Laura Suryani Thedja

Laura Suryani Thedja, (born 1993,  Berlin), is a German-Indonesian artist based in Berlin. Originally starting out with classical oil painting, she has integrated traditional Indonesian batik techniques into her practice. By combining painting and batik, she creates a unique visual language that reinterprets both mediums through her bi-cultural perspective. Her work explores themes of European and Indonesian mythology, identity, and colonialism. Often incorporating sculptural elements and vibrant imagery, Thedja’s textiles investigate cultural intersections, visual markers of heritage, and lingering colonial legacies.

Her 2023 piece, Babi Ngepet, exemplifies this approach. Mounted on a bamboo rod, the artwork features a figure in a bathing suit with a boar’s head, concurrently referencing the eponymous demon – who, in exchange for riches, will possess whoever summoned it – while toying with imagery of beach tourism. The work’s subversive nature becomes evident in its base batik layer, which blends traditional Parang motifs with illustrations from the German fairytale Hänsel and Gretel and the logo of the Dutch East India Company. By juxtaposing these elements, Babi Ngepet draws parallels between both cultures’ critiques of consumerism while highlighting discrepancies, as the lasting consequences of Western greed continue to reverberate in formerly colonized regions.

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