A performance piece about emptiness and an effort to enter into a liminal space between the body and mind, material and immaterial, earthly and cosmic, and feminine and masculine.
In Alé Lino (2003), Melati stands on a high pedestal, leaning onto a four-meter-long pole placed against her solar plexus. She stays in this position for three hours — an exercise which demands great physical and mental endurance.
The solar plexus is a vulnerable area of the body that forms part of a complex network of nerves and through this performance the artist achieves what she calls “a kind of complete emptiness” situated between physical and mental states.
The performance was inspired after Melati traveled to South Sulawesi, Indonesia, where she observed the spiritual practices the Bissu community — gender fluid priests who identify themselves as half-gods— in the Pangkep and Bone regions. In the cosmology of Bugis society, alé lino means the middle world, or the Earth. Melati’s field research and engagement with the Bissu delved into the philosophical concept of ‘emptiness’, and its physical and psychological dimensions.
Alé Lino (2003) explores this emptiness as Melati seeks to enter into a liminal space between the body and mind, material and immaterial, earthly and cosmic, and feminine and masculine.
How to Watch the Performance Art
Alé Lino (2003) is part of the performance series within the exhibition 'Melati Suryodarmo: Why Let the Chicken Run?' at Museum MACAN.
