Ratu Rizkitasari Saraswati, commonly called Saras, was a graduate of Printmaking Study Program, Bandung Institute of Technology. She mostly works through the medium of performance. She participated in many art exhibitions and fairs, both in Indonesia and abroad. For instance, she took part in Exi(s)t #2: Instruksi at Dia.Lo.Gue Artspace Jakarta (2013); Manifesto No. 4: Keseharian at the National Gallery of Indonesia, Jakarta (2014); Tracing at Saigon Domaine, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (2015); and JIWA: Jakarta Biennale 2017 at the Jakarta History Museum (2017). She held her solo exhibition and performance respectively titled Optik-Optik Kecil (2019) and Laif (2013). Saras also participated in a number of residency programs, one of which is Sàn Art Laboratory Session 7 at Sàn Art, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (2015) and she will go for another residency in Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam in 2020.
She observed the spiritual experiences through the rituals of praying in specific sites done by people in order to look for an answer to one’s despair and ask for a blessing. In such an experience, human or the subject is employing a material object as the manifestation of the Divine—either as the representation of the Divine or the bridge connecting one’s self to the immaterial Divine. Most of the time, human needs a material mediator to be connected with the Divine. The reason is that human’s bodily experiences and material objects are more perceptible and real for human.
The abovementioned idea is transformed into Ratu’s work. Ratu made use of the body heat generated from the contact between human body and translucent, tanned leather made of goatskin. Following the contact, the body heat (of the artist and the participants) will be transferred to the leather. It is expected that there will be different interactions of body heat exchange among the participants.
Photo source: cnnindonesia.com
