Pancaroba Residency – Laura Suryani Thedja
Coming from traditional oil painting, she expands the boundaries of the medium through her exploration of Indonesian batik. This time Laura plans to delve into batik techniques, particularly batik stamping. She will make her own stamps and explore the dyeing process using natural dyes.
Pancaroba Residency – Laura Suryani Thedja
Laura Suryani Thedja is a German-Indonesian artist based in Berlin. As part of the Indonesian diaspora in Germany, the search for her identity, a place in society, was always part of her everyday life. In the dichotomy between the longing to feel connected and the confrontation with “otherness,” she explores her own ways of image production, in which Indonesian batik meets Western painting. Sculptural, installative as well as painterly textile works are created, which carry elements of both Western and Asian iconography. In this context, batik is not only a technique for image production, but at the same time the subject of her artistic research and a means of postcolonial analysis. In her practice, the practical aspect of batik from a non-white perspective in the field of tension between hegemonic power asymmetries and its identity-forming power is as important as the investigation of batik as a counter-archive to classical narratives.
Coming from traditional oil painting, she expands the boundaries of the medium through her exploration of Indonesian batik. This time Laura plans to delve into batik techniques, particularly batik stamping. She will make her own stamps and explore the dyeing process using natural dyes. Laura wants to develop her visual language and expression through an intensive study of batik, Indonesian iconography and history combined with Western techniques of image production.
Laura Suryani Thedja’s Pancaroba Residency runs from early October to mid-November and is supported by Cusanuswerk.
Artist’s Biography
Laura Suryani Thedja (german-Indonesia)
Laura Suryani Thedja is a German-Indonesian artist based in Berlin. Coming from traditional oil painting, she expands the boundaries of the medium through her intensive study of Indonesian batik. Thus sculptural, installative as well as painterly textile works are created, which carry elements of western as well as Asian iconography. In this process, batik is not only a technique for image production, but at the same time the subject of her artistic research. In Thedja’s practice, the practical aspect of batik from a non-white perspective in the field of tension between hegemonic power asymmetries and its identity-forming force is just as important as the examination of batik as a counter archive to classical narratives.
From 2017 to 2022 Laura Suryani Thedja studied Fine Arts at Universität der Künste and Philosophy at Freie Universität in Berlin (GER). She participated in the BA Fine Arts Program at University Of Arts London (GBR) and completed a semester abroad at Hongik University in Seoul (KOR). In addition to numerous national and international exhibitions, she was accepted into the artist scholarship program of the Cusanuswerk e.V. (GER) in 2019. In 2021 she was awarded the Art Prize for Painting of the Schulz-Stübner Foundation (GER).
Instagram : @laauyani
Website : www.laurathedja.com