Maternity-related artworks to be displayed in Bentara Budaya

Three Yogyakarta-based women artists will share their feelings and emotions on maternity and the maternal roles they play in an exhibition titled, RIPE: Harvesting Meaning from Motherhood.

Featuring three artists, Christine Cocca of the U.S., Mella Jaarsma of the Netherlands and Debolah Nolan of Canada, the exhibition will feature sculptures, installations, paintings, works on paper and artist books that focus on various phenomena associated with human re-creation.

The three artists will present visual and conceptual maps of the ramifications, consequences and aftermath of pregnancy, birth and motherhood in the 10-day exhibition at the Bentara Budaya gallery in Central Jakarta.

The works were displayed at Bentara Budaya Yogyakarta in late July this year.

The artists, married to Indonesians, have all experienced pregnancy, childbirth and motherhood in Indonesia, allowing them to present a unique view on episodes that are considered universal and normal, especially in Indonesia, a country of 220 million people.

One of the works by Nolan, How My Heart Was Taken Over, for instance, deals with her being smitten by her soon-to-be-born baby.

The work consists of nine transparent (glass-like) resin bodies taken from a cast made in her eighth month of pregnancy. Inside each a plant is growing.

Nolan said the piece deals with the indescribable process of being taken over by love. It refers to the physical aspects of a baby taking over the body and sharing it with its mother.

Jaarsma's work, which spans the years 1992 to 1997, explore the continuity and transience of life and death.

Using sensuous and impermanent materials, Cocca creates works that challenge the romantic and idealized notions of motherhood and marriage.

RIPE: Harvesting Meaning from Motherhood
by Christine Cocca, Deborah Nolan and Mella Jaarsma
at Bentara Budaya Jakarta, Jl. Palmerah Selatan 17, Jakarta, runs
from Oct. 7 to Oct. 16.
website: www.ripeexhibition.com