Reflections on Art et al. X Ketemu
We asked everyone involved with Art et al. X Ketemu over the last 18 months to reflect on their experiences in a way that was suited to them and their ways of working and thinking. This has led to a series of different responses that we have captured across this page, including through creative responses, videos and written quotes. We have also produced a printed book that features a window into all the collaborations, as well as images. Thank you to everyone that has been involved in this project and enjoy witnessing their reflections. Please visit the Art et al. X Ketemu page through the button below to see each individual project.
Reflections from Curating Collections
A photograph of artist Sally Hirst looking out of a window
“It felt like going on a magical holiday to Bali every week. It was nice to learn about the culture in an accessible way, by using a variety of artworks.”
— Sally Hirst – Curating Collections British participant who worked with Mia Tjahjadi’s family art collection in Indonesia.
RIA’s mission centres collaboration throughout our activities, from exhibition-making to commissioning performance art with partners and in the way we run our artist residency programme. Listening to and working closely with others can both open up and challenge our thoughts and feelings about a subject, work of art or way of working. A collaboration is, in this sense, always an opportunity to think with someone else and so have the opportunity to think more expansively. Butong emphasized at the beginning of the process that he came from a background of activism and community-centred art practices, with a particular focus on disability justice. Working in Indonesia, he talked of both the pleasures and challenges of negotiating a field of contemporary art that, for him, was inextricably tied with a political, personal project of advancing social justice in his home country. It is partly for these reasons that we looked at works from the David and Indrė Roberts Collection that reflected on and expressed the multifaceted ways in which the body (or perhaps more accurately our ‘mind-bodies’ to use a term from the American disability activist, educator and poet, Eli Clare) is experienced, thought about, represented, celebrated or controlled.
Butong’s focus on the social and political impact of art offered perspectives that enriched the selection of works I had picked out in discussion with him. His perspective compelled me to think about how works, made in one context, could resonate with a particular poetic, personal and political force with someone in quite a different one. This isn’t to make a case for the generalised platitudes of the universality of the arts or for issues of relevance. But it is to underscore how collaborations like this do show how certain works of art have a generative openness to them, apertures for feeling and thinking that compel us – whomever we may be and wherever we may be from -- to ask questions, of ourselves and others and so bring us closer to something which we may at first have thought might have nothing to do with us. It is this quality of interest (what is this thing saying to me? How can I approach it?) that can be the starting point for thinking differently. For me personally, disability justice is at the heart of my life, and listening to Butong underscored both a shared project of advancing a world where connection and interdependence are shown to be the core elements of a flourishing life and society, and also how we must listen carefully to each of our own particular experiences and how they are expressed, whether in words or activism or artworks.
As much as seeing works and people in person is really what makes any curatorial project special, an online collaboration did make possible a connection that might never have happened and which also had a significantly smaller ecological impact. Many disabled artists have used online collaborations and projects creatively and only really since the pandemic has this become more widespread. In this respect, it underscored for me how curating is an ever-evolving process that can use resources at our disposal inventively and carefully. Working with the translator Sidhi, also emphasized the importance of slowing down and reaching for a way of speaking that is clear, precise and considered, while also honouring how complex and elusive a work of art might be.
— Curator Yates Norton of the Roberts Institute of Art - Curating Collections British participant who worked with Indonesian based artist and activist Butong
Reflections from Peer to Peer Collaborations
Indonesian artist Winda Karunadhita and Australian artist Mawarini took part in a Peer to Peer collaboration and made a short video about what they had been up to. Click the video above to watch it, and you can make it full screen if needed. Winda said of the experience “I like that this collaboration encouraged me to do things that are new for me. I feel very free to explore my own ideas, and I have made a new friend in my life”. Mawarini said “Hopefully, the audience can see our friendship through our artwork, regardless of our cultural background. We laugh, share, get inspired, create, and enjoy the art journey together”.
British artist Chris Angell, who attends Barrington Farm Art Studios, wanted to reflect on his experience by creating a new artwork, which turned into two artworks! When Barrington Farm curator Sarah Ballard asked Chris on his reflections on his Peer to Peer collaboration with Indonesian artist Budi, he said the following:
“The more I do the work the more I am inspired. This project has given me a chance. I love comments and praise and people seeing my work. I always stop and think for thirty minutes before I start my work.”
About Splitting Image (below left) – “This picture is everything that I’ve admired in my life. It is an abstract of all the pictures Budi made. The main face is Nature, with Budi’s beard and moustache, and split in between them is (another face showing) Budi’s culture. Growing out the head is a twig with faces on, (like the one in Budi’s acetate). There is also a Leprechaun’s hat for good luck. The fish next to the face is based on Jaws the shark with it’s mouth open, but I turned it into a swordfish. There is also a lion, a rose and a mermaid. At the bottom is a castle from the song ‘Castles in the Air’ by The Spinners. It’s about getting on with your life and finding your destiny.”
About Shelter From Harm (below right) – “This work has alligators and crocodiles and things from Budi’s country. At the top is a snake curled up ready to attack. It has a cobra’s head and a rattlesnake’s rattle on the tail. There is also a serval cat, a scorpion, a wasp, a vulture, cattle and a black widow spider. They shelter me from harm and give me a calmness. I know what I have to look out for.”
Chris Angell, Shelter from Harm, 2023, Pen on canvas, 41 x 51cm
Chris Angell, Splitting Image, 2023, Pen on canvas, 41 x 51cm
A photograph of Christian Newby at a cafe.
I think, considering our geographical limitations, it was more about trust than engaging in a different mindset. We’re both quite happy riffing, flowing off of reference materials or other people or whatever. Once we established this, we were able to just do what we do with the expectation that the other would enhance, mutate, or in some cases, totally neutralize some of the drawings you sent them. And for me, those more extreme changes or edits are some of my favorite moments within the exchange.
I think it reinvigorated my love of drawing. Long overdue. It reminded me that the particular mode of thinking that takes place when drawing is something I can’t access in any other context, except for maybe playing music. Additionally, I’ve recently moved to Vancouver where I don’t know anyone, and working with Karin reminds me that collaboration with friends and colleagues, or even strangers, in the UK or elsewhere in the world is still very much available. These aren’t exactly revelations but solid reminders of ways in which to maintain a meaningful everyday artistic practice.
— Christian Newby – Peer/Peer Collaboration British participant who worked with Indonesian artist Karin Josephine
Art Project Australia artist Paul Hodges and Indonesian artist Mutia Bunga took part in a Peer to Peer collaboration and Art et al. made this short video taken from their final Zoom meeting where they reflected on the collaboration. Click the video above to watch it, and you can make it full-screen if needed. Paul said of the experience “Yeah, I like Mutia’s way of working and it’s inspired me to try different things. Yeah, different techniques and ways to work”. Mutia said, “Yeah, it was really fun and I think I want to collaborate and explore many techniques in my next artworks”.
Reflections from Curatorial Mentoring Collaborations
British artist Toyin Olubamiwo took part in Curatorial Mentoring sessions with Indonesian Curator Ignatia Nilu. Toyin reflected on her experience through a conversation with studio co-Director Madeline Alterman, which we have shared below. Toyin’s art studio, Artbox London, are keen for her to curate an exhibition in their spaces, based on the learnings from this project too.
“I want for other people to see this kind of art and for it to be given attention.” – Toyin, 2023
Toyin standing by her work at an art fair in 2023
For Toyin, working with Nilu on the project was a great experience, that allowed her to create in different ways to her usual artistic practice. She enjoyed getting to speak about her practice with Nilu and the other artists: sharing facts about artists that inspire her, including Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso and Jean-Michel Basquiat. The project allowed her to share about working as an artist with learning disabilities, and to meet others working in similar and differing contexts.
On choosing sketchbooks as the medium through which to exhibit the artists’ practices, Toyin noted, “I like to see the documentation of the artists and how it relates to my own.” She particularly prizes sketchbooks for how they record the artists’ lives. When asked about the questions she posed to artists, naming and dating works came up as something she saw as particularly important. In her own words, “It’s really important to put your name on your artwork – don’t let anyone steal your ideas.” Creating works inspired by cartoons and comics allows Toyin and other artists to weave their individual childhood memories into their work, making the art entirely their own. To summarise, a key part of the project for Toyin was the creation of artistic legacies.
Curating was not a familiar process for Toyin, and she found it challenging at times as she thought the works of all the artists were phenomenal and wished she could have selected them all. If she could give advice to the other artists, it would be to find something that inspires and interest them, like comics and cartoons are for her. – Madeline Alterman sharing Toyin’s reflections following a conversation in June 2023. Madeline is the co-Director of Artbox London Studios that Toyin attends
A photograph of Matt Burrows standing outside of a building
I loved exploring the complex layers of (science) fiction, identity, re-appropriation and cultural mash-up that Lala explores in her practice. It gave me fresh eyes to look at the stories artists tell us and made me think hard about what my goals as a curator are. It has led me to reconsider what making art can mean for artists and how they process and interact with the world and I left the collaboration with a far deeper understanding of autism and working with neurodiverse artists.
Working with Lala and with the Art et al team. really opened my eyes to some of my own, and the wider artworld’s baked-in prejudices in who we work with. It came at a time where long-overdue questions are being asked of us, all across society, and experiencing the wealth of opportunity and value to be realised by working with neurodiverse artists is something that is already helping my own practice to grow.