wanton.

The Wanton is an indecent creature with no loyalty. Unidentified, it binds to nothing, crosses everything. It knows no nationality and all its nationalities. It fulfills the requirements to acquire green cards, as many as possible, jumping jolly from one to the other. Unexpectedly flirtatious, it could be anywhere at any given time. Nobody knows where it is, where it was, and where it will be. Tagging along a natural-born aura of mystery, anyone would suspect a double agent in the Wanton. The Wanton ignores public image, plays around with it, while keeping its own dignity in privacy.

The Wanton is privileged even without any meaningful material or physical possessions. Its legendary but trivial death is surrounded with conspiracy theories, often involving two or more nation-states, of any it truly has no part in. Yet the definition of the Truth is always disputable for a Wanton, for it recognizes no roots, thus no originality, thus no copyright, thus no ownership, thus no box, thus no spoon, thus no definite et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. It is truly an outsider, to anyone, to everything – as it owns nothing, and as it belongs to nothing.

The Wanton is all I am to be.

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Video stills from “Study for Wanton”, Tintin Wulia, 2008.
“Study for Wanton” is an installation with four walls, four openings, four TV monitors, and four video loops of six minutes each featuring a landing process, captured mosquito larvae, fortune cookies, and Tintin doing karaoke of national anthems from China, the Netherlands, Japan, and Indonesia.

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Installation view at Cemeti Art House, January 2008. Photography: Sari Handayani.