Citra Sasmita (Indonesia)

Chau Chak Wing Museum at the University of Sydney

Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney with generous support from the Australia-Indonesia Institute.

Citra Sasmita is a contemporary artist from Bali whose work focuses on unravelling the myths and misconceptions of Balinese art and culture. She is deeply invested in questioning a woman’s place in the social hierarchy and seeks to upend the normative construct of gender. Her whimsical compositions representing geographies of female figures and various natural elements are executed in the Kamasan Balinese painterly language that Sasmita has been developing in her practice. While rooted in mythological thinking with Hindu and Balinese-specific references, the scenes are equally part of the contemporary process of imagining a secular and empowered mythology for a post-patriarchal future.