Dismantling the Map: Narrative, intervention and the play-response in the art of Tintin Wulia, Tita Salina and Irwan Ahmett

Abstract

Play is often thought of as a light-hearted, jovial, leisurely activity we do ‘for fun’. But what happens when artists hijack these associations, and reframe the aesthetics of play? How can play (in all its various manifestations) be used in art to spotlight injustice, tell stories, and imagine a better world? Examining the practices of three contemporary artists from Indonesia – Tintin Wulia, and the artist duo of Tita Salina and Irwan Ahmett – this thesis examines how and why the artists use ideas of play for activist, interventionist and storytelling exercises.

To understand the implications of using play in art, I propose an interpretive paradigm of the ‘play-response’: that is, the artists’ uses of play and performance-themed interventions as a response, dare and/or challenge to the issues confronting the world around them; using the actions of play to ‘talk back’ to authority, intervene in the status quo, and find new ways of seeing society.

Works by the three artists are considered in three chapters, each dedicated to examining how activities of play are used to confront problems of the world. I analyse how the artists construct new ways of seeing issues that dominate their environment, deconstruct opaque stories by ‘playing with’ processes of reframing them, and reconstruct the possibilities of society by imagining the world as it could be.

Through these acts of construction, deconstruction and reconstruction, play in art takes a variety of forms; some of which do not immediately appear to be ‘playful’, but are instead very serious modes of expression. Understanding the play-response as a distinct aesthetic ‘attitude’ and assertiveness made visible through art allows us to see how the artists have weaponised play to confront issues in the world. Show more