Borrowed Light: Shadows of Wanita Sulawesi
Borrowed Light: Shadows of Wanita Sulawesi is a project that re-examines a colonial-era painting long obscured by misattribution. Once known as Wanita Sulawesi, the work has been re-identified through the research of Dr. K. Azril Ismail & Azrul K Abullah in the past 2 years. At its heart, the project is not merely about correcting a title, but about restoring cultural memory and reclaiming a narrative shaped by photography, modernism, and the entangled histories of Southeast Asia.
Anchored by a book launch and the ceremonial re-titling at the ARMA Museum in Ubud, Bali; the project unfolds across scholarship, exhibition, and dialogue. It is both an act of remembrance and a gesture of resistance against erasure; illuminating how art continues to bear witness to identity, history, and the fragile truths that lie in shadow.
The Vision
The ARMA Museum, as Agung Rai reminds us, is not a static museum but a living space where memory breathes and history is re-seen. Just as the re-titling of Wanita Sulawesi restores truth, ARMA embodies the act of reclaiming narratives, allowing obscured meanings to emerge in new light.
In this interview, Agung Rai reflects on the founding spirit of ARMA, where art becomes both sanctuary and witness to cultural memory. His words resonate with the re-titling of Wanita Sulawesi, a gesture of truth and remembrance within Borrowed Light.
Unveiling borrowed Light
Book Launch and Artwork Re-Titling of Unveiling Borrowed Light: Shadows of Wanita Sulawesi, held at the Agung Rai Museum of Art, Ubud, Bali, Indonesia, on 27 October 2025 from 4:00 to 6:00 pm.
In the stillness of ARMA’s gallery, the quiet painting Wanita Sulawesi lingers; a presence both fragile and unyielding, whispering histories beneath its muted light.
An artwork is never just an image; it is a borrowed moment, a light cast upon subjects who have little say in how they are seen. Borrowed Light: Shadows of Wanita Sulawesi unravels the spectral presence of a painting captured in a colonial gaze; dissecting the tension between visibility and erasure, subjecthood and spectacle. Through a deeper look at it... long severed from its true context; this research delves into the fragility of historical representation, tracing the echoes of its misattributions and the silence left in its wake.
This is not a search for resolution but an invitation to look deeper into the shadows, the margins, the unspoken. What does it mean to be seen, yet remain unseen? And when light is borrowed, who truly owns the image?