SALIMAH

Solo Exhibition - 5 January – 10 February, 2019
REDBASE Foundation Indonesia


SALIMAH is a series of work inspired by Intan Paramadhita’s storiette, entitled Goyang Penasaran (Curious Wiggle) and included in a book Kumpulan Budak Setan (Devil’s Slave), 2010. Goyang Penasaran took Salimah as a main role in the story, a dangdut singer who faced a negative stigma within the religious society for being a dangdut singer. Dangdut is a genre of Indonesian folk and traditional popular music that is partly derived from Hindustani, Malay, and Arabic music, and for koplo-dangdut female singer oven shows erotic dance in a sexy outfit.

These 20 panels of drawing were made in 2015-2016. 14 panels of the works are depicting the storiette's narration about Salimah, and the rest 6 panels are depicting the artist's personal experiences which she thinks is quite analogical to Salimah's story: if Salimah faced stigma for being a dangdut singer, Ipeh got the stigma for choosing to be an artist; if Salimah was censured for showing erotic dance and for not wearing hijab, she was criticized for depicting critical and vulgar visualization on her works and also for not wearing hijab; if Salimah was ridiculed for wearing hijab, and so was Ipeh. Religion, stigma, profession, art, censure, critique and hijab, are what make Ipeh thinks that Salimah’s story in a subtle way reflecting her personal life. For her Salimah story seems to be a fictional portrait of her life.