LONDON.- Indonesian artist Citra Sasmita transforms The Curve for her first solo exhibition in the UK: a new commission titled Into Eternal Land. Working fluidly across painting, sculptural installation, embroidery and scent, Sasmita invites visitors on a symbolic, multi-sensory journey through the 90-metre-long gallery to explore ideas of ancestral memory, ritual and migration.
An interdisciplinary artist, Sasmita’s practice challenges fixed ideas in relation to gender roles, hierarchies of power, systems of oppression, and more. Her work refuses categorisation both in terms of materials and iconographies, questioning reductive, colonial conceptions of traditional Indonesian art and the historic marginalisation of craft traditions. Into Eternal Land speaks to universal and urgent concerns: connecting with ancestral traditions, grappling with the power and precarity of the natural world, and proposing the possibility of feminist resistance.
Sasmita’s practice often engages with the Indonesian Kamasan painting technique. Dating from the fifteenth century, and traditionally practiced exclusively by men, Kamasan was used to narrate Hindu epics. Reclaiming this masculine practice, Sasmita is interested in dismantling misconceptions of Balinese culture and confronting its violent colonial past. Underpinning her work is a dedication to alternative narratives, particularly the experiences of women who have been fetishised, suppressed or erased. Reinventing inherited mythologies – from indigenous Indonesian histories to Dutch colonial narratives, to contemporary society – her protagonists are powerful women who populate a post-patriarchal world.
For her Barbican commission Into Eternal Land, the artist draws inspiration from a rich range of sources. These include centuries-long histories of displacement and migration across the Indonesian archipelago, as well as the symbolism of heaven, earth and hell across cultures – from the story of Bhima Swarga crossing hell to save his parents, as recounted in the Balinese epic Mahabharata, to Dante’s Inferno and beyond.
Panoramic scroll paintings – Sasmita’s reinterpretation of Kamasan paintings – unfurl along the curved walls of the gallery, depicting women undergoing transformation and reincarnation: becoming trees or bird spirits, emitting flaming auras, pouring forth water and blood. Shrine-like installations encircled by long braids of hair reference deep genealogies and memories held in the body, while paintings on python skin nod to rituals of sacrifice. Textiles hang from the ceiling like flags, conceived of as symbolic portals to another realm. They feature hybrid woman-plant beings, who hold powerful knowledge of herbal medicine. These works are made in collaboration with women artisans in west Bali, whose knowledge of this specific embroidery technique is in danger of disappearing. A mandala (circle) of ground turmeric serves as the focal point of the final chapter of the exhibition, offering a space for meditation. An ambient soundscape by Indonesian composer Agha Praditya Yogaswara offers a sonic response to Sasmita’s cosmologies.
Citra Sasmita said: “Facing the majestic space of The Curve makes my heart tremble, but at the same time it invites me to explore possibilities that I had never imagined before. As a Balinese person, I believe in the ability to be embodied in space and time. The Curve has allowed me to present a ritual for the space itself, along with the cosmology and cultural roots that I bring from Bali. I am very much looking forward to how visitors will feel when they experience this exhibition.”
Citra Sasmita (b. 1990, Bali, Indonesia) is a self-taught artist. She studied literature and physics, then worked as a short story illustrator for the Bali Post before she began developing her expanded artistic practice. Major group exhibitions include to carry, Sharjah Biennial (United Arab Emirates, forthcoming 2025); Precarious Joys, Toronto Biennial of Art (Canada, 2024); After Rain, Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale (Saudi Arabia, 2024); Ten Thousand Suns, 24th Biennale of Sydney (Australia, 2024); Choreographies of the Impossible, 35th São Paulo Biennale (Brazil, 2023); The Open World, 3rd Thailand Biennale, Mae Fah Luang Art and Cultural Park, Chiang Rai (Thailand, 2023); Garden of Ten Seasons, Savvy Contemporary, Berlin (Germany, 2022); Kathmandu Triennale (Nepal, 2021-2022); ARTJOG MMXXII, Time To Wonder, Jogja National Museum, Yogyakarta (Indonesia, 2021); and the Biennale Yogyakarta (Indonesia, 2019). Solo shows include Atlas of Curiosity, Yeo Workshop (Singapore, 2023); Ode To The Sun, Yeo Workshop (Singapore, 2020); and Tales of Nowhere, Museum MACAN, Jakarta (Indonesia, 2020
