Jemana Murti (b.1997) is an Indonesian-born artist based in Bali. He finished his education in Fine Arts practice at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in 2020. His artistic practice consists of painting, sculpture, and large-scale installation. His artistic practice originates from his lived experiences and observations as a Balinese and the religious aspects of Bali. In 2019, he took part in a group exhibition ‘The New Now 3: Convergence’ by Gajah Gallery Singapore and the National Gallery Singapore Benefit Auction in 2022. Jemana Murti’s work is in private collections in Singapore, London, and Indonesia and his work is also part of the permanent installation at Raffles Maldives Meradhoo resort.

Phantasma, 2022
Bali has for it’s culture and beauty, there are instances where Balinese people had to sell their family heirloom and cultural artifacts due to the high monetary value these objects have. Some are even enticed to sell them because they need to eat, if the object is sold to a foreigner, it may be taken out of Bali, resulting in the loss of the object. And if nobody wants to keep these artifacts, the people will remain hungry. This dilemma raised a question: what state should this cultural object take? what would happen if we fully bestow our duty and responsibility in preserving the culture not to the next generation but to machines? What would happen if things like this keeps on happening? This work shows a bleak alternate future of the Balinese culture, where what we have are just ghosts of what was, objects that don’t have a fixed status. Made of plastic instead of wood, done by machines instead of hands, adding more and more material by 3D printing instead of removing materials we see in carvings, and run by programs instead of having a soul.