The Moon's Shadow
Single-channel video, color, stereo sound, Drawing exercises, Watercolor paper, Grey cardboard
2026
The living beings collected, identified, and understood within the village were not regarded as isolated individuals, but rather as part of an entire worldview woven together by environment, customs, collective values, personality, and memory. Within such a system, the environment, humans, and other living beings were inseparable from one another. They shared the same rhythms and frequencies, preserved and transmitted through stories, rituals, and customs accumulated across generations. This knowledge was not sustained by any single individual; it required the collective participation and shared effort of the community, continually reaffirmed and enacted through oral storytelling and embodied practices. In this context, storytelling was not merely a way of transmitting information, but an act of shaping the world itself. Stories influenced how humans understood themselves and others, while also defining their place within society and the environment.
Across many regions of Asia and India, one can observe a widespread yet regionally varied narrative lineage: ancient myths surrounding rice. Although these stories take different forms across cultures, they share a similar structure: the spirit of rice often appears in the form of a woman, frequently depicted as a maternal figure who, through self-sacrifice, allows the earth to regenerate and humanity to endure. The goddess’s body transforms into crops, symbolizing the cyclical process of fertility, death, and harvest. In cultures where rice cultivation forms the foundation of life, rice beliefs developed a close and dynamic relationship with monsoon climates, agricultural festivals, and ecological change. From this perspective, perhaps we can begin to ask again: how do we look at ourselves, and how do we position ourselves within culture? Is culture merely tied to a fixed geographical location, or is it instead a fluid system of continuous exchange and mutual influence?
This project is based on field research conducted in the village of Panggungharjo, Indonesia. Through conversations with the village chief, women’s farming collectives, and local farmers, the project documents stories, beliefs, and the traditional rice mortar music Gejog Lesung associated with the rice goddess Dewi Sri. The research focuses on “local perception,” examining how plants are preserved within cultural knowledge systems through memory, naming, use, and oral storytelling. Presented as a single-channel video and shadow puppet animation, the work combines eclipse mythology, goddess narratives, and Gejog Lesung to explore interconnected rice myths and narratives of female sacrifice across East and Southeast Asia. Through abstract silhouettes of human figures and objects, layered rhythms, and collective sound, the work attempts to reweave the relationships between people, nature, and cultural memory.
