merantau, menjaring (to catch, to wander) is an illustrated prose-poetry book, containing 2 pieces: bona pasogit. (homeland) and mulih dhisik. (go home, or roadtrip). The 2 pieces take snippets from the author’s memories of growing up in Indonesia and weave them to look into their lineage, gender, and independence. Written in 4 different dialects: English, Bahasa Indonesia, Basa Jawa, and Bahasa Batak, this book is a conflicting, yet genuine love letter from the author to their cultural heritage as a Javanese-Batak person.

Connecting the project to the concept of the exhibition, “Rete,” this book was written to illustrate the networks oneself is born into: family and cultural tradition. There are expectations from there that although might come from love, may not always create wanted threads. However, this book stands to be a reminder that there is love and care to be found in parsing through all the tangled bits and making space for your own within it.