Citra Sasmita

Indonesia

Citra Sasmita is a contemporary artist from Bali whose work focuses on unraveling the myths and misconceptions of Balinese art and culture. She is also deeply invested in questioning a woman’s place in the social hierarchy and seeks to upend the normative construct of gender.

Born in Bali, Indonesia on March 30, 1990, Citra Sasmita has never formally graduated from an art institution. Studied at Literature diploma, Udayana University (2008) and Faculty of Mathematics and Sciences, Ganesha University of Education, majoring in Physics Education (2009), Her dream as an artist grew again when she joined the campus theater group and became a short story illustrator in Bali Post. When she became an illustrator she deepened his self-taught world of art and actively participated in exhibitions in Bali and outside of Bali.

One of her long-term projects, Timur Merah Project; Harbor of Restless Spirits being presented in Garden of Six Seasons, ParaSite, a painting on cow’s hide reflects the Kamasan Balinese painterly language that Citra has been developing in her practice. It represents a geography of female figures, fires, and various natural elements, composed whimsically in an unfolding of pansexual energy. While rooted in mythological thinking with Hindu and Balinese-specific references, the scenes are equally part of the contemporary process of imagining a secular and empowered mythology for a post-patriarchal future.

Gold Award Winner UOB Painting of The Year 2017, Biennale Jogjakarta 2019, Citra Sasmita’s Solo Show titled Ode To The Sun 2020 at Yeo Workshop, Gillman Barrack, Singapore and Garden Of Six Seasons 2020, Para Site, Hong Kong road to Kathmandu Triennale, and 35th Sao Paulo Biennale, Brazil become the notable award and exhibition in her career.

In the beliefs and culture of the Balinese people, water is one of the essential elements in the continuity of life which is also contained in the manuscripts and religious ideology of Hinduism in Bali. Tri Hita Karana as a philosophy inherited in Bali is not only a discourse but also integrated into the life and cultural experience of the Balinese people as the legitimate heirs of nature and the universe of Bali both cosmologically and in its social construction. Every Balinese person born in Bali has gone through various complexities and ritual experiences from the womb to death.

Prayers, mantras, and philosophies have seeped into the pores of the Balinese people’s memories and the splash of water becomes a medium that delivers the manifestation of Balinese cosmological power into their spiritual bodies.

Balinese people treat nature as an autonomous subject. Balinese people personify and glorify that nature is an entity with spiritual power that maintains the survival of creatures in the universe. This is dierent from the spirit of modern humans today who view nature as an object of exploitation so as to provide full access to the progressiveness of development, – something that is contrary to Eastern spirituality and philosophy.

Cry Me a River which I represent in this work, is my response to the social and water crisis that is happening in Bali. As a contemporary artist who was born and raised in Bali, I feel the rapid changes that are happening in Bali and are very dierent from my childhood memories. Springs are starting to dry up, large trees that are hundreds of years old are being cut down for development purposes, which is a threat to future generations of Balinese people.

The symbols in Cry Me a River are esoteric symbols that I developed from the ancient Balinese painting tradition as a blessing to the universe.

I took the fragments of these symbols from the work Beyond The Realm of Senses, a 30-meter installation painting exhibited at the 35th Sao Paulo Biennale, 2023, Brazil.

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