Riskya Duavania

Door-to-Door

2021 | TV, rice bags, used goods

Everyone has their own subjective version of secondhand items. There are always things in the house that are no longer used or even forgotten. The secondhand items are then thrown away or at least continue to take up storage space. At this point secondhand items are almost zero in value. However, these items will increase in value when they are put on the streets, picked up by people, and curated at flea markets. The previously "garbage" then transforms into something of value that is not the secondhand item that we see. It changes hands and is needed by the new owner. This cycle continues even though the quality of the items continues to decrease. Without a doubt, various ways are used by the next owner to repair, replace one of the parts, and all is done to keep it functioning.

Door-to-door is a representation of collected secondhand items that have been found door-to-door by Cik San. Using rice bags as her companion gear, she usually travels around the neighborhood, offers some clean service, or any kind of help so that in return the neighbors would give the unused items of theirs. This work is a metaphor for Cik San's first journey in searching for her gender identity when she used transwoman figure as a mode of production. The tale will be presented on the medium of TV, displayed with secondhand items collected from boarding houses (kost), private houses, anywhere the goods were collected from.

Riskya Duavania (V.o. by Mimzy)

Soping Mursida

2021 | display of used goods in flea market.

Flea markets are seemingly a great solution for finding cheap items that still work, small spare parts that are hard to find, specific items of an era that are no longer produced, or items one has never imagined of. In addition, the flea market is also a critical source of economy for the sellers from selling the secondhand items with constant demand although its price has been reasonably cut down after a long-deal of negotiations.

Soping Mursida (or cheap shopping) displays as a representation of Cik San's secondhand items that have been curated and are about to be traded. Their presences emerge in the midst of the bustle of a consumptive society full of new items due to the massive circulation of informations and trends.

Mimzy

Mentelaceae Rhizoma

2021 | printed papers in variable dimensions.

This work arrives as an imagination as well as a hope for a safe and inclusive space by presenting transwomen as the main subject who is often excluded in dominant spaces.

Mentelaceae Rhizoma is a collection of posters representing the process of body transformation, advertisements for job vacancies to cosmetics, which become a new space and hope in a society dominated by consumptive culture and heteronormative narratives.

By presenting transwomen as the main subject in this work, Mimzy tries to imagine an inclusive safe space for transwomen who are often excluded, as well as a way to negotiate with initial perceptions of society that have been firmly established.

Mimzy and Riskya Duavania

Becoming-Imperceptible

2021 | TV and wooden crate

In the midst of noise filled with majority expression that adopts the binary system, many transwomen have often lived secretive lives and in hiding; afraid that their voices will be ultimately suppressed. In the process of looking for a safe space, Mimzy finally met Cik San. Soon their later encounters flowed organically to create a kinship—family not by blood.

Becoming-Imperceptible is the place where they share intimacy and discuss what it means to be trans. This work is an interpretation of a becoming-imperceptible concept itself, using a wooden crate that appears locked to indicate how the gender identity of a transwoman cannot be seen by everyone. Using Mimzy’s gaze, Cik San will articulate the “two realms” that she found in the becoming-process. Cik San's awareness of the growth process; as seen in Jack Halberstam’s “Trans*”, is not that the older she gets, the more feminine she would look. Rather, within her body there are two beings undergoing transformations within each other, bearing witness to each other. In other words, her bodies in the "two realms" are equally aging. This process has inspired Mimzy in her self-actualization process. Both Mimzy and Cik San have agreed that society's acceptance of their gender identity is not essential for them nowadays, rather, it is a phase that has already been resolved.