In Lost Gestures, Suryodarmo explores past memories of the movements of women she saw in her childhood. Growing up in the tradition of the city of Surakarta, Suryodarmo was closely surrounded in the environment where women were still to be seen wearing traditional Javanese clothing, batik cloth and kebaya*, especially those who work in traditional markets. In the way of traditional Javanese dress, from how to wear it and also the type of material, the style of batik and hair styling, shows the social strata that distinguish between the working class and the priyayi* class, between laborers and bosses, between people from the countryside and from urban areas.

After three decades, Suryodarmo observed that the body’s gestures and movements were now almost gone. Modernity shifts class differences in traditional societies, towards societies that liberate more plural or even uniform lifestyle choices. Lost Gestures, hints at the testimony of the daily movements of the past and the desire of people who want to always follow the changes in global civilisation.

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