Melati Suryodarmo
Faust 4, 2018
Charcoal powder rubbed into STPI handmade cotton paper
39 x 49 cm
'The first exhibition dedicated to Melati Suryodarmo’s print and paper works, Memento Mori, opened at STPI Gallery on Sunday, 24 November. The exhibition brought together 70 unique works and 30...
"The first exhibition dedicated to Melati Suryodarmo’s print and paper works, Memento Mori, opened at STPI Gallery on Sunday, 24 November. The exhibition brought together 70 unique works and 30 editioned works created during the artist’s STPI residencies in 2018 and 2019.
Best known for her performance art, Suryodarmo explores printmaking and papermaking as new mediums within her practice. Memento Mori centres on abandoned spaces and the forgotten memories they hold, drawing from her personal experience of homes she once lived in being demolished or repurposed, as well as abandoned sites in Singapore and their histories, identities and relationships.
The exhibition features screenprints, collagraphs, charcoal rubbings, paper pulp paintings and paper casts.
Screenprints and Collagraphs
These works focus on abandoned homes as witnesses to neglected histories. Screenprints depict imagined architectural interiors, infused with the artist’s interventions to suggest the energies that remain within these spaces. Collagraphs reinterpret these images, with Suryodarmo represented by a single square of black fur-like material, conveying her sense of alienation. A thin red rope further references this recurring theme in her practice.
Charcoal Rubbings
Created by applying charcoal by hand onto wet paper pulp, these works retain the elements of chance and the body found in Suryodarmo’s performance practice. Charcoal becomes a symbol of the life cycle—an energy that burns brightly before fading—and continues her exploration of generation, regeneration, birth and rebirth, previously explored in I’m a Ghost in My Own House (2012).
Works on Paper
Paper becomes a medium through which Suryodarmo explores the subjective and objective nature of memory. Inspired by moss growing on abandoned architecture as a “silent witness of time,” her paper pulp paintings recreate its texture while reflecting cycles of growth, life and destruction.
Two series of paper casts further explore how memories develop over time. Large architectural casts objectively capture surfaces and patterns, described as “casting a memory.” Smaller casts incorporate mulberry fibre, reflecting how memories are gradually altered—amalgamated, augmented or truncated—and shaped by emotions such as love, longing and desire."
Best known for her performance art, Suryodarmo explores printmaking and papermaking as new mediums within her practice. Memento Mori centres on abandoned spaces and the forgotten memories they hold, drawing from her personal experience of homes she once lived in being demolished or repurposed, as well as abandoned sites in Singapore and their histories, identities and relationships.
The exhibition features screenprints, collagraphs, charcoal rubbings, paper pulp paintings and paper casts.
Screenprints and Collagraphs
These works focus on abandoned homes as witnesses to neglected histories. Screenprints depict imagined architectural interiors, infused with the artist’s interventions to suggest the energies that remain within these spaces. Collagraphs reinterpret these images, with Suryodarmo represented by a single square of black fur-like material, conveying her sense of alienation. A thin red rope further references this recurring theme in her practice.
Charcoal Rubbings
Created by applying charcoal by hand onto wet paper pulp, these works retain the elements of chance and the body found in Suryodarmo’s performance practice. Charcoal becomes a symbol of the life cycle—an energy that burns brightly before fading—and continues her exploration of generation, regeneration, birth and rebirth, previously explored in I’m a Ghost in My Own House (2012).
Works on Paper
Paper becomes a medium through which Suryodarmo explores the subjective and objective nature of memory. Inspired by moss growing on abandoned architecture as a “silent witness of time,” her paper pulp paintings recreate its texture while reflecting cycles of growth, life and destruction.
Two series of paper casts further explore how memories develop over time. Large architectural casts objectively capture surfaces and patterns, described as “casting a memory.” Smaller casts incorporate mulberry fibre, reflecting how memories are gradually altered—amalgamated, augmented or truncated—and shaped by emotions such as love, longing and desire."
