It began with the sight of two-digit numbers still in use in the plantation factories of Banyuwangi. In the history of colonial plantations, containers for collecting rubber were marked with such codes to reduce each plant to a unit of obedience within the system.
The appropriation of these numbers shifts them from instruments of control into signs open to reinterpretation. Here, numbers no longer testify to discipline, but instead appear as traces, rhythms, and interruptions.
These temporarily preserved corners point toward a condition of “Don’t know but not yet.” No one can prove who they will belong to, or whom they will represent in Indonesia. Through collaboration with the visual descriptions and calculations of artists in Kalisat, these images are archived once again,before they become “else owned by someone.” The work asks: who continues to claim ownership, and how much are we allowed to see?
