Burning Country
- Artist: Arahmaiani
- Date: 1998–2020
- Medium: Acrylic paint on canvas, dress, matchsticks on wooden base, plastic flowers, scissors, crowbars, rice, and video, monitor, colour and sound (stereo)
- Dimensions: Overall display dimensions variable
- Museum: Tate Modern
- Collection record: Tate Modern website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is the “Burning Country” by Arahmaiani. The piece is a multi‑media installation that blends acrylic paint, a dress, matchsticks, plastic flowers, scissors, crowbars, rice, and a video monitor that plays a live feed in stereo. Arahmaiani, an eco‑feminist from Indonesia, turned the video into a healing ritual. In the recorded performance, she delivers protest poems in Indonesian—written in response to the violence against women that erupted in 1998. The video was captured during a live session on 21 November 2024.
The visual component mirrors the spoken word. A fragile archipelago made of matchsticks rises from the wooden base, evoking Indonesia’s islands. Suspended above it, an emptied dress hangs, symbolising a body drained of its agency. The juxtaposition of the delicate matchsticks and the stark dress underscores the artist’s critique of how capitalist extraction of land parallels the exploitation of women’s bodies.
Through its layered materials and performance history, “Burning Country” invites viewers to reflect on environmental injustice, gender violence, and the possibility of communal healing.
See it in person
Burning Country is in the collection of Tate Modern on Bankside, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
