Ipeh Nur

Born and based in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, Ipeh Nu creates narratives and dialogues through investigating Indonesian history and its reverberation with her personal experience and memories. Trained in printmaking, her artistic practice also includes drawings, murals, and ceramics. 

In 2019, Nur was invited to a residency in Pambusuang, a village in Mandar, West Sulawesi, where she experienced a traditional maritime culture and began to investigate current tensions that the local communities are facing. Millions of Indonesians live in coastal villages like Pambusuang and make their livings from the sea. Mandar is well known for its tradition of boat building. In recent years, the Indonesia government has initiated major embankment projects with the hope of protecting the coastline from rising seas, though these construction projects are threatening the ecosystem and affecting the livelihood of local fishermen. 

During her residency in Mandar, Nur learned how to build a boat, and this experience fostered a strong bond with the sea. The local craftsmen treat the boat as a human body. They hold ceremonies and perform rituals throughout the process to celebrate each stage of boat building. For Nur, participating in this process, in which spirituality and technology merged, led to a profound revelation about a way of life and tradition. This exhibition features a new drawing as well as Nur’s first moving image work, which she presents as a visual archive of the rituals and the disappearance of maritime culture, telling the story of the coastal communities' struggles.