Years ago, a friend talked to me about how “It’s rare for women to be acclaimed as artists,” citing how a majority of well-known maestros in art were men.
While this statement may be true at face value — I suspect few laypeople could name, off the top of their head, women in art other than Frida Kahlo — the deeper issue underneath is that of opportunity, visibility, and power. For one, the publication-machines that circulate value to form our knowledge of ‘master artists’ has historically tended to favour men.
So when I learnt that Museum MACAN, in collaboration with Wikimedia Indonesia, had arranged a programme called Sumber Sejarah Terbuka: Seni Rupa oleh Seniman Perempuan Indonesia (Open-Source Knowledge: Art by Indonesian Women Artists), I was immediately drawn to contribute to the initiative.