MADIJKERS PHOTO STUDIO
Harahap reworks archival photographs to present fictive portraits of the
Mardijkers, a community of descendants of freed slaves found in major
cities in the East Indies (present-day Indonesia). Comprising indigenous
people from conquered Portuguese territories, as well as people of
Portuguese ancestry, the Mardijkers occupied an in-between status:
despite adopting European religion and culture, they were classed with
the ‘natives’ by the colonial government. The superimposition of
European faces on ‘native’ bodies, and vice versa, captures the fluidity
and instability of identities within this community, a situation which
the artist views as analogous to contemporary Indonesia’s negotiation
with ‘global’ culture. In this series of arresting and enigmatic
portraits, some subjects appear to adopt foreign dress and ways of life
confidently, while others reveal their uncertainty or hesitation. These
images also comment on colonial photography, which often exoticised its
subjects, as well as our expectations of the photographic image as
‘truth’ and ‘document’.
