Exhibits,
Eugenia Lim and Yaya Sung, curated by Bianca Winataputri Crossroads / Titik Temu
Opening: March 2020 Dates: 10 March – 8 August, 2020
‘Crossroads/Titik Temu’ is a series of collaborative projects curated by Bianca Winataputri that brings together contemporary visual artists from Indonesia and Australia. The project aims to create an on-going dialogue between the two countries by selecting one artist from each region to develop new works together over an extended period and be involved in each other’s artistic process. ‘Crossroads/Titik Temu’ initiates an opportunity for cross-cultural interactions that values artists’ needs for experimentation and collaboration.
For the first of the series, the project brings together the new media works and performative practices of Indonesian artist Yaya Sung and Australian artist Eugenia Lim. Through their multidisciplinary practice and research with local communities, this collaboration examines issues of identity and identity making in an increasingly ‘globalised’ world. As a Chinese descent born and raised in Jakarta, Yaya questions her position and identity in a multicultural society, and as a minority in the Indonesian community. Her practice explores the relationship between history and identity, and challenges ideas of nationality and authenticity often by placing herself in her works. Eugenia is also interested in formations of identity, particularly in relation to nationalism and stereotypes however in a very different environment that is in the context of multicultural Australia. She works across video, performance and installation, and takes on different personas to investigate ideas of ‘belonging’. Both artists explore notions of the ‘self’ in a globalised society, each facing different challenges in their local communities. Bringing these two artists together, this project reflects on the larger discourse of identity in contemporary society by examining the complexities of individual, collective and national identities, and the spaces in between.
Catalogue Essay, by Bianca Winataputri.
Yaya Sung is an interdisciplinary artist, born in Jakarta, Indonesia. She is keen to explore cross-disciplinary collaborations, experimenting with limits and boundaries of being an artist. Yaya is determined to use fear and trauma as the metaphor to understand the meaning of her existence. Her media varies from photography, image/photo-based installation, videography, performance, to text and design installation. She is keen to explore cross-disciplinary collaborations, experimenting with limits and boundaries of being an artist. Yaya is determined to use fear and trauma as the metaphor to understand the meaning of her existence. She is one of the recipients of 16th Invisible Photographer Asia (IPA) grant.
Eugenia Lim is an Australian artist who works across video, performance and installation. Interested in how nationalism and stereotypes are formed, Lim invents personas to explore the tensions of an individual within society – the alienation and belonging in a globalised world. Conflations between authenticity, mimicry, natural, man-made, historical and anachronistic are important to the work. To this end, Lim finds inspiration in sites and objects that are both ‘contemporary’ and ‘out of time’, embodied and virtual. Model homes, suburban sprawl, CCTV, online chat rooms, fake food, historical parks and the Australian landscape have all featured in the work. Counterpoint to these sites, Lim has performed the identities of Japanese hikikomori; a Bowie-eyed rock star; the cannibal Issei Sagawa; a suburban beautician; Miranda from Picnic at Hanging Rock and currently, a gold Mao-suited ‘Ambassador’. This dialogue between place and performance reflects the push-pull between Australian and Asian, the mono and the multicultural.
