'Thorn in The Flesh'

In Meliantha Muliawan’s works, fragments of Chinese restaurant dinner plates found in her everyday surroundings become a point of departure for questioning the superficial understanding of culture she experiences as a person of Chinese descent in Indonesia. The need to survive and adapt within another country may have gradually distanced later generations from their ancestral heritage. As a result, the understanding of one’s own culture can come to resemble that of an outsider: familiar with its outward appearances, yet disconnected from the histories and meanings beneath them. Chinese culture, in this sense, is reduced to the image of a Chinese restaurant plate; commonplace and recognizable, but rarely considered beyond its immediate familiarity.

Her practice also touches upon the intimate intersections of gender, family, and ethnic identity. Through sewing, Meliantha pieces together memories while questioning the values embedded in her family’s ethnic lineage. The act of stitching becomes a way to trace what has been inherited, what has been forgotten, and what remains uncertain. These questions extend beyond cultural heritage to more existential concerns about being, belonging, and the sense of ownership one holds over an identity. What does it mean to inherit an ethnic identity, and what responsibilities come with it? Which parts must be preserved and nurtured, brought into view, or perhaps allowed to remain hidden?

Through these gestures, Meliantha invites us to reconsider familiar objects as more than passive remnants of everyday life. By looking at them critically, she opens up an alternative way of approaching the complexities of ethnic identity; one that acknowledges not only what has been passed down, but also the silences, uncertainties, and negotiations that shape a relationship with one’s own cultural heritage.