Sowing the Earth

b. 1969, Indonesia; based in Germany and Indonesia

This photograph documents Melati Suryadomo's performance of Ale Lino ("sowing the earth" in old Bugis dialect) which was performed a number of times, including at "As Soon As Possible", PAC, Milan, the 50th Venice Biennale, and at the Friedericianum in Kassel in 2003. Ale Lino was created as a result of the artist's investigations into transsexual shamanic customs found in the tribal spiritualism of South Sulawesi. The artist was particularly interested in the process of gender non-identification, the obliteration of physicality, and its conventions through altered states of consciousness in these shamanic practices.