Admits stones and floods
Erosion is a process which is normally found along a water course, where stones and land are
slowly carved by water. However, erosion in the broader sense defines something that is gradually being shed, layer by layer, a gradual diminution, on both physical and metaphorical.
Batu dan Banjir opposes archival images of the artists Indonesian grandmother, which were affected by recurring flooding due to neglect, with contemporary observations of the Rhine, from its spring in Switzerland to its delta in the Netherlands, viewing the natural shape-shifting of sediments and stones, sculpted by forces of water and time.
The work challenges the experience of perceiving interconnections of nature and humans by showing macro observations of erosion in cultural testimonies and natural processes. The materiality of the images, as well as the stones along the river, reveal their interplay with the environment, revealing traces and memories the environment has left behind.
In this work, erosion becomes a metaphor for impermanence and displacement, for flowing geographically and culturally, for relocation and adaptation, and for readjustment to an ever- changing environment.
Textile design to reimagine photography
Textile as a medium has been utilized in both Indonesia and Switzerland as signifier for down passing and preserving stories and traditions. In the work, the tapestry is a translation of the archive images, where its design approach is rooted in the resistance against the rejection of erosion. The technique used for creating textiles works by building and stacking threads by threads, as the opposite of erosion, where layers by layers are being shed.
The textile is designed to bring life to the dimensions and layers to the depth of the complexity of the story, by emphasizing on the fluidity through its layers in the design.
It highlights the fragility carried in images but at the same time stands strong as a pillar of resistance towards the rejection of fragmented narratives. The tapestry therefor acts a preserver and creator of a testimony that shares the story of the interconnected impact of erosion in its full spectrum.
Erosion in the contemporary landscape
Within the work, water is explored as a force that destructs, but at the same time gives rise to new narratives and associations through erosion. The work presents erosion but rather encourages the audience to read between the cracks and to anticipate a new way of understanding and reading alternative narratives to reflect on fragments of stories, history and culture, and how an identity can emerge from fragments.
Within the contemporary landscape where cultural and geographical flux is at its peak, it becomes more important to observe and hold space for intersections, where identities can emerge within frictions and oppositions, between memory and presence, in observations and perception, and within stones and floods.
