When the flood is over
About this articulation
When the flood is over begins with a question of conservation: how to conserve the extraordinary, vast cycle of dioramas at Museum Sejarah Nasional, located in the underground of Monumen Nasional. These dioramas were made under the supervision of Indonesia’s eminent sculptor Edhi Sunarso (1932-2016) during the 1960s and 1970s and narrate the coming into being of the Indonesian people, Sunarso’s diorama-making involved huge teams of young sculptors and prominent painters following elaborate textual guidance generated by a collective of historians. Pak Edhi himself had stated to President Sukarno that the materials he used to make the dioramas would only last for two decades.
In 2007, an attempt to revisit and revise the dioramas and their conservation was initiated by a collective of historians but nothing proceeded. Recently, an open call was made for architects to propose ‘an update’ of the Museum Sejarah Nasional, including a renewal of the dioramas. Anticipating a careless—or, even worse, ahistorical—move in the name of rejuvenation, When the flood is over is an independent attempt to conserve these dioramas made in the turmoil of a huge political shift in the mid 1960s. Initiated and worked on by a group of civilians working in solidarity, When the flood is over is also the realisation that it will be a long-term—if not never-ending—DIY process of copying the diorama figures by hand, one diorama at a time, to slowly generate sets of the dioramas to be stored in the Griya Seni Hj. Kustiyah Edhi Sunarso, in Yogyakarta.
When the flood is over is a meditation on histories. It is also a meditation on pedagogy – learning history, learning to make and re-make, learning to think across generations and archaeologies of time.When the flood is over dwells on words: on proclamations, writing, speaking, re-telling, and on the processes of making, they precipitate. It follows the complex ways that these processes of making are also entanglements of imagining and re-imagining, within and beyond art.
When the flood is over: No. 32
- 2023
- Griya Seni Hj. Kustiyah Edhi Sunarso, Hyphen—, Tom Nicholson with Ary “Jimged” Sendy, Aufa Ariaputra, Nasikin
- Installation comprising 23 dolls (cast resin figurines) on a table; two HD videos in colour; a second set of dolls for diorama no. 32 along with their moulds, stored at Griya Seni Hj. Kustiyah Edhi Sunarso
- Credit
- [Speakers] Anusapati, Ari Sutondo, JJ Rizal, Mon Mudjiman
- [Sculptors] Telo Studio dan Ady Try Laksono, Andrea Gani Hidayat, Ari Sutondo, Baramasta Iid Ulfitra, Dirga Yudhistira Indrajaya, Hudalil Musttaqim, Mon Mudjiman, Qomari Hidayatulloh
- [Crew] Bagyo, Liemena Sapriya Putra (Teken), Muhamad Berri Mondigir, Sarah Aulia Rudiana, Sarino, Supriyanto (Ncang), Titis Sekar
- Commissioned by Museum MACAN through the support of the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body.
- Hyphen— acknowledges funding support from Foundation for Arts Initiatives (FfAI).
When the flood is over No. 32, the workshop
- Diorama 32. The proclamation of Indonesian independence, 17 August, 1945
- Figure-sculpting workshop
- Griya Seni Hj. Kustiyah Edhi Sunarso (Yogyakarta, Indonesia)
- 25 September – 2 October 2023
When the flood is over No. 32, presentations
- 2023 [GROUP EXHIBITION] Voice Against Reason, MACAN Museum (Jakarta, Indonesia),18 November 2023 – 14 April 2024.
When the flood is over: No. 44
- [2025 ongoing project]
- Initiated by Tom Nicholson, Hyphen— and Griya Seni Hj. Kustiyah Edhi Sunarso.
- Supported by Henry Moore Foundation and Singapore Art Museum.
The second iteration of this project takes as its subject Diorama No. 44, titled ‘The liberation of Irian Jaya, May 1, 1963.’ In this depiction, figures like Emiria Sunassa—painter, royal heir of Tidore, and once-self-declared monarch—disappear into the background of official history, while others like Hurustiati Subandrio, cultural diplomat and early advocate of Indonesia’s anti-colonial positioning, and even Sriyani, both a painter and a diplomat, are absent altogether.
When the flood is over No. 44, the workshop
- Diorama 44. The liberation of Irian Jaya, May 1, 1963
- Figure-sculpting workshop
- Griya Seni Hj. Kustiyah Edhi Sunarso (Yogyakarta, Indonesia)
- 8 - 15 February 2025
More information about the workshop can be found in the booklet, available to download in English and Bahasa Indonesia