Where Memory and Illusion Take Root: Natalie Sasi Organ and Adytria Negara at ara contemporary

This past weekend, ara contemporary opened its doors to the public, presenting two debut solo exhibitions. The presentation marks a new chapter in the practices of Natalie Sasi Organ from Thailand and Adytria Negara from Indonesia. There is an embodied experience I felt in every room of each exhibition. Both artists “play” with how we see, inhale, and feel. At the same time, tendrils of memory are drawn into our present through the works on view.

Upon stepping into the main gallery, visitors are greeted by She lit my mouth without a word, Natalie Sasi Organ’s debut exhibition, accompanied by a curatorial text by Vân Đỗ. Descending the stairs into the focus gallery, Depictions, Depictions marks Adytria Negara’s first solo exhibition, with a text by Yacobus Ari R. Bringing together two distinct yet resonant practices, both artists consider how objects embody, construct, and transform illusion and memory. Natalie’s practice is rooted in approaching objects as vessels of intimate “ritual.” She also explores the lineages and experiences that bind her surroundings. Meanwhile, Adytria reflects on perceptual and representational objects–questioning how the everyday is seen, remembered, and reimagined.

She lit my mouth without a word

In Indonesian, the exhibition title translates to “dia membakar mulutku tanpa sepatah kata”, a poetic phrase manifested through a series of oil paintings, kinetic installations, sculptures, and text-based works. These works mark three years since the artist returned to Thailand, her mother’s homeland. Moving within cycles of desire and loss, the exhibition is grounded in a sensory and psychological landscape shaped by memory, ritual, and the body. Throughout the exhibition, influenced by her Thai-British heritage, Natalie employs objects and materials from both cultural contexts, reconfiguring and recontextualizing them from personal and collective historical traces.

Among the works, betel leaf continues to be explored by Natalie as a potent element, evoking bodily transformation and shifts in cultural values over time. These elements function not only as symbols but also as vessels of embodied memory, where metaphors of intimacy, discipline, and inheritance intersect. Through this approach, Natalie reflects on the complexities of familial relationships and cultural transmission, where affection and restraint often coexist.

Fire emerges as a recurring and guiding element in gestures that are both intimate and ceremonial. It appears in acts of care, as well as in the invocation of Yu Fai, a Thai postpartum practice. As a source of warmth and a force of destruction, fire operates as a shifting metaphor, moving between “to nurture” and “to destroy,” “to live” and “to rot.” Rather than a neutral illumination, the exhibition is conceived through the unstable presence of firelight, where visibility is partial, and meaning remains in flux. Ultimately, She lit my mouth without a word explores how memory is preserved, altered, and embodied–what is retained, what fades, and what continues to shape one’s sense of self.

Depictions, Depictions

Depictions, Depictions serves as a space for Adytria Negara to continue his artistic inquiry into the nature of images and objects, furthering his engagement with trompe-l’œil: a painting tradition that blurs the boundary between representation and reality. Through meticulously rendered oil paintings, he recreates everyday objects at their true scale, carefully mimicking their textures and material presence.

Rather than emphasizing symbolic subjects or something “grand,” Adytria shifts his attention to the often-overlooked everyday. His practice stems from a sensibility informally described as “memulung” (scavenging): a way of finding and collecting objects as records of time, each marked by traces of use, neglect, and rediscovery. In this context, scavenging becomes not only a method of selection but also a way of searching for meaning in daily life.

Across the works, objects appear as carefully constructed illusions. Books, threads, and assembled forms exist only as painted surfaces. Yet behind their visual precision lies a reconsideration of how images are formed and perceived. These depictions do not merely replicate reality; they reframe it, inviting the audience to question what is seen, what is remembered, and what remains. Depictions, Depictions presents works that are technically meticulous and conceptually open. By reimagining the familiar, Adytria proposes a more reflective engagement with images, one that unfolds over time and where meaning is not immediate but gradually comes into focus.

Visiting both exhibitions becomes a way of tracing the roots of tradition and the everyday as they continue to extend over time–slowing time down once more to realize that each of our senses holds memories of objects and embodied experiences across moments. Both exhibitions are open to the public until May 9, 2026.