It started with a picture, defaced 100 times to show 100 years of progress of the common women’s wear in Indonesia.

The process had me questioning and thinking; from the very technical, “what could I do to draw over oil pastel?” to borderline existential about the identity of being an Indonesian woman. I am also drawn to the temporality of this process, of how every iteration only existed at that moment before I inflict more damage upon it. Each iteration exists as a photograph now, with the original lost to the process.

Tuned in to the temporary nature of trends, ancestry, and how women in Indonesian history seemed to only be able to occupy the margins of history until the late 50s, I explored photocopy as a medium of image making and reproduction. It’s cheap, it’s not precious, and to draw parallels for the sake of it: it is temporary. Nobody in history ever turned to a copy machine and thought that it would make something that would be eternal.

Drawn to its charms, I explored what it means to reproduce identity. Along the lines are attempts to occupy space as a way of reclaiming it, as well as finding like-minded people through alternative publishing. With the photocopy machine, there is power in numbers, and there are ways to navigate through gatekeepers and censorship.

Read more about my exploration here. Please use your UAL account to view.