Titarubi

From her research into the spice islands emerged the story of the nutmeg that had become so hotly desired by the Dutch, British, Spanish and Portuguese colonial powers who fought bloody wars to obtain a trade monopoly on the Banda islands, at that time the only place where nutmeg was grown. The harrowing story of the massacre and enslavement in 1621 of the islands’ population impressed her deeply, finding it intriguing how the little nutmeg had played a decisive role in the bloody wars. Nutmeg at the time had become such a hotly desired commodity whose worth was weighted in gold. 

Visualizing all this are various works around the issue, like her sculpture installation Imago Mundi (2013) featuring a large robe made of no less than 1100 gold-coated nutmegs, which returned in various alternative versions, such as Hallucinogenic (2014), History Repeats Itself (2016) and Unbearable Darkness (2016) where it always shared the same roots.

Long before the nutmeg issue, however, Tita’s interest in colonial rule’s abuse had been expressed with harrowing sculpture installations: In 2005, for the Yogya Biennale, she made an installation of broken body parts being transported in a wagon from a sugar plant during Dutch colonial time.

In 2013, for her participation in the Indonesia Pavilion themed Sakti at the Venice Biennale 2013, she conceived her installation Shadow of Surrender. Featuring school benches reminiscent of those from the Dutch colonial time made from burnt wood with thick, open books placed on them. It served as a metaphor for education and the length of time and perseverance needed to acquire knowledge. 

While signifying knowledge, science and education as the most important features of civilization, she also referred to the cycle of life and the national memory of colonial abuse. For the joint exhibition Suspended Histories, 2013 at the Amsterdam Museum van Loon, she participated with a monumental sculpture titled Imago Mundi, the robe of 1100 gold-coated nutmegs. 

Much earlier, she showed grave concern about education, opposing the practice that small children should learn Arabic prayers without any understanding of the meaning, she presented Bayang2 Maha Kecil (2000), an installation of nine stoneware busts of little children with Arabic script on their tiny heads. The Arabic text seemed mystical, and besides being reminiscent of Muslim prayers, they also reminded one of protective mantras used in various ethnic communities throughout Indonesia.

Regarding gender inequality, she blurred the boundaries between male and female characteristics in her installation Bodyscape at the CP Biennale 2005, featuring reclining male figures made of fiberglass clothed in brocade used for kebaya (traditional blouses). She also created an 8.5-meter high replica of David, Surrounding David (2008) made of fiber glass for the rotunda in the National Museum of Singapore. Covered with typically feminine lace also usually used for kebaya. In 2016 the gold-coated nutmeg robe returned in three-fold at the 5th Singapore Biennale in her work History Repeats Itself.  Each one stood like ghostly figures on three simple warships modeled after those of yore in Aceh, Madura and Banten, models she found in documents from the Portuguese and Spaniards who visited between the 8th and 16th century.

Questions remained: considering the busy trade of the area, what ships might have plied the waters? She enrolled as a student of history, hoping to find answers. At the Borobudur Temple she found a relief of a model that could well fit the early type of ship of the 8th century. Based on what she perceived from the relief and with added historical knowledge, infused with emotional sentiments, together with a technical team, she crafted a ship, in a giant version. It now stands at the Semarang Ahmad Yani airport where it is placed to somehow testify that once upon a time Indonesia was a seafaring nation.

Titarubi is a founding member of the Indonesian Contemporary Art Network (iCAN) which promotes education and multi-disciplinary work in art, and of Forum Rempah which focuses on the history of spice and its culture in Nusantara.

CB 8March 2022