Features artasiapacific.com^113(Opposite page)
FIVE TONNES OF HOMES AND
OTHER UNDERSTORIES, 2015–16,
from the project “Trade/Trace/Transit,”
2014–16, cardboard, markers and pens,
dimensions variable. Intallation view at
Art Basel Hong Kong, 2016. Copyright Art
Basel. Courtesy the artist and Art Basel.
(This page)
1001 MARTIAN HOMES, 2017, stills from video.
Courtesy the artist and Milani Gallery, Brisbane.
Why are you so interested in this idea of family secrets?I grew up with a secret that I had to keep for the safety of my
family and myself, which involved the enforced disappearance
of my grandfather in 1965 Indonesia, after the family house
was destroyed and burned down. This was around the time when
the Suharto government came into power, with a lot of violence.
More than half a million people were forcefully disappeared
and killed. These were members of the Indonesian Communist
Party and its affiliate organizations as well as people accused of—
and many randomly listed as—being leftists. More than 600,000
people were detained mostly without trial, and their families
and relatives were subjected to systematic discrimination for
the decades to come. With projects like living1965.org, which I
started in 2015 with Ken Setiawan, more people are beginning
to speak out. But being associated with someone who was
forcefully disappeared in 1965 was, and still is, a serious risk
in Indonesia.
As a result, I kept my secret until I was about 33 years old,
even from my closest friends. One day, by accident, I told some of
them. The whole group was silent for a few seconds and I thought
someone was going to kill me right then, on that very spot. But
then, in the corner of the room, someone spoke up. He said his
grandfather was also incarcerated, but was then released. This
made me feel, for the first time, that I was not alone.
This incident with my friends happened about seven years
after Suharto fell. Growing up legally discriminated as a Chinese-
Indonesian in Indonesia, when Chinese culture was legally banned,
my only sense of origin was this secret. In a sense, this is what
defines me as an Indonesian—this secret that I have in common
with millions of other people in Indonesia, even when they don’t
want, or are fearful, to admit it.