Exploring aspects of human re-creation

Boudewijn Brands, Contributor, Yogyakarta

In Indonesia, to become a mother is nothing that exceptional: The population increased from about 70 million at Independence to an estimated 220 million inhabitants now.

When we look for marriage partners we usually look -- except for sex -- for familiarities. A partner from the same race, and the same social, intellectual and family background. A lot is determined by convention, or "as things are done usually".

Many mothers see the whole process as normal and natural and would not bother very much about it.

In an ongoing exhibition at Bentara Budaya Yogyakarta, however, two female artists from America present works in which they are "harvesting meaning from motherhood" and show this in very contemporary artworks.

Both artists, Christine Cocca (from the U.S.) and Deborah Nolan (from Canada), after receiving their training at home, came to Indonesia for further study. They both fell in love and married Indonesians: Cocca with painter/artist Entang Wiharso and Nolan with designer F. Akas Tarmaji. Both now live in Yogyakarta.

Expatriate readers of this paper, when interacting actively with Indonesian society, privately or in their work, will have observed that things done usually at home are sometimes done differently in Indonesia.

That is to put it mildly. Most expatriates will also go home from time to time and eventually return home or move to another location. There are even those who build their own "Western" little world.

This exhibition is important for three reasons: First, it conveys intensely the feelings that come with giving up life in one's homeland, with loving someone and taking the consequences.

Second, the artists, as mothers, express what happens when they have a baby -- especially important for first-time mothers. The third is that a larger public can learn to look at the works and understand them through the excellently written catalog.

Probably relatively easy to understand but nevertheless imposing is Nolan's How My Heart Was Taken Over. It consists of nine transparent (glass-like) resin bodies taken from a cast in her eighth month of pregnancy. Inside, a plant is growing.

Nolan: "This piece deals with the indescribable process of being taken over by love. It refers to the physical aspects of a baby taking over your body, sharing your body, becoming part of your body. It also represents the overwhelming feeling of love that takes over a mother throughout pregnancy and in the days and months after her child is born".

In Cocca's I want to Give Everything I Have (to you) one can see two, partly transparent figures seated opposite each other on grass, a male and a female figure. However, there are ants that dismantle the woman piece by piece.

Cocca: This refers to "some bad aspects of motherhood and married life and also negative aspects of Indonesian group society. But more important to me, it highlights the spiritual value of mundane, repetitive tasks that make up the work of a mother."

"One of the most profound changes motherhood has wrought on my life is an appreciation of and ability to move through frustration to joy".

These are only two of the 10 works exhibited. In the catalog, you will also find the artists explaining why they use specific materials or techniques or images. Cocca uses bear heads in her Hunting for Meaning.

A bear because it is a predator as well as an animal known for its motherly instincts. The heads are posed like mountains, grounded and monumental. It also reflects internal dialog: the mother does " ... what must be done, caring for oneself and one's young, and not 'thinking" too much'".

The bear heads are made of beeswax, pigment and carbon with the beeswax being the most vulnerable material in spite of expressing a strong animal.

The Hand That Feeds is a celebration of motherhood, beauty, desire to give, love taking over your life.

Cocca: "The work contains references to nursing, milky breasts -- the physical connection between mother and child. The fragrant flowers, which are also used in funerals, have been preserved in wax and are meant to symbolize the beauty and fragility of life and of a mother's desire to preserve and protect and celebrate/remember tiny moments.

"The flowers, especially, refer to memory for me -- how I want to hold on to these fleeting moments of awe when you look at your child's hand stroking you or their gaze that you are sure you will never forget, before sinking into unconsciousness.

"There is this desire to preserve these brief moments, these intangible experiences that make you gasp with pure love and then the fear of protecting the source of that pure love".

What more is there to say?

RIPE: harvesting meaning from motherhood
by Christine Cocca and Deborah Nolan
at Bentara Budaya Yogyakarta
Jl. Suroto 2
Yogyakarta

through July 18
website: www.ripeexhibition.com