Smong 2019 Mixed Media installation Variable Dimensions
The artwork presents a contrast between the hidden feelings of the Islanders and the peaceful atmosphere that you perceive from the bed scene. I want to recreate a quiet, peaceful night on the island by using the commonly used mosquito net and a purely white bed.
The word “Smong” is comes from the island of Simeulue, Aceh. The word describes a large sea wave that strikes after an earthquake. “Smong” comes from the Devayan language, native to the Simeulue community.
The term was passed down through generations by parents and grandparents who warned of a tsunami that hit the island in 1970. The story of Smong is passed onto the next generation through the local tradition of Nafi-nafi. “Nafi-nafi” is an oral culture of storytelling and passing of stories of the past.
Nafi-nafi is usually prioritised by mothers and grandmothers, who share its value during bedtime and other various informal occasions. While women pass the story of Smong to their children at home, men also partake by sharing and inheriting the messages of the story when children gather during more religious occasions, such as salat Magrib and reading Al-Quran.
The materials within the mattress, under the bed sheet are stones and branches collected from reclaimed hills and forests and forests of Simeulue. When the audience sleeps on the thin mattress, they will feel the unevenness of the stones and branches underneath, making them feel similarly to one exposed to a crisis, uncomfortable and uneasy. The longer you sleep on the stones and branches, the rocky and branches under the bed will leave different marks on our body. When we leave the bed, the pain and uncomfortable doesn’t just go away. It stays in our bodies, our five senses, and our memory. The trace of pain will gradually become fade but the memory will stay.
I use sound of waves (television static noises) will be played in the exhibition space, symbolic of the network and communication interruptions that happen when tsunami occurs. I will use the sound of wave to recreate the environments at the coast. The audience have to listen carefully to the sound to realize this is the sound of alarm, fear, and thus reflecting the hidden feelings of the people whom experience tsunami before.
Stories have the power to change the world, like the local wisdom of Smong, that have saved lives
During my stay in Simeulue, I experienced an earthquake with magnitude of 4.8 on 1st July, 2019. This experience inspired me to make artwork about the island due to the sudden change of how I felt before the earthquake and after. Before the earthquake, I felt safe and peaceful, but after I was panicked, nervous and uneasy. In the past 30 days, Simeulue has had one earthquake; In the pass 365 days, Simeulue has had 14 earthquakes. With most of the earthquakes happening in Sinabang, the capital of Simeulue. After the earthquake on 1st July, I visited Latiung Village, a village that moved to the mountain from the coast in response to a tsunami. On my way to the village, along the coast, you could hear the sound of waves that made me anxious and unsafe. This brought about questions of how can we forget what we have experienced in life? Feeling of fear, loss and sadness are always buried deep inside our hearts.
The word “Smong” is comes from the island of Simeulue, Aceh. The word describes a large sea wave that strikes after an earthquake. “Smong” comes from the Devayan language, native to the Simeulue community.
The term was passed down through generations by parents and grandparents who warned of a tsunami that hit the island in 1970. The story of Smong is passed onto the next generation through the local tradition of Nafi-nafi. “Nafi-nafi” is an oral culture of storytelling and passing of stories of the past.
Nafi-nafi is usually prioritised by mothers and grandmothers, who share its value during bedtime and other various informal occasions. While women pass the story of Smong to their children at home, men also partake by sharing and inheriting the messages of the story when children gather during more religious occasions, such as salat Magrib and reading Al-Quran.
The materials within the mattress, under the bed sheet are stones and branches collected from reclaimed hills and forests and forests of Simeulue. When the audience sleeps on the thin mattress, they will feel the unevenness of the stones and branches underneath, making them feel similarly to one exposed to a crisis, uncomfortable and uneasy. The longer you sleep on the stones and branches, the rocky and branches under the bed will leave different marks on our body. When we leave the bed, the pain and uncomfortable doesn’t just go away. It stays in our bodies, our five senses, and our memory. The trace of pain will gradually become fade but the memory will stay.
I use sound of waves (television static noises) will be played in the exhibition space, symbolic of the network and communication interruptions that happen when tsunami occurs. I will use the sound of wave to recreate the environments at the coast. The audience have to listen carefully to the sound to realize this is the sound of alarm, fear, and thus reflecting the hidden feelings of the people whom experience tsunami before.
Stories have the power to change the world, like the local wisdom of Smong, that have saved lives
During my stay in Simeulue, I experienced an earthquake with magnitude of 4.8 on 1st July, 2019. This experience inspired me to make artwork about the island due to the sudden change of how I felt before the earthquake and after. Before the earthquake, I felt safe and peaceful, but after I was panicked, nervous and uneasy. In the past 30 days, Simeulue has had one earthquake; In the pass 365 days, Simeulue has had 14 earthquakes. With most of the earthquakes happening in Sinabang, the capital of Simeulue. After the earthquake on 1st July, I visited Latiung Village, a village that moved to the mountain from the coast in response to a tsunami. On my way to the village, along the coast, you could hear the sound of waves that made me anxious and unsafe. This brought about questions of how can we forget what we have experienced in life? Feeling of fear, loss and sadness are always buried deep inside our hearts.