By clashing artifacts and works, objects and performativity, conceptual and historical, Mella Jaarsma confronts us with situations that are out of the ordinary for the body and what we cover it with, presenting experiences that are between that of the real and the imaginary.
This performance takes inspiration from a grain of rice, a traditional measurement unit in a shared agrarian heritage of Southeast Asia. It was this common measurement unit that made commerce in the region possible. However, measurements also serve other purposes beyond commerce.
Mella Jaarsma is known for her complex costume installations and her focus on forms of cultural and racial diversity embedded within clothing, the body and food. She was born in the Netherlands in 1960 and studied visual art at Minerva Academy in Groningen (1978-1984), after which she left the Netherlands to Indonesia to study at Jakarta Institute of Arts (IKJ, 1984) and at the Indonesian Institute of the Arts (ISI) in Yogyakarta (1985-1986). In 1988, she co-founded Cemeti Art House (with Nindityo Adipurnomo), the first space for contemporary art in Indonesia.
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