Geography of Nostalgia: Rozana Lee’s artist residency in Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Rozana: "For me, batik is more than a medium; it is a metaphor for home, cultural interweaving, and intergenerational history."

I was born and raised in Aceh, Indonesia. I left the country during the May 1998 anti-Chinese riots, a period of political upheaval and racial violence that forced many ethnic Chinese to flee.

Returning to Indonesia for this residency marked my first extended visit as an artist. While it felt like a homecoming, the experience was layered with contradicting emotions: a sense of familiarity and distance, belonging and alienation, nostalgia and loss.

Redbase Foundation is located on the southern outskirts of Yogyakarta, near the renowned art institute ISI (Institut Seni Indonesia).

Nestled among rice fields and local housing, the residency offered an idyllic rural atmosphere that reminded me of my hometown in Aceh. Its slightly remote location also meant I had to travel frequently into the city centre to attend workshops, source batik-making materials, visit exhibitions and art spaces, and shop for groceries and other necessities.

Public transportation around Yogyakarta city is scarce, so I had to book taxis to get around. Local taxi drivers often asked where I came from. They noticed my accent in Bahasa Indonesia or my Chinese family name.

Their reactions are rooted in history. Following the 1965–66 anti-communist purge related to the Cold War, which led to the mass killing of Chinese Indonesians perceived as communists or sympathisers of China, the government passed laws banning the use of Chinese names and the practice of Chinese cultural traditions.

As a result, all Chinese Indonesians, including my parents, had to adopt Indonesian names. I was registered without a surname at birth. Later, I reclaimed my family name after marrying my husband, a European New Zealander named Lee.

Rozana working on layering the second colour in the batik-making process at the Redbase Foundation artist residency, Yogyakarta

The dyeing process and colour fixing (left) following wax drawing. Boiling the wax off the textile, the final step in batik making (right)

During my residency, I focused on refining my batik skills, a traditional wax-resist dyeing technique used to create intricate patterns on textiles. Batik reflects Indonesia’s cultural identity and social history, which speaks to my interest in layered cultural narratives shaped by early migration, religion, trade, and colonisation.

I completed an intensive one-week course at the government-run craft organisation Balai Besar Standardisasi dan Pelayanan Jasa Industri Kerajinan dan Batik (BPPSJI), where I learned the technical aspects of various synthetic batik dyeing methods.

Rozana's installations at Redbase Foundation in Yogyakarta, Indonesia

I also took a two-day course at Leksa Ganesha, a small batik gallery and workshop, where I focused on natural dyeing techniques.

These trainings became collaborative experiences that opened up conversations between traditional craftsmanship and contemporary artistic practice.

I found that many batik and craft makers today work in galleries, workshops, or government agencies, as it has become increasingly difficult to sustain an independent practice.

For me, batik is more than a medium; it is a metaphor for home, cultural interweaving, and intergenerational history.

My parents owned a textile shophouse in Aceh, where our family lived on the second floor. Growing up surrounded by fabrics, patterns, and the rhythms of trade and community interactions, along with the lived experience of multigenerational migration, shaped my artistic practice.

One of Rozana's installations at Redbase Foundation

My work often carries traces of places, stories, and motifs, some inherited, others reimagined. In Yogyakarta, surrounded by artisans with centuries of inherited knowledge, I learnt and experimented with new materials and methods, expanding the potential of my practice.

Beside workshops and studio time, I also immersed myself in the city’s artistic community and non-commercial art spaces, attending exhibitions at Cemeti Institute for Art and Society and Ruang MES 56, both vital to Yogyakarta’s contemporary art scenes.

These visits connected me with curators and artists engaged in socially driven and experimental practices. I also visited the studios of two prominent Indonesian artists: FX Harsono and Nindityo Adipurnomo, whose work explores Indonesia’s complex socio-political fabric.

Harsono’s focus on identity and history particularly resonated with my own experiences as a fourth-generation Chinese-Indonesian.

Rozana with artist FX Harsono

My residency culminated in a short exhibition titled Geography of Nostalgia, held at Redbase Foundation and featuring works created during my stay.

They serve as maps of migration, return, longing, and resilience. Through patterns, textiles, moving image, and collaboration, I charted a story that is personal yet resonates with those navigating diasporic identities.

It traces not only what has been lost or left behind, but also what endures through memory, ritual, and reimagination. The exhibition takes its title from the book by Alastair Bonnett, which addresses global and local perspectives on modernity and loss.

Timed to coincide with ARTJOG, Yogyakarta’s annual art festival, the exhibition drew local and international visitors, including artists and curators from Jakarta, Singapore and Australia, as well as a delegation of curators from Aotearoa New Zealand, led by the Asia New Zealand Foundation.

Rozana Lee and Nancy Nan (Founder of Redbase Foundation, front row, second from the right) with a delegation of Aotearoa curators and representatives from the Asia New Zealand Foundation at Redbase Foundation

Rozana's residency culminated in a short exhibition titled Geography of Nostalgia, held at Redbase Foundation

For me, the residency was deeply enriching. Besides refining my batik-making skills, it was a chance to reconnect with my home country, Indonesia, but also to confront its past and my own in ways that weren’t always easy.

It felt like coming home, but not without questions. The lush rice fields, the tropical heat, the humid rain, the soothing call to prayer, and the warmth of the local community brought back many fond memories. Yet beneath that familiarity lingered the weight of a history that is mostly unacknowledged and left unspoken, casting a shadow over the present.

In Yogyakarta, a special region in Indonesia, a longstanding policy remains in place that restricts land ownership for Chinese Indonesians, regardless of how many generations have passed.

This policy, which dates back to a 1975 regional head instruction and is rooted in Dutch colonial-era law, prevents Chinese Indonesians from owning land outright, granting only leasehold titles, reflecting enduring historical and cultural biases.

The Foundation's Arts Programme brings Asia into the mainstream of New Zealand arts by inspiring New Zealand arts professionals to grow their connections and knowledge of Asia. It also supports the presentation of Asian arts in partnership with New Zealand arts organisations and events.