Citra Sasmita

Seeing Into Eternal Land at the Barbican was a full-body experience. The curved gallery space, snakeskin textures, headless figures, turmeric mandalas—it wasn’t just an exhibition, it felt like a ritual.

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What moved me most was how she dealt with the female body—not through direct statements, but through forms: serpentine shapes, decapitated plants, embroidered motifs. It evoked a space between myth and reality—sacred and unsettling. This resonates with what I’ve been trying to do: images that are soft, but strange.

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She also made me realize: Space doesn’t just present content—it can generate content. In Who’s There?, I tried to let materials (lace, black fabric, metal stands) and light form an atmosphere—not an explanation.

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Sasmita’s work felt like a silent story. You might not grasp every chapter, but you carry away a lingering memory—of death, rebirth, mythology, and humor. That’s exactly what I hope to leave behind in my own work: a residue of sensation.