Indonesia | Naima Morelli

Catalogue essay for “Drawing Future” exhibition in Bali

28-02-2017

charcoal

I have contributed an essay titled “Rules, imagination, and magic powder” to the catalogue of the Drawing Future exhibition at CushCush Gallery in Bali. My words are in the very good company of texts by John Andrews, Mella Jaarsma and Natalie Sprite.

A few words on CushCush Gallery; this is an alternative platform for contemporary art and design in Denpasar. Suriawati Qiu and Jindee Chua have founded the gallery to share art and design with their local creative community, general public, as well as generate conversations with international artists and creative people.

Within the gallery many initiatives, the Charcoal For Children program is a social project that put together 6 working artists and children in 3 sessions, to create collaborative artworks together. As the name suggests, the yearly program focuses on Charcoal as the medium, to foster creativity amongst children. I have been honoured to have given my small contribution in the form of a write-up about creativity to such an exciting project!

Here’s the pdf version of the essay

Published! Interview with Jim Allen Abel on Cobo

By: Naima Morelli

12-02-2017

English, Indonesia, Interview, Published, Singapore

Jimbo

CoBo Social has published my interview with Indonesian artist and member of MES56 Jim Allen Abel, also known as Jimbo. I interviewed him in Singapore during Art Stage 2017 and he shared about his background and art practice.

Here’s the link to the piece

Published! Interview with Elizabeth Pisani on Escape

By: Naima Morelli

16-01-2017

English, Indonesia, Interview, Published

TimesMaltaElizabethPisani
As I’m running around Singapore collecting interviews, attending vernissages and getting lost in shopping malls, Escape – the Sunday magazine of the Times of Malta – has just published my interview with Elizabeth Pisani author of the travelogue “Indonesia etc.” (the Italian version was published here).

Here is the link for the interview

Published! Interview with Ari Bayuaji on CoBo

By: Naima Morelli

06-01-2017

English, Indonesia, Interview, Published

ariabajuari

First published article for 2017 – and what better way to kick off the year than an interview with Montreal-based Indonesian artist Ari Bayuaji – for the webmagazine CoBo!

Here’s the link to the interview

Published! Interview with Elizabeth Pisani on Art a Part of Culture

By: Naima Morelli

11-12-2016

English, Indonesia, Italiano, News, Published

Little post to say that Art a part of Cult(ure) – the Rome-based art web magazine I have been writing for since 2010 – has just published the Italian version of my interview with the one and only Elizabeth Pisani, badass adventurer and epidemiologist (that’s right!), trawling around Indonesia to write the tome “Indonesia Etc.” The interview happened thanks to the mediation of another wonderful kickass gal, Ilaria Benini from the publishing house ADD Editore – you might want to google her to check the work she has done in Myanmar as well.

Here is the link to the interview

Also, another set of considerations, since this morning I feel talkative. What would you do in life if you hadn’t any obligation or responsibility? This is a recurrent topic I have been discussing with my friends and my ninjas lately. In my case, I had no doubt: I would keep doing exactly what I’m doing right now; I believe that this job I have created for myself is perhaps the coolest.

The contemporary art world can be a tricky one. Sometimes it can feel like you are working for something that has no meaning and is quite superficial (this is from a chat with another contemporary art super-villain friend of mine, who is in an existential crisis right now). For me, this feeling disappears when I met people like Elizabeth Pisani, who are of course not about contemporary art, but about the taste for adventure, learning, knowledge.

Essay for the book Beyond-Borders: Art and Resilience in the Internet Era

By: Naima Morelli

08-12-2016

English, Essay, Indonesia, Italiano, Italy, News

montella

EN: Il Ramo D’Oro is a special place in Naples for artistic reflection which is truly grassroots, and for the gathering of an international art community. Upon request of Il Ramo D’Oro’s director, Vincenzo Montella, I have written an essay called “Flow and rigidity in challenging the borders” reflecting on the experience of the series of international shows Oltreconfine. This included Attualità Indonesiane which I co-curated.

The Oltreconfine book – where you can find my essay alongside the ones of authors such as Made Bayak e Judicael Ouango – is now available on Amazon.

Here the English version: Beyond-Borders: Art and Resilience in the Internet Era

ITA: Il Ramo D’Oro è un posto unico a Napoli dove sviluppare riflessioni artistiche genuine e dove coltivare una comunità artistica internazionale. Su richiesta del fondatore del Ramo D’Oro, Vincenzo Montella, ho scritto un breve saggio chiamato “Fludità e rigidità nel mettere in discussione i confini”, il quale riflette sull’esperienza della rassegna internazionale Oltreconfine. Questa ha incluso Attualità Indonesiane che ho co-curato.

Il libro di Oltreconfine, nel quale si trova il mio saggio insieme a quello di altri autori, tra cui Made Bayak e Judicael Ouango, è ora disponibile su Amazon.

Ecco la versione italiana: Oltreconfine: Arte e resilienza nell’era di internet

Qui sotto un estratto dal mio testo:

Published! Indo Pop Painting on Cobo

By: Naima Morelli

13-11-2016

English, Essay, Indonesia, Published

Indo Pop Painting draws influences from comics and graffiti. In this essay for the Hong Kong-based webmagazine CoBo I analyze a style that goes beyond a simple market trend. From the “fathers” of the style, such as Eddie Hara, Heri Dono and Agung Kurniawan, to the “older brothers” Uji ‘Hahan’ Handoko and Eko Nugroho, and the plethora of younger 20-something artists, Indo Pop is here to stay.

Here is the link to the article

Published! Murni’s Unsettling Imaginary on CoBo

By: Naima Morelli

13-10-2016

English, Essay, Indonesia, News, Published, Research

I have just started a new series for the webmagazine CoBo about Indonesian contemporary painters. The first installment is Murni, recently celebrated in the show Merayakan Murni at Ketemu Project Space and Sudakara Art Space in Bali.

Here is the link to the article

Published! Green Root Lab on Escape

By: Naima Morelli

26-09-2016

English, Indonesia, Interview, Published

timesmaltagreenrootlab

Escape, the Sunday magazine of the Times of Malta, has just published my interview to the Green Root Lab, an artistic collective of two, devoted to environmental activism through contemporary art.

Here’s the link to the piece

Published! Eddy Susanto on Cobo

By: Naima Morelli

15-09-2016

English, Essay, Indonesia, Published, Singapore

Lately I haven’t written a whole lot of art critique in the real sense of the word, dedicating myself more to articles or interviews. Every so often though, I encounter artworks that I just can’t shut up about. This is the case with the latest pieces of Indonesian artist Eddy Susanto, who is one of my favorite contemporary artists ever; so I wrote this piece for CoBo, reading through the cross-references inside “Transhumanism Paradox (Dante’s Divine Comedy)” and “PANJI: The Linguistic Culture of Southeast Asia”, which will be realized for the upcoming Singapore Biennial. The first work was particularly interesting to explore as an Italian researching Indonesian art; it was the perspective of an Indonesian artist on what is a staple of Italian literature.

Here is the link to the piece

Published! Interview with Arahmaiani on CoBo

By: Naima Morelli

06-09-2016

Indonesia, Interview, Published, United States

Thanks to the amazing CoBo, little by little I’m getting to interview all my favorite contemporary artists! This time I chatted with Arahmaiani, a legend and a model of badassery in contemporary art and in life. The piece is called: “The Superheroine of Indonesian Contemporary Art”.

I have interviewed her for her new show at Tyler Rollins in New York, from September 15 to October 29. We talked about many different subjects, but the aspect I decided to focus on for the piece was her shift from criticism to activism in her work.

Since I first started researching Indonesian art, the political and social aspect of the art was the one that struck me the most. Over time I have asked artists if it is really possible to have an impact on society with contemporary art alone. Overall, Indonesian artists seemed to me much less romantic and much more hands-on compared to some of their European counterparts.

Here’s the link to the piece

Published! The role of memory in Indonesian art on Cobo

By: Naima Morelli

12-08-2016

English, Essay, Indonesia, Published, Research, Singapore

The webmagazine/platform Cobo has just published my piece entitled “Three Indonesian Artists Between National History and Personal Memories”, featuring work by FX Harsono, Jompet Kuswidananto and Boedi Widjaja, plus a mention to an iconic piece by Dita Gambiro and Rifqi Sukma. As always, I have decided to mix artists that are staples of Indonesian contemporary art (such as Harsono and Jompet) with others that might not be household names yet!

For the rest, I’m in a blessed phase of working (almost) uninterruptedly on the third draft of my book on contemporary art in Singapore. When you concentrate on one single thing, ideas are connecting and synapses are snapping like never before! Writing this book is a great learning process for me and gives me the chance to expand on ideas I explored in my book on Indonesian art, seeing how these have evolved over time, with my experiences and chats with artists. But I’m digressing; below the link to the article on Indonesian artists and memory!

Here is the link to the piece

_

Naima Morelli

Catalogue essay for “Drawing Future” exhibition in Bali

Published! Interview with Jim Allen Abel on Cobo

Published! Interview with Elizabeth Pisani on Escape

Published! Interview with Ari Bayuaji on CoBo

Published! Interview with Elizabeth Pisani on Art a Part of Culture

Essay for the book Beyond-Borders: Art and Resilience in the Internet Era

Published! Indo Pop Painting on Cobo

Published! Green Root Lab on Escape

Published! Eddy Susanto on Cobo

Published! The role of memory in Indonesian art on Cobo

About

MY BOOKS

Categories

Archives