“A Place I’d Rather Be”: The Quest 

If there is one place you could be right now, will you wish you were someplace else? As you are reading this, in front of your computer or on your phone screen wherever you are; are you secretly wishing that you were laying on the seaside looking at the sky or reading a good story instead from a real book under the tree surrounded by mountain fresh air and the chirping sounds of the birds? Some are lucky enough to be content wherever they are, be exactly where they’d rather be. Others held this grunge, a wish, and a quest to find a place where they will finally be happy. Or will they?

Happiness, Alain de Botton said, is an uncomfortable word too full of associations of cheerfulness and mindlessness. To imagine a decade of happiness seems insane —happiness is a rich food that we can’t stomach for very long. We’re creatures built on anxiety and apprehension. That’s how we survived. Sarita Ibnoe’s works were mostly about her feelings of discomfort in being at a certain place, wishing she was someplace else. Few months ago, she went on a quest to find a way to make peace with herself and finally be content with where she is. This was done through ten-days long Vipassana Meditation sessions that reminded her to accept things as they are, without cravings and aversion. Nothing is permanent, and this too, shall pass.

For ten days, Sarita was living in a space of noble silence. Food was also used as a meditative tool; carefully crafted and measured to act as a therapy. Consciousness in all the smallest detail in every aspect of life. In this exhibition, Sarita invites the audience to enter a room of noble silence where talking is forbidden. In a room with no spoken words, we are guided to contemplate on our stream of thought when time is irrelevant and yet, everything is transient. In her interactive work, she invites the audience to take a thought and give another thought back randomly to show that sometimes, we can actually connect with a random person.

The subtleties of Sarita/s drawing is just as ephemeral. Shown through her paper-based multimedia installation and muted choice of colours. In one of her works, she takes notes of what she ate and uses it as natural dye for her visual diary. Of course, the essential of food is present in this work: change. The colour and the texture of the work will eventually change, showing the elusiveness of the flow of time; highlighting the impermanence of things, emotions and thoughts. The process of enjoying this work is like enjoying the presence of your food— during a brief moment when it shows its full potential. This concept of impermanence is also known as the concept of wabi-sabi. We must fully present in the moment and yet embrace the imperfections— the simple crack where the light gets in. Sarita often creates artwork based on her personal experience, wishes, dreams, problems, and as a mirror of her inner self. This is expressed with calmness; with an attempt to relate to society, while handling the feeling of loneliness and keeping solitude amongst chaotic situations. This exhibition is her way to share her meditative life changing experience and take the audience out of the noise for a while just to be in a room of noble silence. But, when we think of it, that space, a place where one would rather be. A place where things are in a balanced order, peacefully. This spiritual place. Is it a space that does not exist? A utopia? The quest in searching for the right place where one belongs, won’t it leave a weight in one’s mind? Will you even find it? What if you found it, then? What if, after a long endless journey, that place is with you all along? What if this path that you are taking, is actually a mindful path of self-understanding?

Curatorial text by Mira Asriningtyas