Towards Figures of Dedication, and a Flood (2015)

January 2016, Edhi Sunarso (Yogyakarta) passed away, leaving a layout sketch of how he wanted his casket to be positioned in his recently opened museum. He had arranged his own funeral carefully. Last year, artist Tom Nicholson (Melbourne) and curator Grace Samboh (Yogyakarta/Medan) had a conversation with the late Pak Edhi in the presence of artist Ary Sendy Trisdiarto “Jimged” as cameraman and soundman Budi Setiawan. Tom was fascinated with Pak Edhi’s Monas dioramas and Grace was curious about one particular diorama that depicts an exchange of a very powerful letter that changed Indonesia yet no one had never seen the original until now. What you will be reading is an abridged transcription of that conversation— which obviously did not happen in English—translated by Elly Kent and documented in video.