The exhibition Perempuan Merdeka brought together Indonesian artists Bulan Fi Sabilillah and Fitri DK through printmaking concerned with women’s bodies, political agency and patriarchal expectations.
Presented during the 39th Indonesia Update, the exhibition connected contemporary gender debates with the legacy of the New Order regime.
Printmaking as a political language
Both artists worked with processes including woodcut and etching. The choice carried historical significance because printed images had played an important role in circulating information and resistance during the New Order and the Reformasi period.
Fitri DK drew on her participation in the 2019 Women’s March in Yogyakarta. Her work addressed violence against LGBTQI communities, the protection of domestic and migrant workers, child marriage, dating violence and the rights of sex workers.
For Fitri, women’s rights formed an essential part of human rights, and printmaking offered a way to spread that argument beyond a single event.
Body image and unequal judgement
Bulan Fi Sabilillah focused on the everyday commentary directed at women’s weight, skin colour and appearance. She examined how social media intensified comparison and damaged self-esteem.
Her work also questioned unequal religious and social expectations around covering the body. In cases of sexual violence, those expectations could be used to blame and stigmatise women rather than perpetrators.
Bulan’s images promoted body confidence and rejected the idea that women should constantly modify themselves to satisfy external standards.
Perempuan Merdeka joined playful visual language with direct political critique. The two artists used reproducible graphic forms to challenge domestic restriction, prescribed beauty and the social systems that limited women’s public and political presence.