SingartA Bloody Splice Of Nutmeg’s History
Michael Janssen Singapore will be bringing Rubiati Puspitasari’s “Imago Mundi” to local shores early next year to offer residents and visitors alike a bitter sweet taste of the Dutch East India Company’s pivotal role in advancing Indonesia’s dark and torturous history in the spice trade.
Titarubi, which is the professional name Puspitasari goes by, created this ominous looking sculpture by draping a starkly black devilish presence with a large long flowing robe made entirely of heavy metal mace that is threaded through with gold plated actual nutmegs.
The placement of these nuts is extremely significant as it still is a spice that comes from the Banda islands, a group of 10 small volcanic islands in the Banda Sea, which is part of the Indonesian province of Maluku. And she has gold plated this spice to symbolize its value in the 16th and 17th centuries: back then nutmeg was the most desired luxury good in Europe.
During that part of turbulent history it was literally more valuable than gold: the Dutch were able to maintain this sky high price by constantly voluntarily burning full warehouses of nutmeg in Amsterdam.
Even then the unquenchable demand by Europe for this tropical spice was so great that the English and the Dutch were engaged in prolonged battles to gain control of its plantations and trade: the newly appointed Dutch East India Company governor-general, Jan Pieterszoon Coen, waged a menacing war to ensure Dutch monopoly over the Banda’s spice trade.
It was a bloody war that not only took many lives from the English and Dutch: 14,000 inhabitants on these islands were massacred and the 1,000 left living the Dutch enslaved.
Even then those left living could not cope with the vast demand for labour needed to effectively run the nutmeg plantations and trade. So after this 1621 massacre, the Banda Islands’ plantations turned to importing slaves from Java and other Indonesian islands as well.
Why has Tirabuti decided to sculpt such a bloodied artwork to embody that excruciating period of Indonesia’s history?
Well, she received an invitation to do so by the Museum Van Loon, in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in line with its decision to showcase a special exhibition that reflects upon the role the van Loon family has had in the Dutch East India Company.
Willem van Loon (1537-1618) was one of the co-founders of the Dutch east India Company. And his son, Hans van Loon (1577-1658), was the longest serving governor in Dutch occupied Indonesia.
Their currently living family heir, Philippa van Loon, initiated this exhibition, “Suspended Histories”, this year so as to connect her family’s part in this era of Indonesia’s sensitive history with what this country and her family are today through contemporary art.
Titarubi was one of the Museum Van Loon’s chosen artists for 2 vital reasons. Firstly, she was born and bred in Bandung, Indonesia and now works in Yogyakarta – a region in her country where the Dutch East India Company once traded. At the same time, her practice reflects a passionate concern over problems of society that draw their source of inspiration through their social, political and historical connotations.
After its time in Museum Van Loon, “Imago Mundi” will be exhibited in Michael Janssen Gallery Singapore, at 9 Lock Road, #02-21, Singapore 108937 from January next year.
