Theo Frids Hutabarat
Anonim
Oil on canvas
200 x 150 cm2023 

When Theo Frids Hutabarat explored the web pages of the photographic archive of the KITLV, he encountered a flood of anonymous faces from a world that was once known as the Netherlands Indies. Coincidentally, this experience resonated with his own family photo collection, which had been damaged by a flood. Superimposing these images, Theo tried to embrace the anonymous face of a 'baboe' in Pematang Siantar, a small city in North Sumatra where his father grew up.

This particular 'baboe,' whose existence was 'flooded' and swept away by the violent stream of history, once again, submerged into a flood of colors to make her invisibility visible. The process of painting her into a decayed state was akin to witnessing remnants of the 'mental flood' manifesting as organic marks. By focusing on the minuscule details that vanished or were covered by paint, Theo sought to recognize her again and again. The sensation of faded memories from his family photos converged with the growing sense of a strange connection with the 'baboe.' Seeing her in the painting is akin to recalling a damaged family photo where faces disappeared but were revived as sedimented memory—a memory that, against the tide of history, insists on staying.

This painting is the result of Theo’s artistic residency at KITLV in Leiden and Framer Framed in Amsterdam. It explores the capacity of art to forge new connections with the anonymous figures in KITLV’s photographic archive.