Timur Merah Project; The Embrace of My Motherland

Citra Sasmita wants to invite us to see how hard it is for the Balinese kakawin to be treated like the Javanese canon. Even if there are canon narratives, especially the Balinese babad, it can never be separated from the canon narratives in Java. Such a canon text tends to be an “authority" text, masculine, and was written by royal people, which, in Citra's view, merely accommodates the ideas of the elite men in the palace. Kakawin originated from Bali is more fragmentary (not in the form of epic or chronicle) and was generally written by non-royal people.
The five paintings presented like an installation are made by employing Kamasan’s style and form. Kamasan painting is an old painting style applied for rituals. This kind of painting is currently marginalized and treated as a mere commodity. The narratives conveyed in Kamasan paintings commonly adopt the stories of Panji Malat, Mahabharata, or Ramayana. The texts written with turmeric powder are Citra’s own creation appropriated from several Balinese kakawin.
In her work, Citra tries to present a new context, reconstructing historical (old) narratives such as war and sexuality which are commonly found in Kamasan paintings. In Citra’s narrative, all characters occupying the center of the narration are female. Therefore, the heroic and protagonist characters that have been displayed through masculine perspectives can be redefined with different perspectives.