‘IN CONVERSATION’ with Samantha Tio & Budi Agung Kuswara – “Wax on Our Fingers” (chaired by Dr Greg Petersen)

Samantha Tio began her practice as a fine art photographer while pursuing her Bachelors in Fine Art at the School of Art, Design and Media at Nanyang Technological University in 2005. As an artist, her work puts priority on the process as well as maintaining a high-level of craft in the execution of an image. Working primarily with large format photography, she believes that technical choices are the key elements in the personalization her work. Budi Agung Kuswara (Kabul) was born in Bali in 1982 and had graduated in a Bachelor in Fine Art from Indonesia Institute of the Art, in Yogyakarta. His paintings first caught the attention of curators in his home ground and Kabul was invited to exhibit at the Bali Museum and Neka Art Museum.

“Wax on Our Fingers” is a socio-relational visual arts project that celebrates the lives and hands behind batik, a craft that is regarded as Indonesia’s most proud intangible heritage. Artists Samantha Tio & Budi Agung Kuswara worked with the batik makers from the Javanese village of Kebon Indah to create unique ‘self-portraits’combining the realism of photography together with the decorative and symbolic nature of batik motifs.