Kacamata Kuda
Pertemuan Kelima Kami (2019) - Performance art group show as a part of Reza Afisina's short course
Kacamata Kuda
Kacamata Kuda refers to the headpiece worn by horses to limit their vision to the road they are walking on. Its purpose is to prevent horses from loosing focus and wondering through paths that their humans do not wish to pass.
This work was conducted in complete darkness. Jessica enters the room using a cardboard box she has manipulated on her head. She created a hole on the front side of the box and attached a phone to it so that she can only see the screen of the phone. Once the room door was closed, the audience and Jessica herself cannot see anything and is only able to hear the bells attached to her clothes as she moves around the room. In this room, the artist who had her head covered with a cardboard can only see what is in front of her by clicking a picture with the flash on, and seeing the result on her phone. On the other hand, the audience members sitting in the room are only able to see everything every time Jessica clicks a picture using the light source of her flash. The photos were taken directly through the Instagram app and uploaded live.
This performance served as a metaphor to the current social media culture as a way of knowing. Individuals using social media are only able to view things when it is uploaded, but only a glimpse of the whole situation through a small 4cmx4cm squared pictures and a 365 word limit. In reality there is a much bigger picture of the whole situation which cannot be fit inside a digital screen.
Documentation of Kacamata Kuda that remains in Jessica Tanto's Instagram
About the group show: Pertemuan Kelima Kami
Pertemuan Kelima Kami: performance art dalam ruang was the fifth meeting of our performance art short course lead by Reza Afisina which was held as a public groupshow. A total of 5 performance art were shown in this event. I showcased 1 solo performance art titled Kacamata Kuda and one collaborative performance with Naraset was titled What do you love doing?