Exploring aspects of human re-creation

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