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‘Tumpengan Instinct’: Articulating mothers' massive duty to pass on wisdom
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Flow of knowledge: "Tumpengan Instinct", an installation art by Manda Selena, focuses on the maternal plight and power to pass down their knowledge, particularly cultural wisdom, to their children in this age of modernity. (JP/Richard Horstman) (JP/Richard Horstman)
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em>By intersecting political intrigue with the obligation of transferring cultural knowledge to future generations, artist Manda Selena explores identity and the creative power and plight of motherhood in the modern age.
As a creator and nurturer of life, a mother’s primary obligation is to her child. However, her responsibilities reach far beyond this and are becoming increasingly complex in a patriarchal society during an unparalleled age of global economic and sociopolitical turmoil.
Manda Selena, also known as “Pinkygurl”, an emerging artist, fashion designer and young mother based in Bali, advocates that mothers must embody their warrior instincts and guardian angel spirit to ensure the survival of their children. This archetypal energy is the foundation for a uniquely Indonesian contemporary artwork, Tumpengan Instinct.
Manda’s eccentric, multilayered and large-scale installation art, displayed in the raw concrete interior of a gutted shop in Kuta, is the result of two years of research, her narrative style derived from her ancestral storytelling culture. The work is inspired by the ceremonial Javanese banquet, tumpengan.
Support and safety
The feast features cone-shaped yellow rice that symbolizes the sacred mountain that is the dwelling place of ancestors and gods, with seven accompanying dishes that represent support and safety, bestowing virtuous blessings upon an individual. Tumpengan Instinct signifies the artist’s prayers, aspirations and wisdom she wishes to impart to her baby daughter.
Four large, drooping paintings depict a mother's journey from gestation to birth and then the child's formative years. Inspired by rerajahan (magical Balinese illustrations on cloth), line drawings, symbolic text referencing Javanese mysticism and Islamic script narrate Manda’s story. The finale is an image of triumph, having imparted her knowledge upon the growing child.
The figures are lighthearted, depicted as children’s pop culture icons, Teletubbies. A representation of an angel divides the double-faceted installation; the counterpart is not passive and embodies a mother's defense mechanism.
The focal piece is a futuristic breastplate with six arms, their hands in mudras and peace signs resembling a Hindu goddess. Her fingernails are equipped with menacing blade-like tips. Configurations of knives and celurit (sickles) signify the need to fortify wisdom through knowledge transfer. An undercurrent of violence is ever present.
In a hostile world where everyone is vulnerable, sharing moral and cultural values is essential to sustaining our lifeforce. Unfortunately, the threat of physical and psychological violence against women and children is increasingly real.
“During my pregnancy, I researched the origins and [nutritional values] of our daily food. I wondered why rice is Indonesia’s most widely consumed carbohydrate, despite the other more nutritious options,” Manda explained.
“Rice is inherently political, amplified by the false ideology of 'ga kenyang kalo ga makan nasi' [no rice, no full stomach]. This idiom has practically Javanized the whole of Indonesian territory,” she said.
Multilayered influences
A background in fashion at Singapore’s Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts informs Manda’s art. Via her obsession with the body and art as a figurative framework, she explores identity through an array of masks, armor and weapons. Her childhood addiction to fantasy and sci-fi video games and films describes her razor-sharp esthetics. Manda’s paradox of the cute and the macabre dredges up subterranean thoughts and desires of the collective and individual unconscious.
"The New Order [regime] imposed far-reaching changes on Indonesian agriculture. Globalization transformed the traditional circular farming economy into high-yield production, degrading the soil and food quality with giant profits [going] to corporations. The outcome of this intervention was dependency on government-subsidized toxic American fertilizers, enforced on farmers by the nation's military," said Manda, who was born in Jakarta in 1994 and has lived in Bali since her mid-teens.
“Indonesia’s biased political [system] marginalizes the masses. However, the stories we share with our family and community become empowering tools for social change. Our daily food choices are a simple yet fundamental economic right. They can become our political voice through acts of resistance against a monopolizing regime,” said Manda.
Tumpeng Instinct is one chapter of Kejawan Kolossal Fantasy, an ongoing manifestation of installations and performances.
Brave deconstruction
“Manda is critical and courageous in the face of society’s stigmas against women,” said curator Fauzi Lyanda who commissioned Tumpengan Instinct for Ruang Baur Seni: Fraksi Epos Gotong Lorong, an arts event held from February through March at South Beach Discovery Mall in Kuta. “She presents fresh space for the deconstruction of cultural issues, providing new understandings that become extraordinary.”
"After university, I started a streetwear brand only to discontinue it because I didn't enjoy the process of making ready-to-wear clothes. The fashion industry functions only on the surface level," stated Manda.
"Now, I create one-of-a-kind fashion items for my husband's international brand, Ican Harem. Our brand is our identity and a beacon of light for our audience. As artists, we seek deeper meaning in our clothing, merging the inner and outer experience to create contemporary narratives for a bold new creative generation."
“I fell in love with the weirdness of Pinkygurl’s art and had to collect some of her clothing — the element of cuteness is immediately attractive,” said Madame Priscilla, a PR and marketing consultant living in Jakarta. “She triggers a confusion rarely experienced, which some may find disturbing. Her uniqueness touches and challenges aspects deep within the subconscious: childhood and sexuality."
Fresh and imaginative mediums of knowledge transfer evolve hand-in-hand with our species. As a result, they increasingly determine the future of cultural wisdom, especially in an era when modernity is all-consuming. Pinkygurl highlights the relevance of contemporary art as a communication mode between the generations — inventive storytelling for the new paradigm.
