Milik Bersama Rekombinan
(Recombinant Commons)
the multiplicity inside all of us
only because we are porous, radically.
![]()
![]()
![]()
only because we are porous, radically.
At first glance, River Code ("cho-deh") in Yogyakarta, Indonesia is a surreal landscape colonized by plastic, with its citizens believing their water is clean enough for daily use. While the root of the problem is complex and multi-faceted (income level, pollution as colonialism, and lack of government infrastructure) it can ultimately be addressed at the social-cultural level, requiring empathy to live and cope in toxic conditions. This trilogy of works reflects on the polluted landscape of the river and the local citizens who live densely and intimately in its watery embrace. While water is the medium that connects us all, it is also the primary carrier of the industrial molecules, simultaneously queering both the river and the bodies of its inhabitants. Can the marginalized people of River Code care for the health of the river as if it were their own bodies? Can mutation and shape-shifting be acknowledged as legitimate strategies for survival?
The installation includes a rotating mandala projection comprised on trash found in the river, symbolizing the constant recombination of plastic particles inside our own bodies. The installation also includes a bamboo sculpture of River Code filled with blue agar that invites microbial contamination juxtaposed against contained samples of bioremediating fungi. Next, the river is flanked by a set of two latex sculptures embodying the porosity of skin as it is embedded with trash from the river. And lastly, the installation plays a child's recording of the story "Bagaimana Dunia Berhenti Bergerak" or "How the World Stopped Moving," a story about the river who speaks to a little girl and tells her it is hurting because it cannot digest all the plastic, so it must return it all to humanity.
The installation includes a rotating mandala projection comprised on trash found in the river, symbolizing the constant recombination of plastic particles inside our own bodies. The installation also includes a bamboo sculpture of River Code filled with blue agar that invites microbial contamination juxtaposed against contained samples of bioremediating fungi. Next, the river is flanked by a set of two latex sculptures embodying the porosity of skin as it is embedded with trash from the river. And lastly, the installation plays a child's recording of the story "Bagaimana Dunia Berhenti Bergerak" or "How the World Stopped Moving," a story about the river who speaks to a little girl and tells her it is hurting because it cannot digest all the plastic, so it must return it all to humanity.
Created for the Yogyakarta International Contemporary Visual Arts Festival ARTJOG: Arts in Common curated by Agung Hujatnikajennong and Ignatia Nilu. Photos courtesy of ARTJOG MMXIX at Jogja national Museum.
Created for the Yogyakarta International Contemporary Visual Arts Festival ARTJOG: Arts in Common curated by Agung Hujatnikajennong and Ignatia Nilu. Photos courtesy of ARTJOG MMXIX at Jogja national Museum.
GENDERS. Science Galley London, 2020.
The Vibration of Things. 15th Sculpture Triennial “Kleinplastik” in Fellbach, Germany. 2021.
what is river gynecology?
Water is the source of all life, but it is also the carrier of industrial residues – molecules that have seeped across bodies, landscapes and generational time scales. These invisible currents and pervasive transmissions reveal how deeply connected we are, and underpin the immense permeability of life itself. Water, in its fluid disobedience, dissolves the borders between ourselves and the planet. The true embodiment of water is the recognition that there is no “I.”
River Gynecology invites us to embrace this shared vulnerability, to recognize the silent movements of molecules as a guide for how we care for and steward all watery bodies, including our own. It is a practice of fluid, relational care – one that moves beyond ideas of purity or simple restoration. Instead, it acknowledges that the land, with all its present and ancestral wounds, lives within us. River systems and their connections to all bodies of water are not only pathways but an archive, carrying both harm and healing. To tend to water is to tend to memory, to listen to the residues left behind and honor their stories of both beauty and horror. In surrendering to its flow, we learn to hold contradiction – to see care not as erasure that upholds standards of purity, but as a way of being in relationship with what remains and what resists. In living with water and its wounds, we come to understand that care is never solitary but a constant transformation through constellations.
Published in 100 Words for Water: A Projective Ecosocial Vocabulary. WATER PARLIAMENTS. 2025
kali code (river “cho-deh”)
mapping toxicity
decolorization =?= decolonization
This work would not be possible without Lifepatch - Citizen Initiative in Art, Science, and Technology, Pak Donny Widianto and Mbak Ardhiani from UGM Biotechnology, and Fulbright AMINEF, the organization funding the artistic research project, "River Gynecology." Furthermore, here is a warm thanks to the people who helped me along the way: Ferial Afiff, Nova Rachmad Basuki, Agus Tri Budiarto, Andreas Siagian, Suherman, Agung Satriya Wibowo, and Deki Yudhanto. And finally here is my greatest gratitude to new river friends: Ibu Suryawati, Pak Bejo Utomo, Pak Liliek Suroso, and Pak Mul.
