The assignment was to create a map or a self-portrait of yourself in time and space. I believe that my heritage as an Indonesian is strongly connected to my identity as a person. I wanted to bring up my concern on how the Indonesian identity is disappearing within each generation and becoming more Westernized.
I chose to design a deck of cards to show this change because cards in a way can function like a calendar, they represent time - there are 52 cards which represent the number of weeks within a year, the 4 symbols represent the 4 seasons and when you add up the values of the cards they become 365.
Some parts of the cards are cut out so light can go through, the light that goes through lessens as you progress through the cards, this is to represent the identity slowly dying out.
'Bayang' means shadows, but depending whether you use is it as a verb or noun it can also mean hallucinations, to imagine something, to cover something or to protect something. These cards are supposed to express how the Indonesian culture is overshadowed by Western or modern culture and that we need to realize the importance of our culture and preserve it.
The Cards
The designs on the cards are based on Indonesian designs of wayang and batik
The designs of the King, Queen and Jack are taken from wayang characters, wayang are shadow puppets, it is a form of performance art where they use light and shadows to tell stories of kingdoms, gods and goddesses and Indonesian legends.
I used Krisna as the King, Drupadi as the Queen and Arjuna as the Jack
The designs on the rest of the cards were inspired by different batik patterns that I have simplified and modified to make it more similar to the diamonds, hearts, spades and clubs pattern
Complete layout of all 52 cards
Thank you for viewing!
