KADIST is a non-profit contemporary art organization that exhibits works that affirms contemporary art’s role within social discourse, and facilitates new connections across cultures. A Woman You Thought You Knew brings together works from the KADIST collection that explore world-building as a means to resist, transform, and anchor historical junctures into the contemporary.
"In Timur Merah Project II; The Harbor of Restless Spirit (2019), Citra Sasmita subverts the stories and myths of Hindu-Javanese epics where she replaces the princes, kings, warriors, and other male heroes of Sanskrit epics with the figure of a woman to destabilize the male gaze of the female body–as passive, ornamental, or sexual. Sasmita references the style of traditional Balinese Kamasan paintings, a craft where women were designated to subsidiary roles, and thus written out of national art historical canons. Painted on a stretched cowhide and anchored to a pool of pungent turmeric—an herb known for healing and vitality, Sasmita endows her female protagonists with powerful agency. The work challenges the patriarchal nature of society and rebukes the pervasive sexual and social inequality ingrained in art history. "
Exhibiting artists are Chitra Ganesh, Liz Hernández, Lotus L. Kang, Candice Lin, Helina Metaferia, Citra Sasmita, Kelly Sinnapah Mary, Sin Wai Kin, and Tomoko Yoneda
From 11 April – 3 August 2024
