Nadiah Bamadhaj: The Submissive Feminist by A+ WORKS of ART

5 — 26 June 2021 at Kiniko Art, Yogyakarta, Indonesia Presented by Kiniko Art Management and A+ Works of Art

The Submissive Feminist exhibition came out of a period of recalibration in my life and career. I had spent the last ten years working predominantly in a commercial art context — half of my career thus far! — because I believed that that situation was the only way to take care for and support my family. But I realised, at the end of that period, that, in some ways, I had created more harm than good: to the development of my practice, to the framing of my career, and fundamentally to myself as a person. Philosophically, the experience of my realisation was akin to finally recognising that life is not made of categorical blacks and whites — that hard work is not always rewarded, good intentions aren’t always recognised, justice isn’t always served, and things don’t always work out in the end. Rather, life is more often than not, a struggle to navigate the grey areas that are constantly presented to you. The title The Submissive Feminist suggests an attempt to analyse and reflect on my own role during this period. As someone who has spent her entire thinking life believing in the fundamental equality of women to men — indeed that belief has underpinned my art practice — I found that ironically, I had become submissive to other people’s expectations of my practice. The recalibration that is represented in this exhibition is not only theoretical but physical. I attempt to reclaim not only my feminism but also the manifestation of it in form. I had often been told that the work I wanted to create was “unsaleable”, that is, installations of unframed drawings made specifically in response to a particular space. Perhaps it’s not too much to say it’s a feminist act to make something that fulfills one’s full potential as an artist. The exhibition borrows heavily from the iconography within my immediate environment of Yogyakarta. But that iconography is also reclaimed to manifest metaphors of

my own personal experience. Batik, keris, wayang, and antiques, each with their own rich and labyrinthine Javanese histories, are re-used and re-represented to tell a story of my silence, my burden, the threat to my dependents, and my isolation — the fall down and the getting back up. I’d like to conclude by highlighting the speed with which I could reclaim my instinctual process of working, despite a ten-year hiatus. I am glad to report that submissiveness need not always be a permanent condition, especially when one can find the mental and emotional space to analyse and reflect on the situation clearly. Submissiveness drops as fast as a heavy cloak once one finally stands upright.

Nadiah Bamadhaj April 2021

Exhibition view — The Submissive Feminist (2021), and Empathy and Narcissism (2021).

Empathy and Narcissism 2021 Charcoal on paper collage with aluminium and plywood backing 124 × 88 × 15 cm

The Submissive Feminist 2021 Charcoal on paper collage with aluminium and plywood backing 790 × 340 × 15 cm

The Submissive Feminist – Part 1 2021 Charcoal on paper collage with aluminium and plywood backing 208 × 132 × 10 cm

The Submissive Feminist – Part 2 2021 Charcoal on paper collage with aluminium and plywood backing 137 × 66 × 12 cm

The Submissive Feminist – Part 3 2021 Charcoal on paper collage with aluminium and plywood backing 107 × 89 × 15 cm

The Submissive Feminist – Part 4 2021 Charcoal on paper collage with aluminium and plywood backing 165 × 99 × 12 cm

The Submissive Feminist – Part 5 2021 Charcoal on paper collage with aluminium and plywood backing 1309 × 62 × 10 cm

“The story of my silence is deafening — in scale and form” Lee Weng Choy in conversation with Nadiah Bamadhaj about The Submissive Feminist

Nadiah, I have really enjoyed speaking with you about this project over these last months. But I have a confession. I’m very sad that I won’t be able to fly from Kuala Lumpur to Yogyakarta to see the exhibition. You know, pandemic … WENG CHOY

For this exchange, I thought we could start with you giving me — and our readers — something like a gallery tour. You conceived the work precisely in terms of an installation specific to the gallery space. And, as of this moment of our writing to each other, the exhibition is in the process of being installed. Before you answer, let me also outline my plan for our entire exchange. I’d like to speak with you about two interwoven sets of experiences. The experiences of the work in the gallery space, and the experiences that are behind the work.

When it comes to experiencing your work, in general, I think being physically together with it is essential. Living during a pandemic, we’ve had to do so much — perhaps too much — of our interactions online, through a screen. When I say “being with the work”, I mean that one encounters and engages with your work with more than just one’s eyes — your work speaks to one’s whole body, all one’s senses. But even if we were to limit the contact to our eyes, I think when we see things in person — and your work is so much about being in space — we see so much more than when we look at screens. Screen-seeing and space-seeing are profoundly different; your work is very much about space-seeing and space-being.

I really wish you could be here Weng. Though I’m collaborating with two galleries on this project, Kiniko Art Management (Yogyakarta) and A+ Works of Art (Kuala Lumpur), I’m very sad the hard-working team from the latter cannot be here. I was first offered to show in the space by Jumaldi Alfi, a co-owner of Kiniko Art Management. I remember the sensation of him offering me the space and setting no guidelines for what I should do. I hugged the main wall where in the main installation sits now, and said to Alfi, “Saya nggak takut ruang besar.” (I’m not afraid of big spaces.) It was liberating. NADIAH

I set about designing a work — a work about something I was going through at that point in time — for that main 8 × 4 meter wall, and the surrounding space. The result was four works. The first a five-component drawing installation on the 8 × 4 meter main wall, and three individual works, with a size and scale to fit their allocated walls. Upon entering the space, you will see Empathy and Narcissism in front of you. This work is like an introduction to my situation last year, with me — fractured and broken, tied to those binary elements described in the title of the work. As you move into the space, in front of you is the main installation, The Submissive Feminist. This five-component work tells a story of my situation last year. The centrepiece is a set of closed lips held up by a holder for wayang figures. The centre-piece connotes my overall silence, the submissiveness I experienced and finally recognised as something that had to end. The bottom left component is also me, carrying a burden, using a cloth with the Yogyakartan parang rusak batik motif. This motif is traditionally used by royalty, and by borrowing this motif I wanted to say that my burden, is royal — to me, at least. On the top right is a drawing of a closed antique almari (cabinet), also Yogyakarta specific. The cabinet is lined

with mesh, something you can breathe through but cannot get out of. It is decorative and ornate. I think of this object as where I used to live, like in a gilded cage but in a state of isolation. The top left comb-like drawing is emblematic of all the monsters I have met in my life — the perfectfeatured groomers — that have taken advantage of me in one way or another over the years — and with my allowing this to happen, I must add. The last and bottom right component is the keris without a hulu (hilt), or in a more traditional interpretation, a weapon without a soul, that is pointed towards me carrying my “royal” burden. It is a threat, which I then felt was real. The last two works I feel present a thematic evolution from the main installation. On the left of the installation is the comparably slight work Patrem. Patrem is a name for a keris specifically designed for women from Yogyakarta. Coming from Malaysia where the keris is highly masculine, and emblematic of contemporary conflict, I was nervous going down this road with the keris forms in the show. But I realised in Yogyakarta, there was space for me as a woman, to use this form, in the patrem keris. As an evolution from the story of the main work, Patrem depicts my portrait in the hilt of the keris, bowed and submissive, like in the title of the show. But the keris upon which I sit is sharp and unsheathed, like the feminist I am. The juxtaposition is evident I think in the combination of submissiveness and force.

From the main multi-component work, you turn 180 degrees clockwise. There sits the final work, Kain Adalah Doa. I had wrangled with many a batik motif to come to this piece. I had researched all manner of fruits and birds at Yogyakarta’s Museum Batik, and finally cornered the ex-curator of that museum in an interview. “What batik motif expresses this?”, I insisted after a lengthy discussion. He looked at me resigned and said, “Ibu Nadiah, kain adalah doa,” (batik is hope), and then continued to tell me that as an expression of my own

hopes, I should be designing my own motifs to tell my own story. I was stunned at this, thinking I had to adhere to traditional batik forms and all their loaded meanings. “No,” he replied, you are free to design your own motifs, which he added was a freedom specific to Yogyakarta, compared to other cities in Java. So, what is it that have I always hoped for in all these years and never achieved — my own home. The motif I finally settled on for Kain Adalah Doa was a hand-drawn image of a traditional Javanese house, a limasan. The limasan motif batik wraps my self-portrait, facing away — looking forwards and not back. In the far corner of the space — almost hiding — is a work I made last year at the emotional height of my worries. The work is called The Unlearning. Compared to the rest of the show it is a frontal portrait, with a snake form enveloping my head. This work was made before The Submissive Feminist, and can be described as a catalyst to it — but is far more raw and emotional compared to the rest of the show. It is for this reason, it lives in an almost concealed corner of the Kiniko space. Medusa has been a repeating icon in my work for the last decade. However, this work conceals the snake head, but portrays its body as a massive weight upon the head of the portrait. The title, The Unlearning, is a description of me, unlearning how to be a submissive feminist. That encapsulates the show that we’ve been talking about all these months I asked you to give us a sense of what it’s like to experience the work, but you’ve also talked about, what I referred to earlier, as experiences behind the work. Let me pursue this double-sided enquiry by asking about “scale”. By this I mean something different from “size”. Scale is always about a relation to a specific world. About how one fits into this particular local WENG CHOY

environment. There are variations of scale and proportion in the entire show, but also, what the entire hang demands of the viewer is a sense of engagement with the scale of the works, and the viewer’s own body/person in relation to these works. We tend to think of “scale” in this physical dimension, but when I think of “fitting in”, scale suggests more than just a comparison of physical objects, but a feeling of fitting in. How one feels about a space, and environment. This was a conflict I had with previous colleagues, and still today with some curators. Works should be made to fit into spaces — not created separately from spaces. I feel bereft designing a work when I don’t know where it’s going to hang or live. It’s like working in the dark. The scale, dimensions, environment, and yes, even audience, contributes to the form that the work will take. This show is designed specifically for the Kiniko space in terms of dimensions, yes. But it also takes into consideration that we are in Yogyakarta; it speaks of my relationship with the city; it is made within a very particular art community in mind; it addresses the fact that we are in a state of isolation and siege; and even refers to the all conversations I have had with the owners of the space, which have contributed to my choices in the work. All parts of the larger environment of the space contribute towards the work, and not the other way around, where I would narcissistically create space for the work regardless of its particular environment. NADIAH

Seeing a digital representation of your work is deeply unsatisfying, for starters, because one cannot appreciate being in front of it (and feeling scale), and also because one cannot appreciate your use of material, and how your works resonate with the various materials that you represent — cloth, wood, WENG CHOY

painted surface — and also how your work draws on the histories of those materials. I design an object on Photoshop, as a template of ideas. But then I build up the object with a series of textures. Those textures are created from years of manipulating paper — peeling, tearing, shading, lining, gluing, and re-shading again. It is a rigorous practice between me and the paper, and over the years I’ve built up a vocabulary of what and how I can express my ideas. Initially, I thought I could only capture skin, (in portraits), then I went further to cloth, and found I could express clothing and batik. Then I found I could render objects, cabinets, shacks and huts. As the years went by I built up a sound stock of what I could do. New to me in this show is the keris. I have never drawn this form before, and my assistant was quick to point out that the textures in the larger form look like the Nusantara islands. Though that was not my intention, I like this new play. It is a new addition to my repertoire of textures. NADIAH

Let’s talk about the composition, or the arrangement of the works, not just the combination piece on the one wall, but the way the other walls relate to that centre-piece. Sure, I imagine that one can approach the show by looking at the individual pieces, but I also imagine that it’s hard to look at any one piece without keeping in mind how it’s in tension these with the others. And I would suggest that by attending closely to the specifics of scale, material and composition in the whole exhibition, one arrives at a deeper engagement and appreciation of these themes of visibility/invisibility and silence/voice in the installation. WENG CHOY

The most obviously “composed” piece is the main work, The Submissive Feminist, but, in fact, the entire NADIAH

exhibition is highly composed. By that I mean I spent weeks designing all the parts in relation to each other, both thematically and aesthetically. I suppose your question really is how. All parts have an individual story, but together they tell one complete story. And they must all work together aesthetically. I guess I don’t know how to describe the process, except to say that it took weeks of doing and redoing and redoing on my computer until all the parts fit as a whole — to my eye. There is no describable external standard which I adhere to. Although when I’m working, I can hear are my old art school lecturers in my head, “Parts to the whole Bamadhaj, parts to the whole.” I was brought up at art school as a sculptor — not so much to deal with objects, but primarily to deal with space. I was taught the spaces in between a work are as important as the work itself, not only within installations, but entire shows. The story of my silence is deafening — in scale and form. The story of my isolation is one shared within a close community, which I am happy to live in. And there, there is a safe space to talk about vulnerabilities and feeling threatened. But I’m happy to say there is irony in this show, because where would we be without irony.

Lee Weng Choy is a part-time consultant with A+ Works of Art, Kuala Lumpur. He is also the president of the Singapore Section of the International Association of Art Critics, and has done project work with several organisations, including ILHAM Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, the NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore, National Gallery Singapore, and Factory Contemporary Arts Centre, Ho Chi Minh City. Previously,` Weng Choy was Artistic Co-Director of The Substation, Singapore, and he has taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and the Sotheby’s Institute of Art — Singapore. He writes on contemporary art and culture in Southeast Asia, and his essays have appeared in journals such as Afterall, and anthologies such as Modern and Contemporary Southeast Asian Art, Over Here: International Perspectives on Art and Culture, and Theory in Contemporary Art since 1985. He writes the “Ask a Critic” column for pluralartmag.com

Exhibition view — Patrem (2021), and The Submissive Feminist (2021).

Patrem 2021 Charcoal on paper collage with aluminium and plywood backing 211 × 51 × 10 cm

Exhibition view — Kain Adalah Doa (2021), The Unlearning (2020), and Patrem (2021).

Kain Adalah Doa Charcoal on paper collage and laser cut paper with aluminium and plywood backing 259 × 105 × 15 cm

Exhibition view — The Unlearning (2021)

The Unlearning 2020 Charcoal on paper collage with aluminium and plywood backing 141 × 123 × 5 cm

Biodata

Nadiah Bamadhaj (born 1968, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia) resides permanently in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Trained as a sculptor in New Zealand at the Canterbury School of Fine Arts, she creates collaged drawings of a specific technique developed over many years. Her repertoire also includes sculpture, sitespecific installation, digital video and print. She has lectured in Fine Arts in Kuala Lumpur, written several articles and publications on human rights in Malaysia and Indonesia, received two grants from the Nippon Foundation’s Asian Public Intellectual Fellowship in 2002 and 2004, and is currently on the board of Yayasan Kebaya, a HIV/AIDS homeless shelter in Yogyakarta. In 2019, a survey book of 18-years of her artwork ‘Nadiah Bamadhaj’ was published by Italian-based SKIRA, and she was recently featured in ‘Vitamin D3: Today’s Best in Contemporary Drawing’ published by London-based PHAIDON. Her artwork currently focuses on the social intricacies of life within Indonesian society, using figure, flora and fauna, batik motif, mythology, and architecture to articulate her observations. Education 1993– Bachelor of Fine 1989 Arts, Sculpture and Sociology Canterbury University, Christchurch, New Zealand.

Awards 2004– Asian Public 2002 Intellectual Fellowship and Follow-Up Grant, funded by the Nippon Foundation, administered by the Institute of Malaysian and International Studies (IKMAS), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. 2001 Juror’s Choice, Philip Morris Malaysia Art Awards. 2001– Artist-in-Residence, 2000 Rimbun Dahan, Artist Residency Program, Kuang, Malaysia.

Solo Exhibitions 2021 The Submissive Feminist, Kiniko Art, Yogyakarta, Indonesia. 2020 Ravaged, Richard Koh Fine Art, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Dreaming Desire, Richard Koh Fine Art, Singapore. 2019 Lush Fixations, Richard Koh Fine Art, Singapore. 2018 Ravaged, Chambers Fine Art, New York, USA. 2016 Descent, Richard Koh Fine Art, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 2014 Poised for Degradation, Richard Koh Fine Art, Singapore. 2012 Keseragaman, Richard Koh Fine Art, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 2008 Surveillance, Valentine Willie Fine Art, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Biennales & Group Exhibitions 2021 hyper-horizon, S.E.A FOCUS, Artspace@ HeluTrans, Singapore. 2020 ARTJOG Resilience, Jogja Nasional Museum, Yogyakarta, Indonesia. 2019 The Body Politic and the Body, ILHAM X SAM Project, ILHAM Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Aura, Art Collection Reflection, Galeri Petronas, Malaysia. ART-staged: No Booth, Richard Koh Fine Art, Singapore. Of Dreams and Contemplation: Selections from the Collection of Richard Koh, The Private Museum, Singapore. Taipei Dangdai, Richard Koh Fine Art, Taipei, Taiwan.

2016 Incomplete Urbanism: Attempts of Spatial Critical Practice, NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore, Gillman Barracks, Singapore. Encounter: Art from Different Lands, Southeast Asia Plus Triennale 2016, National Gallery of Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia. Crossing: Pushing Boundaries, Galeri Petronas, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 2015 Art of ASEAN, Bank Negara Museum and Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. A Luxury We Cannot Afford, Para Site, Hong Kong.

2014 Medium at Large, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore.

2004 enamlima sekarang (sixtyfive now), Galeri Lontar, Komunitas Utan Kayu, Jakarta, Indonesia. 2003 enamlima sekarang (sixtyfive now), Benteng Vredeburg Museum, Yogyakarta, Indonesia. 2001 1965 – Rebuilding Its Monuments, Galeri Petronas, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

2018 Contemporary Chaos, Vestfossen Kunstlaboratorium, Norway. Art Central Hong Kong, Richard Koh Fine Art, Hong Kong. ART STAGE Singapore, Richard Koh Fine Art, Singapore.

I am Ten, Richard Koh Fine Art, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

TART, Saatchi Gallery, S London, UK

2013 Parallax: ASEAN, Changing Landscapes, Wandering Stars, ASEAN-Korea Contemporary Media Art Exhibition, ASEAN-KOREA Centre, Seoul, South Korea.

2017 We are here, Richard Koh Fine Art, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Bersama, Muzium Dan Galeri Seni Bank Negara Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

ACAW Thinking Projects, C24 Gallery, New York, United States. Di Mana (Where Are) Young?, National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

elcome to the Jungle: W Contemporary Art in Southeast Asia from the Collection of Singapore Art Museum, Contemporary Art Museum Kumamoto (CAMK), Kumamoto, Japan.

Convergence: Cultural Legacy, Galeri Petronas, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

2011 It’s Now or Never Part II, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore.

2008 Wonder, Singapore Biennale, Singapore City Hall, Singapore.

Beyond the Self: Contemporary Portraiture from Asia, National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, Australia.

Works from Southeast Asia, Richard Koh Fine Art, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 2010 C reative Index, The Nippon Foundation’s Asian Public Intellectual Fellowship’s 10th Anniversary, Silverlens Gallery, Manila, Philippines.

Agenda Kebudayaan Gusdurisme, 100-day memorial for Abdurrahman Wahid @ Gus Dur, Langgeng Gallery, Magelang, Indonesia. Beacons of Archipelago: Contemporary Art from Southeast Asia, Arario Gallery, Seoul, South Korea.

Earth and Water: Mapping Art in Southeast Asia, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore.

Photoquai 09: 2nd Biennale Photographic Festival, musée duquai Branly, Paris, France. Cartographical Lure, Valentine Willie Fine Art, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Jakarta Biennale XII: Fluid Zone, Galeri Nasional, Jakarta, Indonesia.

Littoral Drift, UTS Gallery, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia.

Code Share: 5 continents, 10 biennales, 20 artists, Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius, Lithuania.

he Scale of Black, T Contemporary Drawings from Southeast Asia, HT Contemporary Space, Singapore.

2007 Out of the Mould: The Age of Reason, 10 Malaysian Women Artists, Galeri Petronas, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The War Must Go On, Clockshop Billboard Series, corner of Fairfax and Wilshire, Los Angeles, USA. TV-TV, Week 34, Video Art Festival, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Building Conversations: Nadiah Bamadhaj and Michael Lee, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore.

igned and Dated, Valentine S Willie Fine Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

olding Up Half the Sky by H Women Artists, National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Photofolio, Jogja Gallery, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

Fetish: Object Art Project #1, Biasa Artspace, Denpasar, Indonesia.

Selamat Datang ke (Welcome to) Malaysia: An exhibition of contemporary art from Malaysia, Gallery 4A, Sydney, Australia

Processing the City: Art on Architecture, The Annex Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

2009 Jogja Jamming: Jogja Biennale X, Taman Budaya Yogyayakarta, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

ast-South, Out of Sight, E South and Southeast Asia Still and Moving Images, Tea Pavilion, Guangzhou Triennale, China.

2006 Fast Futures: Asian Video Art, The Asia Society India Centre, Little Theatre Auditorium, NCPA, Mumbai, India.

Never Mind, Video Art Exhibition, ViaVia Café, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

Rethinking Nordic Colonialism: A Postcolonial Exhibition Project in Five Acts, Act 3: Faroe Art Museum, Tórshavn, The Faroe Islands, Denmark. Biennale Jakarta 2006, Beyond the Limits and its Challenges, Galeri Lontar, Komunitas Utan Kayu, Indonesia.

Fast Futures: Asian Video Art, Asian Contemporary Art Week, Rubin Museum of Art, New York, USA.

Home Productions, Video Art Exhibition, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore.

2005 Consciousness of the Here and Now, Biennial Yogya VII 05, Kandhang Menjangan Heritage Site, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

ome Works II: A Forum H on Cultural Practices, Lebanese Association for Plastic Arts, Ashkal Alwan, Beirut, Lebanon.

147 Tahun Merdeka (147 Years of Independence), in collaboration with Tian Chua, Reka Art Space, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Urban Culture, CP Biennale, Museum of the Indonesian National Bank, Jakarta, Indonesia. you are here, Valentine Willie Fine Arts Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Gedebook, Group Fundraising Exhibition, Kedai Kebun Forum, Yogyakarta, Indonesia. 2002 Asean Art Awards, Bali International Convention Center, Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia. Touch, WWF Art For Nature Fundraising Exhibition, Rimbun Dahan Gallery, Kuang, Malaysia. Pause, Gwangju Biennale 2002, Exhibition Hall 1, Gwangju, South Korea. 2001 Philip Morris Art Awards, National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Exhibit X, Taksu Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Media in “f”, The 9th International Interdisciplinary Congress on Women, EWHA Women’s University Campus, Seoul, South Korea. 2004 Flying Circus Project: 04, Seeing with Foreign Eyes, Theatreworks, Fort Canning Park, Singapore. Batu Bata Tanah Air (Building Blocks of Homeland), a collaborative project with Tian Chua, Cemeti Art House, Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Living Art: Regional Artists Respond to HIV/AIDS, Queen’s Gallery, XV International AIDS Conference, Bangkok,Thailand. Paradise Found/ Paradise Lost, WWF Art for Nature Fundraising Exhibition, Rimbun Dahan Gallery, Kuang, Malaysia. Seriously Beautiful, Reka Art Studio, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Flashpoint, WWF Art for Nature Fundraising Exhibition, Rimbun Dahan Gallery, Kuang, Malaysia.

Exhibit A, Valentine Willie Fine Arts Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 2000 Arang, Taksu Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Art Collections National Visual Arts Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Galeri Petronas, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The Zain Azahari Collection, Galeri Z, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Khazanah Nasional Berhad, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Museum Azman, Shah Alam, Malaysia Muzium & Galeri Tuanku Fauziah, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia National Gallery, Singapore Singapore Art Museum, Singapore

Nadiah Bamadhaj, Kiniko Art Management and A + Works of Art, would like to thank the following individuals for their support and contribution to this publication and exhibition: Jumaldi Alfi Jefri Caniago SaRanG Building Lee Weng Choy Aminah Ibrahim Desri Surya Kristiani Anto Hercules Agensi 56 Arie Dyanto Lanang Pijar Lentera

Published in conjunction with The Submissive Feminist, a solo exhibition by Nadiah Bamadhaj at Kiniko Art, Yogyakarta, Indonesia from 5th to 26th June 2021.

Artist Nadiah Bamadhaj Writer Lee Weng Choy Editor Aminah Ibrahim Graphic Design Kenta.Works

Copyright © 2021 Nadiah Bamadhaj, A+ Works of Art, and Kiniko Art Management. All rights reserved. All articles and illustrations contained in this catalogue are subject to copyright law. Any use beyond the narrow limites defineded by copyright law, and without the express of the publisher, is forbidden and will be prosecuted.

IMAGES CREDITS Front cover Nadiah Bamadhaj Patrem (detail), 2021 Back Cover Nadiah Bamadhaj The Unlearning (detail), 2020 Image courtesy of the artist

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Kiniko Art Management Kalipakis Rt05/II, Tirtonirmolo, Kasihan, Bantul, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

+60 18 333 3399 info@aplusart.asia www.aplusart.asia Facebook/Instagram aplusart.asia

+62 821 3831 6270 kinikoart@gmail.com Instagram: kinikoart

A+ Works of Art is a contemporary art gallery based in Kuala Lumpur, with a geographic focus on Malaysia and Southeast Asia. Founded in 2017 by Joshua Lim, the gallery presents a wide range of contemporary practices, from painting to performance, drawing, sculpture, new media art, photography, video and installation. Its exhibitions have showcased diverse themes and approaches, including material experimentation and global conversations on social issues. Collaboration is key to the ethos of A+ Works of Art. Since its opening, the gallery has worked with artists, curators, writers, collectors, galleries and partners from within the region and beyond, and continues to look out for new collaborations. The gallery name is a play on striving for distinction but also on the idea that art is never without context and is always reaching to connect — it is always “plus” something else.

Kiniko Art is committed to be a forum for artists, both art students, young artists, and for senior artists from modern Indonesian art. This commitment is reflected in two annual programs, namely “YOUNG BLOOD” which seeks new young artists selected based on the curation of their visuals and ideas. Hopefully, this will be a new opportunity for young artists through exhibitions at Kiniko Art. In addition, Kiniko Art is also dedicated to paying homage and respecting modern era artists who have dedicated themselves to building Indonesian Fine Arts through our program called “THE MASTERS”. The vision of Kiniko Art is to become a forum for the advancement of Indonesian Fine Arts. The mission of Kiniko Art is actively initiating, curating, and educating art programs that aim to explore, study and promote Indonesian art works at home and abroad.