Apakah Tubuh: Sebuah Ladang di Dalam Rumah / Is it a Body: A  Field Inside a House

Acrylic on transparent fabric, video

Biennale Jogja XV, 2019

Labor exploitation does not only occur behind the factory walls, but also within the residents’ houses. The laborers who work from home are mostly housewives. They work for the orders of specific companies. Among others, these orders include attaching stickers and packing products. They provide cheap labor and reduce the company’s burden of providing labor insurance (for the workers’ safety and health). Such a practice is commonly found in many places, including Indonesia. She intends to expose this issue to the public.

Laborers who work from home bear the workload similar to that borne by the factory laborers. Their job is also repetitive, simple, and of large quantity or following specified targets. The only difference between them is that those working from home are free to decide the working schedule, meaning they can work amidst their domestic activities. However, they may work longer daily due to the specified targets and their responsibilities as a housewife.

Dian simulated the domestic worker jobs by making more than 100 drawings with precisely the same size and object. The drawings were made like industrial production. Dian lined up several drawing spaces made of framed organza fabric and drew the same lines over each space. The drawings were not made one by one. Dian simultaneously worked on them all at once.