BORROWED LIGHT
SHADOWS OF WANITA SULAWESI
Borrowed Light is a collaborative excavation born from the shared partnership between Azrul K. Abdullah and I. Together, we ventured into the silent corridors of the archive to challenge the ethnographic distance of the colonial gaze, specifically focusing on the women of Sulawesi whose identities had been reduced to mere data points.
This project was never a solitary endeavour; it was an intersection of institutional trust and cultural dialogue. Our inquiry was fueled by the support of the Agung Rai Museum of Art (ARMA) in Bali, where the discovery of a painting titled “Wanita Sulawesi” by Jan Frank Niemantsverdriet, had triggered a profound journey for us for two years. Going deep into the rabbit hole, we found the genesis of the painting that led us to rename the piece on 27th October 2025. This journey of repatriation was further platformed at the National Art Gallery (Balai Seni Negara), where the discourse was opened to the public, and the sale of a limited edition of the published book.
Borrowed Light: Shadows of Wanita Sulawesi represents a pivotal moment in Southeast Asian art scholarship—a bridge between meticulous historical research and the physical reclamation of identity. This project, co-authored with Azrul K. Abdullah, investigates the layered entanglements of colonial photography and modernist art practices that long shrouded Southeast Asian subjects in misattribution.
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The culmination of this research was marked by a historic event on 27 October 2025 at the ARMA Museum in Ubud, Bali. This unveiling brought together key voices in the regional art discourse, including:
Agung Rai: Founder of ARMA Museum and custodian of the painting.
Prof. Dr. Wayan Kun Adnyana: Rector of ISI Bali.
The re-titling to Twee Bataafse Vrouwen (Two Batavian Women) was the culmination of this vigil. It was a ritual of naming—returning a specific spatial and cultural truth to a history that had been blurred by convenience. In collaboration and with the profound support of Agung Rai and ISI Bali, we ensured that these women were no longer silent participants in a colonial narrative.