Born A Problem
Edward Gunawan and Paula Te

Installation at The Fishbowl Gallery
Feb 2, 2024 - Feb 23, 2024

In 1967, Indonesia’s president Suharto released legislation entitled 'Basic Policy for the Solution of the Chinese Problem’. This was one of the many legal texts published in the second half of the 20th century containing policies aimed against ethnic Chinese in Indonesia, of which are also the sources for Born a Problem.

In Born a Problem, Gunawan and Te (both of Chinese Indonesian descent) bear witness to the policies that directly affected them and their families. Gunawan’s poetry is a series of erasure poems based on the discriminatory laws from that period. Te highlights the weight of these discriminatory laws by inviting the audience to see the sources behind the poetry by looking at the work through the lens of their smart devices. The act evokes a reminder of the invisible forces around us, much like the laws themselves, which remain unseen yet wield a constant influence. Even though most of the laws had been revoked after Suharto was deposed in 1998, the devastating societal effects continue to cast a long shadow over the country.

Born a Problem  poses the question: What invisible forces are present in our lives? And how are they negatively impacting all of us? Our installation invites the audience to reflect upon those invisible forces that are present in our communities and how we can shed a light on those forces. Once the invisible is revealed, we can no longer feign ignorance. We can choose to  wield this light as a portal for connection, not just with the artists’ heritage, but also across our own communities and humanity at large.

Original documents are in public domain and in Bahasa Indonesia; English language translations provided by Gunawan.