Rasa and Everyday Kindnesses: Fajar Abadi and the Subversion of Ordinary Transactions

Abstract

“If anaesthetics befuddle and dull us, causing us not to feel pain or pleasure, it would make sense to see aesthetics as the inverse of this: our lively sensitivity to stimulus from without and within; our sensate connectivity to a world of things and other people; our responsibility to a world of feelings.” (Highmore, 2010).In his book called ‘Ordinary Lives’ Highmore invokes Williams (Williams, 1958) descriptions of culture as ordinary, in an attempt to reframe art and creativity as part of the construction (or perhaps reconstruction) of our human world. For these theorists, the emotion, sensation and subjective connection to the everyday is integral to our aesthetic life. So too for Fajar Abadi, and the underlying concept of his participatory artworks, and the objects, situations and ephemera he creates to facilitate them. Drawing on field research that includes interviews, participation and observations in his projects, and documentation, this paper will explore how Abadi interprets and utilises rasa. How does this concept, which has been the subject of some prominent discourse relating it to intuitive understanding rather than to ‘feeling’ as it isoften translated(Stange, 1984), emerge in Abadi’s artworks? What is Abadi’s understanding of rasa and its role in his creative process? Abadi’s artworks comprise interventions into the ordinary transactions of urban life. When he bakes and exchanges cakes for photographed smiles (Kue Senyum, 2010 - ), or applauds unsuspecting passengers on public transport (Tepuk Tangan Nuhun, 2013), Fajar is attempting to recognise and replicate and a language of kindness within our daily transactions.