Lakeisha Sharonina
BE●LONG
Prompt: Through identifying and developing a research topic that relates to an idea of shift, each student will create an image archive that delves deeply, and with complexity, into your idea. We will shape what shift looks like and means to each of us through images that we nd and create, that will be compiled and designed into a digital or printed publication, to include writing from Seminar. Your idea in Studio will directly relate and respond to your writing in Seminar.
Because of colonization and globalization, wearing traditional clothing (batik, kebaya, kain, tenun, sarung, etc,) as everyday attire became less and less normalized in Indonesia. You only ever wear them during formal occasions, like a wedding. However, recently the younger generation is trying to reclaim their culture and incorporate these clothings in their everyday casual wear. There even seemed to be a quick trend that started in social media of teenagers and young adults wearing their traditional attires.
This publication demonstrates the shift in culture through clothing. It revolves around the theme of the loss of cultural identity, which relates to my poem in Integrative Seminar, where I talk about the loss of home identity. The photographs in this zine depict the dualities of “modern vs traditional”, as I used both digital and lm photography. I also experimented with various ways to visualize silhouettes, as they further accentuate the motif of loss.
The juxtaposition between modern elements with traditional Indonesian attire creates a new meaning between clothing and culture. By doing so, I want to show a sense of disconnect with oneself from the place around them.