Melati Suryodarmo: A Visual Analysis

An art should be understood so that its viewers can relate. However, what others see is a vision that is recurrent and dull at times for them. These spectators do not see what is beyond in what they are seeing. The undiscovered side is essentially ignored because the translation is vague enough to be understood. An art in the first place should be relatable not through our interpretation, but on how the artist exemplifies it. Art should be translated into the language that both the artists and the viewers understand. Citing an example is the performance of Melati Suryodarmo. While watching, people may see it as a dance of fall, of the slide, up and down however, there are reasons beyond those movements. The translation is obviously concentrated

It is a technical word usually used in a scientific context. It connotes the energy that is available to be used in a system. In addition, “Exergy is the concept that explicitly indicates ‘what is consumed” (Shukuya and Abdelaziz). In the performance art of Suryodarmo which lasted for 20 minutes, what she consumed was her energy by dancing on the butter. She stopped because she was out of any energy available to her. Basically, the exergy is zero, her energy is zero. After the video performance became viral, her mentor, Marina Abramovic commented to it and said, “The most important thing a performance artist can do is to create a charismatic space around them and connect with the public. This is not easy, but Melati has the qualities and abilities to achieve this” (Rao). Here, the space created by Suryodormo, which is the stage with a black dance carpet, served as a medium for her to make use of her energy. In that given space, she showed the people her life through

Firstly, she exemplifies the characteristics of a performance artist. “Performance artists, in contrast, often play themselves --- their own personality or life --- not a character, and both plot and narrative are handled in unconventional ways” (Stern and Henderson). Suryodormo shared her experiences through her performance. It was her life that was seen by many. Her movements are dictated upon her life realizations, her own life, it was all instantaneous. While dancing on the butter, she never expects the moment whenever she falls. It can be related to her life which is up and down, full of challenges and struggles. Secondly, it is considered as a happening in which Michael Kirby defined as “a purposefully composed form of theatre in which diverse alogical elements, including non-matrixed performing, are organized in a compartmental structure” (Kirby). Happenings include matrixed and non-matrix performance. In the case of Suryodormo, her performance is a matrixed performance because it was done originally in a matrix of time and space. The character she portrays is her own character and the performance she does is originally from her. Thirdly, Suryodormo incorporates the object she used, the butter, into her performance. The butter is considered raw because it is an object obviously existing where she linked her past experiences and applied a representation which made a new meaning to the object butter. In