to forged away unhealthy spirits and floor their homes in order that lightning is not going to strike.
LR How do you see your follow growing?
CS I might like to discover maritime tradition. In Balinese tradition, we now have a journey idea referred to as Nyegara Gunung – from the mountain to the ocean. All this time, I’ve been researching the mountain facet, the vitality that stays within the mountains, however I haven’t but developed the coastal context. I need to take a look at how maritime tradition has influenced or threatened different islands within the archipelago, with connections shaped not solely via buying and selling relations but additionally geopolitically. What sort of civilization emerges when totally different cultures – like Islamic and native cultures – meet, combine and acculturate? How does tolerance kind via these connections? That’s what pursuits me. We stay in such a worldwide context the place we’re free to attach, however we nonetheless come from totally different cultures. What offers us a shared imaginative and prescient? That’s the query I’m exploring.
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Principal Picture: Citra Sasmita’s studio
