Mella Jaarsma
Bolak - balik 2002
Buffalo skins and horn
Image courtesy of Cemeti Art House, Yogyakarta

Mella Jaarsma

Mella Jaarsma was born in 1960, Emmeloord, The Netherlands. After studies at the Fine Art Academy of Minerva, Groningen, The Netherlands, Jaarsma continued her art studies in Indonesia at the Art Institute of Jakarta in 1984 and the Art Institute of Indonesia in 1985-86. She has been living and working in Yogyakarta, Indonesia since this time. Jaarsma works as both an artist and curator and has actively participated in exhibitions and performances since the mid 1980s. Her recent exhibitions include the 5th International Exhibition of Sculptures and Installations, Venice Libo Italy, Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, Korea and Site + Sight: translating cultures, Singapore in 2002 and Floating Chimeras, Sweden in 2001.

Over the past three years Jaarsma has had solo exhibitions in Japan, Thailand and Indonesia. She is the founder and co-director, with Nindityo Adipurnomo, of the Cemeti Art House in Yogyakarta, Indonesia  an energetic centre for the development and exhibition of contemporary art.  Jaarsma is also a board member of the Cemeti Art Foundation and as one of the representatives for Indonesia, she advises on the general policy of the program in the Erasmus Huis, the Dutch Cultural Centre in Jakarta.

Jaarsma has recently become known for her elaborate costume installations and cooking performance works. Through these mediums she emphasises issues of cultural difference and racial diversity in the context of what she sees as a waning tolerance for multi-ethnic and multi-religious societies. ‘Hi Inlander (Hello Native)’ and ‘I Fry You I & II’ are among her most recognised installation/performance works, in which the artist asks members of her audience to cook and eat the cuisines of different cultures as well as to garb themselves in the cloaks that the artist has fashioned from various animal skins such as frog, fish, kangaroo and chicken. At the same time as these veils mask the racial background of the wearer, they are also encouraged to experience ‘another skin’.

The artist has said, “I really wanted to create a work which could open up discussions between different kinds of people and to get people interested in different cultures, different religions and so on.”  Jaarsma will extend this series of work in Witnessing to Silence: Art and Human Rights creating new cloaks using seaweed, squid, seahorses and medicinal plants to comment on hunting, killing, feeding and healing.