Born in 1960 in Emmeloord, The Netherlands, Mella Jaarsma studied at Art Academy Minerva in Groningen and then pursued studies at the Art Institute of Jakarta and the Institut Seni Indonesia. Based in Yogyakarta, Jaarsma’s artistic practice challenges any simplistic categorisation as her background situates her in a unique perspective, slipping in and out of the tensions of her environment. Her costume installations use various materials that are charged with metaphoric potencies of race, identity, human nature, sexuality, beliefs, politics and origins.Here, Mella used an entire goatskin as a reference to the Islamic ritual of sacrificing two goats for the birth of a male baby and only one goat for a female baby, challenging gender biases and the ritualistic role of animals as sacrifices. The gaps between the seams on the costume installation remind us of the early clothing worn by primitive human civilisations.
