Finding My Way Back

During my high school years in Singapore, I painted with the freedom of someone who had not yet learned to ask where art might lead. The work from those years has a younger rhythm to it, restless and sincere. When I later rerouted my career, I packed that part of myself away. I thought I had closed the door gently enough.

Less than a month ago, Tulisan invited me to create a contemporary response to the 1830 Project. I was overjoyed to be included. The work became Terlihat / Terasa. I painted strangers, leaving parts of each face open to light.

The work asked whether attention is ever enough to know another person. Only later did I understand that it had turned the same question towards me. Showing it for the first time left me feeling exposed. People stayed with the portraits and sought me out afterwards. Their attention astonished me.

Maya Sujatmiko from ARTsphere Gallery, who loved the work, invited me to hold my first solo exhibition. It’s only been a week since my debut. I am still learning how to inhabit that sentence. Since receiving the invitation, gratitude has followed me into the studio. It is there when I unwrap an old painting and when I begin again before a blank surface.

The solo exhibition will keep the name Terlihat / Terasa. It will gather the recent portraits with works from my Singapore years. Returning to those early pieces has been tender. Each painting opens onto a memory I had forgotten I still carried. The person who made them feels close enough to recognise, though I cannot fully recover him.

The hand, however, is unmistakably mine. That recognition fills me with joy. Alongside the exhibition, Tulisan has asked me to create a one of a kind hand painted bag. Our first bag collection debuted in 2024; this will be my first one-of-one piece. Only one will exist.

I can hardly believe how much has unfolded in a few weeks. I feel fortunate to have met all of you who recognised something in my work while I was still learning to recognise it in myself. Your generosity brought me here. You made all of this possible. Less than a month ago, this room did not exist. Soon it will hold years of my life. You helped bring it into being.

I hope you will come to Terlihat / Terasa. I will be there, grateful for every improbable turn that brought us into the same room. No exhibition can offer a complete account of a life; no face can. This one offers what remains and the chance to feel what cannot be explained.

Bring your memories. There is room for them here.

Peace and love,
Rajata Hakim