12.

The Artist

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Melissa Sunjaya is an Indonesian visual artist based in Jakarta who mixes drawing, writing, and sewing. Her work employs illustration as a universal language to articulate complex themes, with a focus on the often-neglected stories of Southeast Asian women. This exploration leads to examining the material culture in wearable artefacts, which she perceives as a medium of art and a catalyst for social change. Her practice incorporates an autoethnographic approach and historical archives, offering insights into creating a more inclusive and representative visual narrative. She established Tulisan in 2010, a grassroots artisanal label of wearable serigraphs infused with storytelling.