Melati Suryodarmo: I’m a Ghost in My Own House

Melati Suryodarmo performs her 12-hour solo durational performance, I’m a Ghost in My Own House (2012). The artist inhabits a vast charcoal pit in Ikon’s First Floor Galleries where she continuously crushes lumpwood with a stone rolling pin on a large mortar. 

As she physically exhausts herself, the charcoal is exhausted too; the lumpwood are crushed into dust, symbolising the expenditure of life’s energy and the potential for renewal. The work reflects Suryodarmo’s feelings of dislocation following her return to Indonesia after living in Germany for many years. 

Please note that due to the nature of this performance there will be charcoal dust present in the First Floor Galleries. 

Presented as part of Melati Suryodarmo’s exhibition Passionate Pilgrim (17 May – 3 September 2023). 

This exhibition is supported by Bagri Foundation, British Council through the Connections Through Culture grants programme, Birmingham City University, University of Leeds, and the Melati Suryodarmo Exhibition Circle: A.I. Gallery; ShanghART, Tanya Michele Amador and Michiel Verhoeven; and Michelangelo and Lourdes Samson.

It is developed in collaboration with Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Nusantara (Museum MACAN), Jakarta, Indonesia.