Born in 1960 in Emmeloord, the Netherlands, Mella Jaarsma studied at Art Academy Minerva in Groningen and then pursued studies at Art Institue Jakarta and the Institut Seni Indonesia. Based in Yogyakarta, Jaarsma’s work is concerned with the notions of shadow and the cycle of birth and death. The latter interest sprang from her observations and personal response to the metaphysical beliefs and death rituals of the Toraja people in Sulawesi and the Balinese.The idea of the death-cremation and rebirth-life cycle is expressed in this mixed-media painting entitled “Panca Malta Buta”. Cone-shaped forms and the palindrome-stepped shape outlined in the painting's centre are recurring images in the works of 1993 and 1994. They bear personal meanings of the processes of death and re-birth.
