The Size of Rice

The Size of Rice is a solo exhibition by Mella Jaarsma, an artist born in the Netherlands but who has been living and working in Yogyakarta since 1984. The exhibition takes  inspiration from a grain of rice, a traditional measurement unit in a shared agrarian heritage of Southeast Asia. It was this common measurement unit that made the commerce in the region possible. However, measurements also serve other purposes beyond commerce. Measurements are also a system of quantification for building and dwelling. In an archipelago country like Indonesia which consist of 1,340 ethnic groups, a diversity of systems of measurement also diversifies the process of worlding itself. Taking inspiration from the significance of the size of rice in measurement as a key concept of this exhibition, Jaarsma invited four performers with diverse ethnical and cultural backgrounds in Indonesia to collaborate with her. Based on each dancer’s ontological understanding of preferred correlations, namely length, weight, time and distance (inter-space), the artist created an object for each individual. After the art objects took shape, she welcomed the performer to interact with the artwork that came into being through their own understanding of the world. The exhibition is a showcase of objects, drawings, paintings and video works from this new series.