Kuku Bima (Bima’s nails)


2020

Experiments with local people’s nails and habits

Installation

Curated by: Adam Gruba

Sesama, Art residency

Yogyakarta, Indonesia



Being placed in a new environment evokes a range

of emotions, fear, awe, joy, and anxiety. The urge to

interpret everything through a European lens meets

the impossibility of finding clear answers.The only

way forward is adaptation, reshaping imagination,

beliefs, and perceptions. Through experiments with

local materials and creative acts, I immersed myself

in the environment and interpret-ed it personally.


One of the things that struck me most was the

ambiguity surrounding local men’s long nails. Their

meaning varied across different beliefsthey weresaid

to be weapons, status symbols, tools, remnants of

forgotten traditions, or magical talismans.The search

for a single truth highlighted the West-ern tenden-

cy to impose order on diverse customs.Kuku Bima

came to symbolize a reconfiguration of perception,

where hidden rituals, beliefs, and cultural gestures

shape everyday actions.


Shaping, maintaining, and sometimes wrapping or

covering these nails suggested a subtle rituality,

echoing practices like wrapping banana leaves: acts

that both conceal and reveal, protecting beliefs

while also marking transformation.