Meliantha Muliawan

Resin as a medium and method 
By Ho See Wah

Born in Pontianak in 1992, Indonesian artist Meliantha Muliawan is currently based in Yogyakarta. The artist graduated in 2014 from Institut Teknologi Bandung University with a major in painting, and works mainly in sculptural installations. 

Meliantha was one of the top three finalists for the Young Artist Award at ARTJOG11 (2018) and among the top 20 finalists for the REDBASE Young Artist Award 2016. She has participated in many exhibitions, from group shows such as Biennale Jogja XV ‘Do We Live in the Same Playground’ (2019) at JNM, Yogyakarta and ‘Museum of Days’ (2019) at Sullivan+Strumpf, Singapore, to solo shows such as ‘Translucent’(2017) with Redbase Foundation Residency Program, Yogakarta and ‘Mon-Fri’ (2019) at RUBANAH Underground Hub, Jakarta.

Meliantha Muliawan, ‘The Truth of Happy Ending’, 2018, ink in resin, red thread, iron. Image courtesy of the artist.

Resin features prominently in her works. It is a ‘poetic strategy in preserving, exposing and hiding’, as remarked in her biography, where the material acts as a conduit for examining the objects at hand with more subtlety. The objects themselves are vessels through which the artist explores her concerns. For instance, ‘The Truth of Happy Ending’ (2018) encases images of traditional wedding objects from the Sudanese, Javanese, Chinese and Minangkabu in resin and suspends them with red threads. Taken out of their typical contexts, the images become objects of inquiry where traditional notions of marriage and a woman’s place in society are questioned. At the same time, the artist also bring up the phenomena of intercultural marriages as a microcosm of the broader complexities of cultural relations within Indonesia itself. 

Meliantha Muliawan, ‘What Day is Today’, 2019, paper, acrylic paint, resin, and acrylic box. Image courtesy of the artist.

A more philosophical work is ‘What Day is Today’ (2019), where Meliantha paints motifs reminiscent of calendars on paper, preserves them in resin and finally, displays the final product in acrylic boxes. Showcased as such, the objects, and by extension time itself, become relic-like. We observe time not as active participants but as a detached onlooker. In this manner, the project of keeping time enacted by humankind becomes unmistakably distinct. 

Click here to read our conversation with Meliantha Muliawan, where she talks about how working in art management has helped her artistic career, her participation in a programme for young artists by Ruang Gerilya, and on the diverse art forms that her favourite space, RUBANAH, dabbles in.