Hi inlander 1999

Mella Jaarsma’s 'second skins' are made from Javanese gurami fish, frog skins, chicken skin (and feet) and kangaroo hides. When worn, they cover the body from head to shin, resembling some Islamic head-coverings.

Jaarsma was born in the Netherlands but has lived in Indonesia since the 1980s. The term 'Hi inlander' was a Dutch colonial form of greeting to indigenous Indonesians and was intended as a derogatory comment on their colonised status. Jaarsma’s Hi inlander was made for ‘The 3rd Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ (APT3), presented in 1999, as a response to the preceding period of increased political, economic and social tensions in Indonesia. During the opening night of APT3, these skins were worn by performers who mingled with invited guests. As the artist recalls:

I designed three kitchen tables and offered the meat of these four animals with a variety of spices to the visitors of the exhibition. The idea behind this happening was that sharing food together opens up possibilities for understanding between cultures, while stimulating conversation.

With Hi inlander, Jaarsma asks us to consider what it means to walk around in another’s skin, to see through their eyes, or to make food with their hands. More acutely, she asks what might it feel like to live in another’s body, to eat their food and to become like them: does a different body make a different person?