Room Screen Kardinal is a 4-panelled folding screen on painted and hand-carved water buffalo
hide. Named in reference to the 4 cardinal directions, each panel in the work utilizes motifs from antique
Indonesian tiles as metaphors to address both historical and contemporary issues around belonging,
travel, and maritime trade–which have driven migration and commerce for centuries.
In the style of ‘wayang kulit’, Javanese shadow puppetry, the painting support is made with thousands of
tiny perforations into water buffalo hide, hand-carved using traditional Javanese tools to reveal a
projected shadow image of a hodge-podge pattern of salvaged antique cement tiles. This composition is
based on the arrangement of tiles in my studio floor in Yogyakarta. The paintings are framed by panels of
hand-carved teak using Javanese wood-carving techniques, stained glass and hand-woven pandan
leaf–traditional crafts that I studied in Indonesia.