Museum MACAN Announces Artist Shooshie Sulaiman’s Installation for UOB Museum MACAN Children’s Art Space Commission

(Sketches for rubber stamping activity at the upcoming UOB Museum MACAN Children’s Art Space Commission by Shooshie Sulaiman. Image courtesy of Shooshie Sulaiman)

Jakarta, 18 February 2019 – Museum MACAN announces its latest UOB Museum MACAN Children’s Art Space Commission by Malaysia-based artist Shooshie Sulaiman, one of Southeast Asia’s foremost contemporary artists. Opening to the public on 1 March 2019, Sulaiman’s installation for the Children’s Art Space focuses on natural rubber – a material that has deep historical and material significance that connects Indonesia, Malaysia and the rest of Southeast Asia.

Titled Main Getah/Rubberscape, this commission will transform the Children’s Art Space into an environment that will stimulate all the senses through form, texture and sound. It will include young rubber trees, a small hill with locally-sourced soil and pre-recorded sounds from Malaysia’s rubber plantations. The installation will be combined with educational activities for children and their parents, including a number of traditional games, including congkak (a two person mancala game traditionally popular in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and other Southeast Asian countries) and laga getah (rubber stone race), a weekly balloon making workshop with natural latex, as well as art-based activities based on specially designed rubber stamps and rubber band braiding.

This is an ambitious project that has been designed to connect children with an understanding of the heritage of Southeast Asia through play, while also considering other issues such as sustainability, science, regional history, identity and memory. It has been made possible through the establishment of a partnership between the museum and the Indonesian Rubber Research Institute (Pusat Penelitian Karet), based in Bogor. As the Official Research Partner of this project, the institute helps to source main materials used in the installation and to ensure the activities are sustainable as they are child-friendly.

Main Getah/Rubberscape presents two significant issues that are fundamental to the artist’s practice: Southeast Asian history - especially the history and significance of rubber for Southeast Asian countries including Malaysia and Indonesia, in context of the economic history of the region; and her childhood memories of exploring rubber plantations with her late father. Her works centre around the themes of identity and personal memories, expressed through a wide range of mediums. Many of her works are meant to ignite conversations about Southeast Asian history, exploring the relationship between human experience, nature and art.

Shooshie Sulaiman, the UOB Museum MACAN Children’s Art Space Commission artist, said, “Beyond my childhood memories, rubber trees are something that connect Southeast Asian countries including Malaysia and Indonesia. Through Main Getah/Rubberscape I want visitors of all ages to play, to imagine and to create beyond boundaries.”

Shooshie Sulaiman was born in Malaysia in 1973, and is an installation artist who has shown her works in some of the most important international exhibitions and art institutions including Documenta 12 (2007), Kassel, Germany; 6th Asia Pacific Triennial in Brisbane, Australia (2009); Kadist Art Foundation in Paris, France (2016); and, 10th Gwangju Biennale (2014).

Aaron Seeto, Director of Museum MACAN, said. “The UOB Children’s Art Space Commissions are created to engage children and their parents in a stimulating dialogue that connects art with their developing experience of the world. We are proud to present this new commission by Shooshie Sulaiman, who is an important figure in the contemporary art of Southeast Asia. Main Getah/Rubberscape is an immersive installation that will enable children to think deeply about rubber, which is a material that contributed to worldwide economic and technological development but is rooted in the historical experience of Indonesia and Southeast Asia. It is also with great pride that we announce our first Official Research Partnership with the Indonesian Rubber Research Institute, which has been instrumental in the development of this ambitious project.”

Kevin Lam, President Director of PT Bank UOB Indonesia, said, “The UOB Museum MACAN Children’s Art Space reinforces the Bank’s commitment to art, children and education. As a long-term supporter of the art community in Southeast Asia, we hope to encourage greater art appreciation among the community in Jakarta and more broadly across Indonesia. We are proud to be the Major Education Partner of Museum MACAN as we demonstrate our continuous support in the development of art education in Indonesia."

Aprina Murwanti, Head of Education and Public Programs of Museum MACAN said, “We are excited to share Shooshie Sulaiman’s work with the public of Indonesia. The Children’s Art Space is meant to support the educational development of young minds, and the immersive quality of Main Getah/Rubberscape does just that.”

UOB Museum MACAN Children’s Art Space Commission: Main Getah/Rubberscape will open for public on 1 March 2019. Access to the space is free with valid museum ticket. All children must be guided by adults.