While the Apocalypse – Blog

Occupying a territory between the fantastical and the supernatural, the scary and the soft, Indonesian visual artist Natasha Tontey has developed a convention-defying storytelling approach, rooted in her environment and her own indigenous experience. Born in Jakarta with Minahasan family ties, and now based between Jakarta and Yogyakarta, her work processes historical, mythical, and ancestral knowledge through a contemporary lens, addressing complex issues from ecological preservation to gender dynamics.

Delivering an introspective portrait of the artist with a sense of mischief, director Kathleen Malay explores the fluidity between Tontey’s life and artistic expressions for Anatomy of an Artist, revealing her latest work, commissioned by Audemars Piguet Contemporary. Following the development of Primate Visions: Macaque Macabre between surreal world-building and panoramic landscapes, Tontey leads an explorative journey into her process and inspirations, centering the endangered black crested macaque – or Yaki – in relation to the Minahasan indigenous community.

Blurring the boundaries of her fictional world and its geographical context, Tontey invites audiences to experience her art from within, as constructed characters bleed into her reality as an artist and the multi-layered realm that surrounds her.

Primate Visions: Macaque Macabre is on display at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Nusantara (Museum MACAN), Jakarta from 16 November 2024 until 6 April 2025

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