After Life: Everlasting Flame

Watercolor on paper, food packaging box made of cardboard, torch lamp

2021

Dapur Buruh Gendong (Porter Workers’ Kitchen) and Dian Suci were invited to engage in dialogue and documentation about ways of surviving together during the pandemic and the ongoing multidimensional crisis. Dapur Buruh Gendong is a community kitchen established to provide daily lunch assistance for female porter workers (buruh gendong) in several traditional markets in Yogyakarta, including Beringharjo, Giwangan, Gamping, and Kranggan.

Dapur Buruh Gendong began operations on October 19, 2020, initiated by four coordinators: M. Berkah Gamulya, Elanto Wijoyono, Adriani Zulivan, and Dodok Jogja. The kitchen operates in phases, each lasting between 20 to 25 days. At the start of each phase, the organizers announce the kitchen’s needs—such as funds, supplies, and volunteers. At the end of each phase, a public report is released through social media to disclose the donations received and the number of meal portions distributed. By September 23, 2021, Dapur Buruh Gendong had completed nine phases over nearly a year. During this period, the kitchen had distributed 44,577 lunch portions to female porter workers and extended its reach to other vulnerable groups, including pedicab drivers, sanitation workers, parking attendants, transwomen, and fellow activists undergoing self-isolation.

Amidst the kitchen’s busy activities in August 2021, Dian Suci began documenting Dapur Buruh Gendong as part of her “kitchen notes.” Dian Suci is an artist who has consistently used domestic spaces as a foundation to discuss politics and public issues. Throughout her documentation process, Dian positioned herself as someone who came to learn from the kitchen and the people within it.

The outcome of Dian Suci’s documentation process is a work titled After Life: Everlasting Flame. The work incorporates food boxes used to package meals at Dapur Buruh Gendong. For Dian, the kitchen embodies the importance of a continuous cycle of aid. The artwork, shaped as a perpetually burning hearth, symbolizes the volunteers’ efforts as a network of mutual reinforcement. Small details within the work serve as visual records of the kitchen’s activities, illustrating how even the smallest acts of involvement contribute to the larger movement of people’s solidarity.

Dapur Buruh Gendong will continue to support the livelihoods of porter workers, market laborers, and others who are struggling to survive and confronting policies that marginalize them. The kitchen’s consistency and transparent organization serve as a critique of the lack of public fund accountability in the government’s pandemic response. Dapur Buruh Gendong’s stance is reflected in its decision to reject government funding, including its position in this event. While Dapur Buruh Gendong has supported artists’ initiatives, they continue to insist on demanding accountability for the use of public funds for the people’s welfare.