Ratri Notosudirdjo

cross-over - community - performance

Ratri Notosudirdjo (Jakarta 1994) is an interdisciplinary artist currently living in Rotterdam and belonging to the queer Indonesian diaspora. She is a visual artist, poet, storyteller and performer. Her research and practice are based on de- and postcolonial theory, focusing on storytelling in both historical and contemporary contexts and exploring mechanisms that enable the cultural and poetic identity of diaspora individuals. Through her work, she delves into personal experiences of migration, capitalism and identity formation in childhood; exploring the internal conflicts of identity, memories and what it means to belong. The principle of diaspora serves as a central perspective, creating a kaleidoscopic archive that interweaves the physical and unconscious aspects of the present. Notosudirdjo's work takes the form of performances and installations infused with surrealism, myths, fantasy and folklore elements. Through these projects, she seeks to break supposedly universal narratives through the intimacy of storytelling.


The story of guardians (2022) - In my first solo exhibition "along along" in 2022, I explored inherited materials and narration related to notions of "Indonesianess". Narration serves as a vessel to pass down shared wisdom and asks how the construction of self is imparted inter-generationally and through communities. These themes accumulated through a year-long research and material exploration at the Hamburger Community of Art residency. A major work in this show is the story of the guardians, two 5.5 meter x 7 meter shadow puppets that were performed by two puppeteers. Before entering the space, you were greeted by these four entities. The wayang shadow puppets explore the relation between power and protection to architecture and hierarchy. They serve as landmarks to a non-location.Their imagery is inspired by my father who is depicted as a humanoid (right) and my late mother depicted as a dog-spirit (left). For visitors to see the show, they would pass these guardians during a 2-hour performance, where the puppeteers sit below to activate the space.
Incubating Abundance (2022) - As part of the opening night and performance program in the solo show "along along" in 2022, I choreographed a mix of performances and happenings. Following themes that explore notions of Indonesianness and narrative agency, three different performances collide and transform the art space into a surreal landscape. The other performances that converge together are called "The story of the guardians" and "The story of nessy" . This performance, Incubating Abundance, was the main cue to bring everything together. There are eight actors: Joana Cavaco, Runa Ong, Amy Garcia-Kennedy, Emre Goklan, Anna Vision, Lisa van der Plaetse, Ruth van Mourik and Jessye Carmi. In a single file line, they move around the space embodying a giant serpent. Together they explore rituals of searching, eating, praying, following and leading. The work aims to intervene in the secular public space of Rotterdam. The visibility of ritual is an act to counter a presedence that frames ritual practice through a violent, reductive or mystified lens. The choreography adopts mundane gestures such as eating, walking and waiting. In the performance, a soundscape plays in the background of field recordings taken from Indonesia, daily rituals like going to the Padang restaurant and ordering food or driving in the car. These works and the exhibition was part of the Hamburger Community of Art residency at Roodkapje.
The story of nessy (2022) - The story of nessy borders between movement theatre and intervention. Four embroidered masks encapsulate different creatures: a mermaid cat, a dancing tree, a Demi-human and a dancing root. In this performance, four actors embody nessy as an animal born out of the consequence of polluted waters. It is now usual to see large creature-like formations of waste material caught in fishing nets around the beaches of Indonesia where I grew up, the origins of this waste has been an argued mystery amongst locals. The performance establishes a link between waste disposal in a global economy to spaces vulnerable to their effects. nessy is a playful experiment in telling this story. This tale is a sibling to the Lochness legend and interacts with audiences in a shy and curious manner. The costume is created from fabrics and a fishing net, embroidered with plastic pearls, condoms, plastic gold jewellery, brass pendants and earrings, Indomie packets and beads. This work was created during the Hamburger Community of Art residency and presented during the "along along" exhibition as part of the opening night and bi-weekly performance program.
Isabella and Their Poems (2022) - Isabella was first presented in the "along along" exhibtion in 2022. This work was awoken from a story I wrote about a tree. In exploring the materiality of this story I used bleaching techniques to bleed the colors in the batik fabrics. The red dye that is applied to the textile materials is made from clay, creating a splotchy redness mainly seen on the poems (right). These poems are like ingredients to a potion, the typed words carry emotions, dreams and wishes. "In the absence of water we still grow here. Living tidal, starve or tire, my buds are dry. And the clay is infertile. Nothing grows here but us." (Left) A large 2.2 m x 3.5 meter frame stands holding the batik and latex canvas. Held in the latex are insects, dirt and plants. This installation materially explores tenderness or human-like textures, it investigates sentiment and longings in relation to objects.Through these objects and texts, intimacy is stimulated between Isabella and the reader. This work was created during the Hamburger Community of Art residency at Roodkapje.
drip drip (2022) - "drip drip" is a performance about preservation and care. Seven performers move around the space and help one another bathe in red liquid clay. One by one, each actor drops away once they are completely covered. When the last performer is covered in clay, a deep drone leaks from a subwoofer and the performers begin preserving themselves inside invisible blankets. Each actor does what they can to hold their bodies safe under the bare conditions of the room. The use of red clay signifies the soil found in Indonesia, it is a subject within the performance and is my way of sharing my point of view with others. The immateriality of preserving oneself in something as intangible as sound, speaks to an experience of encountering or searching for belonigng. The duration of the performance took about 30 minutes to complete and was the closing work for the "along along" exhibition. The performers in the photographs are: Viana Afoumou, Ugne Mos- inaite, Lili Ullrich, Emre Goklan , Jip van der Hek and Runa Ong. This performance was created during the Hamburger Community of Art residency.
Runa (2022) - Runa was first exhibited in the group exhibition "Smudged Soil" an exploration of different printing practices. In this work Runa, my roommate, lent her arms, legs, feet, face, chest and belly to a 5 meter x 1.5 meter paper monster collage. Runa is second generation Chinese/Vietnamese and her parents immigrated to the Netherlands during the 90's. She grew up in Dordrecht with her mom, dad and brother. She now lives in Rotterdam working as a dentist, and spent three years living with me on Mathenesserweg. She introduced me to her father's favourite instant noodles, something he would make when coming home late from work at the factory. We shared intimate experiences of our mothers, their similarities, and the conflict in these relationships. In this collage installation that is glued to the floor, I created a monstrous being falling to the ground. This monster was pulled out from both myself and Runa, sharing many experiences in our search to belong in the places we work, the expectations of our families and commuting back and forth between Dutch and East Asian spaces. This work was created during the Hamburger Community of Art Residency at Roodkapje.
Shoulder to Shoulder: Burnout Theatre (2022) - “Shoulder to Shoulder,” emerged from the Wunderplatz X Skills residency at Worm in late 2022. Building on contemporary folklore developed during my time in the Hamburger Community of Art residency, this site-specific work was created for the Worm (Rotterdam) office space. It delves into the sounds produced in restrictive working environments, aiming to reveal the syndromic effects of late-capitalist conditioning. Burnout Syndrome becomes a necromantic spell in this folkloric telling, and the improvised composition uses collected feedback and sounds produced in the body and room. With the collaboration of researcher/choreographer Marta Wörner and Butoh artist John Giskes, we instructed seven newcomers to Performance Art. The soundscape was mixed live by DJ Costanza Calzavara and performed for an audience. I conducted the sounds, cued monologues and outlined the progression with the act of running. Later, Anne La Berge (Composer, Flutist and Professor at Koninklijk Conservatorium Den Haag) mentored me in score writing, creating a mnemonic method to instruct performers.
wet dreamzZz (ongoing since 2020) - wet dreamzZz is a performance collective influenced by magic realism, surrealism, immersivity and ritual. The collective consists of myself, Magdalena Petrova and Lili Ullrich. Through wet dreamzZz we explore queering archetypes, deconstructing perceptions of femininity and exploring identity through gentle, mythical creatures and psychic disturbances. These alter egos exist in a hypnagogic state and transcend through explorations of our traumas, visions, delusions and hallucinations, opening doors to our subconscious. We have been expanding wet dreamzZz for a few years, exploring different contexts and venues in which we translate our theatrical performance. In our practice we explore these themes materially through mask-making, puppetry, scenography and plays, interventions and video. We have performed at Sound Light Color Studio (Amsterdam), iii (Den Haag), Worm (Rotterdam) and Lemon House Residency (Kassel, DE).
JUNCTION “Who Gets 2 B An Artist” - JUNCTION was co-founded by myself and Lili Ullrich in 2020. We built an interdisciplinary platform for Rotterdam-based workers, artists, and researchers to share their anti-colonial work through public interventions. Its inception was driven by two factors: (1) The name-change discussions of the F.K.A. Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art (2017-2021). My journey prompted me to delve into my personal history in relation to Dutch colonialism and global events. I found connections between my intimate experiences and these traumatic histories, namely Indonesian-Dutch repatriation, the Suharto authoritarian regime, and my firsthand experience of neo-colonialist dominance in Bali (Indonesia) during my youth as it spread through tourism and the exploitation of the land. (2) The second driving factor was the COVID pandemic, heightening precarity worldwide and bringing colonial structures within our global systems forward. Consequently, our frustrations instigated the first project, “Who Gets 2 B An Artist?” led by artist Sarafina Paulina Bonita and organized by the Junction team (Myself, Yahaira Brito-Morfe, Leana Boven, Tugba Bahceci, Lili Ullrich, and Valienska Magfira). In this program, we conducted an online workshop instructing a mourning ritual to address the difficulties, exclusivity, scarcity, and discrimination amplified by the pandemic in our work realities. Later we facilitated an intervention called “The Mourning Ceremony” where we walked in procession from Museum Park to Witte de Withstraat. Participants wore black, maintained social distancing, and carried a six-foot-long blue flower sculpture. We placed the flowers in front of Kunstinstituut Melly (F.K.A. Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art), which remained a focal point for meaningful discussions. People expressed their wishes through notes and candlelights. Currently, JUNCTION has paused to refocus its trajectory.
UUAHIB Workshop and Performance Series - UUAHIB is an immersive performance and workshop that delves into the perception of landscapes through sound. These workshops involve several translation stages, commencing with living materials like dried beans or seeds. Sound becomes the conduit to convert these organisms into music, language, or speech, culminating in creating a musical composition further translated into movement. These workshops invite six to eight individuals from different professional backgrounds to create a rich collaborative environment. With these workshops, I simulated a space where logic, culture and communication systems are placed within a group context. In so doing I encouraged participants to negotiate with what they interpret and embody as “place.” Thus far, three editions of these workshops have been successfully hosted at Worm Rotterdam, each yielding unique and intriguing outcomes. In the first experiment in 2020, we created a vocal ensemble. The second iteration in 2021 resulted in an intervention at Landtje Elementary School Park, utilizing a 16-meter x 7-meter multi-coloured fabric. This fabric was used to improvise on a surreal landscape with body movement. In the third iteration 2022, a writing exercise was created and performed to an audience at UBIK Theatre (Worm).