Pupur, Dapur, Kasur

PUPUR, DAPUR, KASUR
FOTOGRAFI DAN VIDEO ART EXHIBITION

WRITER: VASILIKI RALLI
09.11 - 16.11 2012

Officiated by Titarubi

Seven Indonesian women and contemporary artists (Mita Ketawa, Yogi Antari, Ika Yulianti, Monika Hapsari, Agra Locita, Dira Herawati, dan Wahyu Utami) who are studying in the postgraduate program of Institute of Indonesian Arts (ISI) are organizing and exposing their artworks in this exhibition. The gallery where the exhibition is taking place “Kersan Art Studio”, is also owned by a woman, Mrs. Lenny Ratnasari Weichert who is often supporting Indonesian women artists to exhibit their works. Me who had the great opportunity to write for this event, I am also a woman artist from the West (Greece) and I am also studying in the same program. The title of the exhibition is “Pupur, Dapur, Kasur” which can literally be translated as “Make-up, Kitchen, Bed”.
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If someone looks at the above mentioned data automatically can think that this is a feminist exhibition so it seems essential to commentate issues such as: why this title was chosen from the exhibitors, what these women artists are thinking about feminism and how this concept is reflected on their artworks?
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“Pupur, Dapur, Kasur is a term that most Indonesian people use to describe the domestic role of a woman. Mita Ketawa and Yogi Antari  explained to me. This statement can be translated as “Make-up, Kitchen, Bed is the name for the women in Jawa and Bali”. What did they mean by using the word “name” was my next question. They answered that they meant “kodrat”, “takdir” and they added that the title describes the identity and at the same time the destiny of the Indonesian women. So what is “kodrat”? In the Indonesian-English dictionary is translated as “natural destiny” and within the Islam concept is defined as “Kodrat itu adalah gerakan atau takdir yang sudah diberikan Tuhan kepada umatnya masing-masing manusia punya kodrat” (“nature is a movement or destiny that God has given to His people and everybody has a human nature”), thus kodrat is nature in the religious sense of predestination but as a meaning is also connected with the ambiguous nature of motherhood. Actually the nature of motherhood is characterized as “ambiguous” within the Western feminist discourse and I want to clarify here that concepts such as feminism, female body, motherhood are conceived in a different way from the Indonesian women.