This unique site-specific installation creates dialogues around identity, migration, society, superstition, familial narratives and solidarity. Through mundane materials, the work is rendered as a moving ‘still-life of soul food.’ It is an offering from culture past to the present, from trauma to healing, to a diverse future of togetherness in our multicultural Australia.
In Ritual Ceng Beng, Jayanto draws inspiration from a family tradition experienced in everyday life – the ritual of offering food made by his mother. As an immigrant artist, his practise blends Eastern and Western mythologies with the reality of current events. Navigating personal racial attacks, gender identity, migration and familial narratives, this installation expands on that everyday ritual of eating and sharing food, creating a place of spiritual gathering that metaphorically and theatrically represents a temple of love.
The meals/artwork serve as a reminder of good times spent with family and friends, and an invitation for people to gather to celebrate love and togetherness.
Jayanto Tan will present a unique solo performance, sharing a meal with the public and embracing cross-cultural ideas. From the perspective of a working-class migrant, Jayanto uses the context or everyday activities and personal gatherings to approach questions around social hierarchies and the experience of migration. In these acts of sentimental nostalgia, movement, sound and eating, Jayanto invites the viewing audience to taste and feel the authentic mundane culinary tales of his secret family ritual cooking Indomie mie goreng (fried noodles). These acts of sharing and gathering makes public the intimate realm of his personal memories and narratives as a challenge to the future of the Australian landscape.
Jayanto Tan was born in a small village in North Sumatra from Sumatran Christian mother and Guandong Taoism Father, and now lives on Gadigal Wangal Country in Sydney’s Inner West. As an immigrant artist, his practice blends Eastern and Western mythologies with the reality of current events. Jayanto’s work has been shown at 4A Center for Contemporary Asian Art, Verge Gallery, Firstdraft, Australia-China Institute for Arts, the 66th Blake Prize, the Churchie Emerging Art Prize and the Fisher’s Ghosts Art Award. He won the 2021 Georges River Sculpture Prize. Currently he is preparing shows for Maitland Regional Art Gallery, Art Atrium Gallery Sydney and Atrium Space Incinerator Gallery Melbourne. Jayanto holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts and Masters of Fine Arts from National Art School. He has been awarded grants from City of Sydney, Inner West Council, Diversity Arts Australia and NAVA.
11th of June | 4-5pm | Solo Performance | Opening Night
