TORONTO BIENNIAL OF ART | Citra Sasmita in 'Precarious Joys'

"The 2024 Toronto Biennial, titled Precarious Joys, explores the emotional climate of our times, acknowledging our vulnerability and grief while emphasizing the importance of passion and beauty in driving social change. The Biennial is organized around open dialogues and poetic connections. It explores artists’ responses to colonialism’s impact and the multiple ways representation contributes to collective survival and the regeneration of our social fabric.

 

The curators have been deeply immersed in dialogues and active listening, a crucial element in their curatorial journey traversing national and international landscapes, numerous artist studios, and professional art encounters in Toronto, Canada, and beyond. The 37 artists, including one collective, selected for this year’s exhibition hail from Canada and various regions of the world."

 

Citra Sasmita, Esoteric Dance, 2024. Installation view, Toronto Biennial of Art, Canada.

 

Esoteric Dance (2024) is a series of three paintings created in the Kamasan style, a centuries-old type of painting. The paintings depict female bodies in various positions, resembling mythological goddesses that challenge traditional visual representations, which have predominantly portrayed men since ancient times. Some figures emit fire, while others are shown split in two, with trees and flowers blooming from the division. Female heads sprout from the vegetation, while branches grow in all directions. The women are portrayed as part of a collective body, symbolising the strength of shared experiences while advocating for political demands.

 

Commissioned by the Toronto Biennial of Art and made possible with the generous support of the Women Leading Initiative.

 

Venue: 

 

Timur Merah Project XII: Light Speed and Revelation (2024) is a commissioned installation composed of reticulated python snakeskin, neon lamps, and paintings on traditional Kamasan canvas. It addresses the encounter and coexistence of Balinese mythology and spirituality along with Western ideas of technological advancement. For the artist, myths, as a reflection of reality, still guide humans to the true light of knowledge and have the same social relevance as the instruments used by modern science. The piece is part of Timur Merah (2019–ongoing), translated as “The East is red” in English, a long-term project that seeks to trace and reinterpret the historical narratives of Indonesia and Bali.

 

Citra Sasmita’s work is informed by her involvement in theatre and her family’s cultural background, which includes performing artists who move from village to village in Indonesia enacting Hindu ritual ceremonies. Since the beginning of her career, Citra has been interested in revisiting traditional Asian languages—such as Kamasan-style painting developed in the fifteenth century, the first paintings in Bali—to reframe traditional stories and critique the vivid legacies of patriarchy and colonialism.

 

Commissioned by the Toronto Biennial of Art and made possible with the generous support of the Women Leading Initiative.

 

Venue: 

Collision Gallery

30 Wellington Street W, Commerce Court
Toronto ON
M5L 1G4