In Search of Nan Tar Tar Nan Tor Tor (The Dancing Goddess)
On Celluloid
2023
Installation View
Collaborators:
DOP: Patrick Tantra
Researcher: Raisa Kamila
Video Works:
Director: L. P. De Bussy,
Title: Lijkbezorging bij de Karo-Bataks. 1917
A two-part reportage about a funeral ceremony and the ritual religious practices of the Karo-Batak, an ethnic group in North Sumatra.
Produced by Koloniaal Instituut (Amsterdam)
Collection of Eye Museum, The Netherlands
Archival materials:
De Kamferboom van Sumatra (Dryobalanops camphora Colebr.): volgens Dr. F. Junghuhn’s waarnemingen op de plaats zelve, en door nadere onderzoekingen toegelicht
Author: W.H. de Vriese, 1851
Mémoire sur le Camphier de Sumatra et de Borneo
Author: W. H. de Vriese, 1856
Overzicht van proeven, in Nederlandsch Oost-Indië genomen met de cultuur can den Japanschen Kamferboom
Author: Ir. W. Spoon, 1929
Camphor oil
Barus, August 2022
Collector: Maskudin Simandjuntak
Various cine films (Celluloid)
Source: ebay (bidding)
Pustaha Batak
Source: British Library
In this project, I am interested in exploring the entanglement between colonial exploitation and the loss of camphor tree in Sumatra by examining various archives, myths, manuscripts, legends, family history, as well as collective memory.
A legend of the upland peoples narrated how camphor originated from the spirit of a woman named Nan Tar Tar nan Tor Tor (“the Dancing One”) who tried to escape a malevolent ancestral ghost by seeking refuge in camphor tree after camphor tree. (Faizah Zakaria:2023)
Since the tree has been disappearing from the area, one way to find Her is to investigate into the celluloid, as the materiality has been transformed into it during the colonial time. I believe, celluiloid is Her new hideout.
Exhibited at:
Collaborators:
DOP: Patrick Tantra
Researcher: Raisa Kamila
Video Works:
Director: L. P. De Bussy,
Title: Lijkbezorging bij de Karo-Bataks. 1917
A two-part reportage about a funeral ceremony and the ritual religious practices of the Karo-Batak, an ethnic group in North Sumatra.
Produced by Koloniaal Instituut (Amsterdam)
Collection of Eye Museum, The Netherlands
Archival materials:
De Kamferboom van Sumatra (Dryobalanops camphora Colebr.): volgens Dr. F. Junghuhn’s waarnemingen op de plaats zelve, en door nadere onderzoekingen toegelicht
Author: W.H. de Vriese, 1851
Mémoire sur le Camphier de Sumatra et de Borneo
Author: W. H. de Vriese, 1856
Overzicht van proeven, in Nederlandsch Oost-Indië genomen met de cultuur can den Japanschen Kamferboom
Author: Ir. W. Spoon, 1929
Camphor oil
Barus, August 2022
Collector: Maskudin Simandjuntak
Various cine films (Celluloid)
Source: ebay (bidding)
Pustaha Batak
Source: British Library
In this project, I am interested in exploring the entanglement between colonial exploitation and the loss of camphor tree in Sumatra by examining various archives, myths, manuscripts, legends, family history, as well as collective memory.
A legend of the upland peoples narrated how camphor originated from the spirit of a woman named Nan Tar Tar nan Tor Tor (“the Dancing One”) who tried to escape a malevolent ancestral ghost by seeking refuge in camphor tree after camphor tree. (Faizah Zakaria:2023)
Since the tree has been disappearing from the area, one way to find Her is to investigate into the celluloid, as the materiality has been transformed into it during the colonial time. I believe, celluiloid is Her new hideout.
Exhibited at:
- Degree Show MA Art and Ecology