Melati Suryodarmo’s performances deal with the relationship between a human body, the culture it belongs to, and a constellation of its lived conditions.
Melati Suryodarmo, (left to right) ‘PA’, ‘DJA’ and ‘NYA’, 2018
Through the presence, she compiles, extracts, conceptualises and translates some phenomena or subjects into movements, actions, and gestures that are specific to her performance. Her performances feature elements of physical presence and visual art to discuss identity, energy, politics and relationships between the body and its environments.
Melati Suryodarmo, (left to right) ‘FAUST 3’ and ‘DIALOGUE 3’, 2018
While the body is absent in Suryodarmo’s artworks at STPI, the artist nevertheless translates her keen sense of becoming and being through working, touching and manipulating the objects at hand. In such a way, the objects themselves hold an energetic presence, where they occupy a space between being detached from the performer’s body yet holding relics from it to become markers of memories and trace.
“When I create works at the STPI Workshop, I would have a dialogue with myself, my mind, and my feelings. I would then communicate it through the print.” – Melati Suryodarmo
Visit our Artsy Viewing Room to learn more, and to view all available artworks here.
Exhibitions at STPI
Melati Suryodarmo: Memento Mori (2019–2020)
Watch
Listen
Coffee and Conversations with Melati Suryodarmo
At STPI Gallery, 13 October 2018
Publication and Merchandise
“I like to see Melati Suryodarmo as Sakti, and her path of becoming as the working of the goddess within her.” – Carla Bianpoen, Memento Mori
The catalogue ‘Melati Suryodarmo: Memento Mori’, was published on the occasion of her solo exhibition with STPI. It contains essays by Carla Bianpoen, Cristina Sanchez-Kozyreva and Adele Tan.
View this, as well as available prints, at The Corner Shop here.
Read more about the artist and her time at STPI
Melati Suryodarmo on Deconstruction, Melting Into Time And The Personal And Metaphysical Imprints of Abandoned Spaces
Object Lessons Space, December 2019
In the Eyes of Melati Suryodarmo
STPI, December 2018
