Theresia Sitompul

Artist Bio

Theresia Agustina Sitompul was born in 1981. She lives and works in Yogyakarta and completed her BA and Postgraduate degree in Printmaking at the Indonesian Institute of Art. She is a co-founder and the only female member of Grafis Minggiran, a printmaking collective established in 2001. She is a printmaking lecturer at the Indonesian Institute of Art, Surakarta. Tere explores the nature of human agency within increasingly complex socio-cultural interactions. Between concepts of maternity and religious or cultural forces. Tere asks to what extent are the decisions we make for our children with intentions of good parenting justified? The mother is central in teaching her children spiritual values and moral codes. In her recent work Tere discusses the nature of this relationship and the idea of child sacrifice as a means to admission into heaven, highlighting a paradox within the imagined role of motherhood as a model of spirituality

Tere participated in ArtJog in 2014, 2016 and 2018 after winning an ArtJog Young Artist Award in 2013. In the same year Tere was a Sovereign asian Art Prize finalist. Her work has been exhibited in Asian Art Prize finalist. Her work has been exhibited in Art Jakarta since 2011, and in 2018 she was one of 10 prominent artists included in Art Jakarta’s 10 year anniversary presentation.

Holopsis kuntul baris

This work has the theme of “Holopis Kuntul Baris”, a popular wish or hope in javanese. The word “Holopis Kuntul” means the common interest and being cooperative despite differences in religion, race, social status. The concept of “gotong royong”, meaning lifting weights on one’s shoulders together is highly relevant to this theme. Kuntul, on the other hand, is a type of bird that always flies with its flocks, flying together to the same direction as well as flying rhythms. This bird and it’s traits symbolises us all who are progressively overcoming problems that rose from this pandemic. As time goes by, a lot of initiatives are seen along with issues such as food scarcity, etc. “Holopis Kuntul Baris” is a piece that expresses the need for us to unite and together overcome the problems risen from the pandemic.

SELECTED WORKS

Featured