MOMI Wild Rice (After Tanabe) Papier mache, 2023, State of Being Wild, Biennale Jogja 17, Lohjinawi Rice Field, Jogjakarta, Indonesia
 


Tumala’s extensive research spans rice’s multifacted histories, contemporary value and climate adaptation. Borne out of the International Rice Research Institute’s Art/Science Seed Grant, Tumala developed an artistic research on the intersection of rice and climate.

The papier mache sculpture is a response from a drawing as seen in IRRI’s Rice World exhibition in Los Baños, Laguna. The drawing is a study of an unrealized sculpture which is donated by Tanabe to IRRI. The drawing is a wild rice, with the caption - MOMI 1994 “imagination of wild rice”. This drawing represents wild rice, that looks like almost alien/terrestrial in its form, so I responded to it as a thing of science fiction. In response to Tanabe’s gesture of donating sculpture to seed banks and agricultural institutions is a monumental gesture of his work giving importance to the work of scientists and farmers who feed the world. The drawing seems to me like a “sculpture in waiting,” that maybe Tanabe might have donated that drawing for the next artist to realize it and for his beautiful gesture to live on for generations to come.



Newspaper clipping (undated, unknown origin), from the Ifor Powell Collection, SOAS University, London


From IRRI (International Rice Research Institute), SOAS University Library London, Lopez Museum and Library Manila, Delfina Foundation, MASIPAG (Farmer-led Scientific Research Organization)— Tumala traces the state of rice as being wild — from wild rice, to violence centering rice’s socio-political aspects, feudalisim, economic and cultural notions, colonial and capital legacies and contemporary scientific research.


The idea of Rewilding comes to mind. Rewilding as a process to look back at histories, archives and prompts in cultivating what rice culture is in the Philippines. From wild rice to feudalism, rice is center to Philippine histories bringing a distinct national narrative. ‘Rice is life’ as IRRI promote in its campaigns. But rice is also death and violence. To make sense of history is to be aware of its narratives and speculatives. To present a tableaux of images, nonlinear histories allows us to be informed and speculate on its sporadic nature.



MOMI Wild Rice (After Tanabe) Papier mache, 2023, International Rice Congress, Manila, Produced by International Rice Research Insitute




MOMI Wild Rice (After Tanabe) Papier mache, 2023, International Rice Congress, Manila, Produced by International Rice Research Insitute



“When we went to IRRI for research, we were looking for ideas and how to relate art with science. Then we saw this huge sculpture by Mitsuaki Tanabe, and I was very interested in that… I’m trying to decode what Mitsuaki Tanabe was trying to say with his work—like, why does he want to make a sculpture of wild rice? My understanding was that it was his way of giving importance to the origin of things.” - D. Tumala




*This project is open-ended and will be expanded.






The State of Being Wild
Archival photographs, Video, Paper Mache
2021-2023

Presented in Biennale Jogja 17: Embodied Knowledge, Shifting Grounds
Lohjiwani, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
Curated by Alia Swastika
10.6-11.25.2023

MOMI Wild Rice (After Tanabe) is presented in International Rice Congress, Manila
Produced by International Rice Research Insitute, Oct 2023, as part of IRRI Art-Science Seed Grant Residency
Curated by Belen Thirkell




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