I AM SU TOMESEN

Nia S. Amira
[email protected]

I met Su Tomese, a multi-talented visual artist from Amsterdam accidentally when I tried to find someone at Erasmus Huis, Dutch Cultural Centre in Jakarta, Tues­day (15/03). Su performs her solo exhibition, called “Jejak” from 17 March to 28 April 2016. This exhibition features 87 photographs which allow us to watch color bar, barbershop video, and the street movie. The 46 year artist focus­es on urban information and traces of human intervention in the informal economy in cities a dtraces of ingenuity in public space and she has been working for her pieces since 2005.

Su, a brief name of Susan has started as guest teacher in Sandber Institute Amsterdam in 2006. She has established her professional work under SU ME PROUD as Director/owner and through her professional career, Su has been working with many Institutions like for a.o. Museum De Lakenhal, CPNB, OBA, Melk­weg, Netherlands Architecture Institute.

She has been doing her professional Pho­tographer career since 1999 until present time for a.o. De Volkskrant, Photographer for a.o. De Volkskrant, Orlando festival, Kunst­beeld, KIT Landenreeks.

Su is more than just an artist as she was sticking out in various online media after she came and viewed the location of a bomb blast in person only few days after the incident. This courageous artist received her first MA in Cultural History from Utrech University then in 2007, she got her MA in Fine Art from Sandberg Institute Amsterdam.

Su participated in several exhibitions such as ‘Selametan Digital’ in Langgeng Art Foun­dation in Jogjakarta, ‘Wanderlust’ in CBK Zuidoost in Amsterdam, ‘Oét d’r Sjtup’ in Sc­hunck* in Heerlen. In 2014, she has started the series “Plastic Indonesia” with the works “Toko” and “Rumah” in Amsterdam. She re­cently realized “Jalan”, a film showing every­day design and resourcefulness in the streets of Jogjakarta.

Her works on “Toko” of Intervention in public space is part 1 of the series “Plastic In­donesia” where she cycled with her daughter every Saturday afternoon from June 7th to 28, 2014 through North Amsterdam with her mo­bile shop. She offered typical plastic products from Indonesia, the land of her husband, Teguh Hartato a visual artist of whom she met in 2011. They spend their life one part in Amsterdam and other part in Jogjakarta.

She travels a lot for her works consist­ing of videos, photographs and installations. Working abroad means putting her (Euro­pean) position, ideas and being into discus­sion. She has been as artist-in-residence in Belgrade, Amman, Johannesburg and Me­dellín. She also worked for an international video project in Port-au-Prince, Buenos Ai­res and Rio de Janeiro. She teaches video workshops for organizations such as The One Minutes foundation and Unicef.

Su Tomesen brings her works and experiences from abroad to the Netherlands, Indo­nesia and elsewhere: She said “Sometimes she feels like an ambassador, she shows her works from Johannesburg in Yerevan or she presents a video she produced in Cuba in Jogjakarta”. Her art works evolves from researching local circum­stances and observing situations. Her background as a historian and a director for television integrates her work that well. By research­ing, she informs herself about urgent topics; exploring plac­es, immersing herself, developing new work and contributing to local art communities.” The outcome of the re­search leads to site-specific works.

Welcome to the polluted metro­politan and Su must be challenged to produce her masterpieces more about waste in Jakarta, Depok, and Bogor, the three points linking area from the capi­tal to West Java province where most of the urbans working in Jakarta while living in Depok and Bogor.