Pop Culture as an Asian Expression

In a walled-off alcove within the Salihara Gallery in South Jakarta, visitors entered the darkened space and were riveted by disturbing images of animated cats performing various activities with blood pouring from their empty eye sockets.

It was a good thing that one of the artists, Maythee Noijinda, was on hand to give the audience a short background to the work. Twelve Cats, animation was inspired by a Thai folk tale about 12 women who have their eyes taken out by a giant who then locks them up and tortures them in a cave. Maythee and her colleague, Yuree Kensaku, changed the female characters into cats and served up a fantasy world full of nightmares. "The artists' new animal characters are both lovely and painful at the same time," said the blurb in the catalog.