Sinking Ricefields

Krack Studio

Year:

200 x 73 x 15 cm | pencil on paper, stone | wall installation | Yogyakarta | 2021 I have a deep connection with this work, as I created it in Indonesia during the pandemic, at a time when I felt trapped, as if I were drowning—like I had forgotten how to swim, even though my feet were still touching the ground. This feeling of stillness and submersion led me to confront my most vulnerable sides, but also to discover sources of resilience I had not known existed.

Over time, I began to see myself in the girl depicted in the work—drowned, yet alive. Each day became an act of persistence and patience. I grew hard as stone, not out of denial, but out of the need to endure.

The defining change came when I traveled to Sulawesi and heard an ancient legend about the first human in North Minahasa. They say she was born from stone, she was a woman, and her name was Karema. Her story spoke deeply to me. Stone, as an element of memory, strength, and endurance, carries the past, and even when it shatters, it is reborn from dust.

Karema became for me a symbol of feminine power—steady yet transformative, resilient yet alive. Through this work, I reflect on femininity not as something fragile, but as an inexhaustible source of wisdom, patience, and renewal. Just as Karema was born from stone, so can feminine identity arise from pain, endurance, and memory, transforming trauma into strength and silence into voice.

Within the context of HERizons, this work is an acknowledgment of the continuous transformation carried by femininity—not as a one-dimensional notion, but as a force that persists and regenerates.

2021