“Sweet Dreams Sweet” is a two-hour durational performance with twenty eight young female performers wearing white uniform clothing. They move in pairs, walk, lie down and sit around the performance area. They dip their feet into blue water and stain their white stockings. The performance invites the audience to confront the dichotomy between uniformity and plurality in relation to Suryodarmo’s interest in the individual and the people.  

Social pressure often forces people into a state of homogeneity. People want to wear the same kind of clothing and to do the same kind of things as the people around them. They are uncomfortable when they are too different from their community, triggering a fear or herd response. When a majority community dominates an originally diverse society, it alienates those who are different, forcing away the social, cultural, linguistic or political factors that had allowed for plurality. This phenomenon is against individualism, as the people of a uniform society are not autonomous.

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Melati Suryodarmo: TIMORIBUS