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MELATI SURYODARMO 麦拉蒂·苏若道默
b. 1969, works and lives in Surakarta, Indonesia
MELATI SURYODARMO 麦拉蒂·苏若道默
2007 (Year of Documentation)
single-channel video
Mini DV
Performance Video
5 minutes 53 seconds
Edition of 5 + 2AP
MS_3306

“I LOVE YOU” is a 5-hour durational performance that interrogates the melting of linguistic form. Communication is limited to a single utterance, “I love you,” while the performing body is literally stressed with a rectangular piece of glass. The oversized glass overwhelms Suryodarmo, who struggles under its weight, bulk and fragility. Like the phrase “I love you,” glass is simultaneously powerful and vulnerable. The material is strong and resilient but a simple hit at the wrong angle might cause it to shatter. As she carries its weight on her back, Suryodarmo is also balancing the glass upon her back.

As a polygot, fluent in Indonesian, German, English and Javanese, Suryodarmo has observed different linguistic expressions of love. While ‘love’ is generally understood as an emotion, the word ‘love’ is also a label, an utterance that is removed from the real emotion. English speakers can and do constantly redefine this word through personal experiences and while in conversation with other speakers. The word is not indexical but collectively constructed. While the burden of each language does stress and restrain the speaker, there is a kind of way, through repetition and durationality, that the individual can touch on the tensions of linguistic meaning and blur the substance of the language.

Detail pictures:

Related Exhibitions:
Love is Louder, BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels, Belgium 10.12, 2024 -01.05, 2025
Connecting Bodies: Asian Women Artists, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea 09.03, 2024 -03.03, 2025
Come across ShanghART, Art Tower, Shanghai 10.15, 2020 -11.15, 2020
Melati Suryodarmo: I Love You, ShanghART Beijing, Beijing 04.18, 2018 -05.14, 2018


Related Works:
I Love You 6
I Love You 5
I Love You 4
I Love You 3
I Love You 1
I Love You 2


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