Taste Like Home
2023
100 x 75 cm
Acrylic and pen ink on canvas

Inspired by the idea of last meals, and the compositional format of Henry Hargreaves' photo series "No Second," Taste Like Home meant to highlight the importance and sentimentality attached to food for more or less every culture out there, paired with the artist's portrayal of death.

At the top panel, present is a plate of Balinese nasi campur (rice with assorted sides) accompanied with a glass of iced tea, a classic menu the artist would see served at their paternal grandmother's warung. Meanwhile at the bottom panel, a figure sat alone, tearing up and dressed in nothing but a sarung kemben, as if they were about to bathe or clean themself. To the right appears to be an image of a lembu (bull), lit up as if it is on fire, a reference to the Balinese funeral ceremony where the departed are cremated along with a wooden sarcophagus that comes in various shapes such as the lembu. Though the figure's gesture indicates the action of eating, the plate remained empty, like no food was ever there. With this imagery, these earthly pleasures are depicted as a yearned distant thing.

(Description may be subject to change.)