Haiza Putti, ‘Salutan Oranye #1,’ 2024, oil and acrylic paint, crayon on canvas, 80 x 100cm (left), and ‘Salutan Oranye #1,’ 2024, oil and acrylic paint, crayon on canvas, 100 x 150cm (right). Image courtesy of M. Revaldi.
“Ancestry holds the big answers to our identity. For me, exploring and discovering my family’s history did not just serve a personal satisfaction. The more I learn about my own culture and traditions, the more I believe that there exists something universal and fundamental, like a collective experience that connects all humans. While I have touched on this theme of interconnectivity through collective memories in previous projects, such as the series ‘Kota Ibu, Tempat Para Ibu Mengadu Nasib’ (2022) at Indonesian Contemporary Art and Design 12 (ICAD 12) in which I engaged with narratives and memories of female domestic workers, it was not until my first solo show at RUBANAH that I touched upon my personal memories of my late mother and my family.
As I prepared the works for my solo show, I realised that what pushed me to talk more about womanhood, family, and tradition is actually the memories of my late mother and her experience. The feeling of losing my mother has somehow brought me closer to the remaining members in my family, as well as our traditions. However, to reach the point of being comfortable talking about her memories, much less incorporating them into my artworks, is a challenging journey. I am thankful to my curator, Ibam (Ibrahim) Soetomo, for being my talking partner throughout that journey. As we bonded over our shared experience of losing our mothers, albeit at different ages, I was finally able to carve out a visual language to convey my memories of my mother and express my thoughts about being a woman and engaging with my Minangnese traditions.”
Read the full conversation and Haiza’s profile on Art&Market.
