Title: Patiwangi, the death of fragrance
Artist Statement
Patiwangi, the death of fragrance, focuses upon the presence of female artists and dancers within Balinese art histories. Expanding upon Leyla Steven’s ongoing interest in the recuperation of marginal histories, the film explores underrepresented women’s artistry and knowledge contained within Balinese art collections. Presented as a two-channel work, one screen shows Balinese artefacts and artworks housed in Australian museum collections, tended by anonymous conservators.
The other features two dancers rehearsing a choreography that responds to overlooked biographies of dancing muses in Bali’s late colonial period. Re-imagining Balinese art histories through a matrilineal lens, the film connects disparate disciplines, spaces, and temporalities, to question whose lineages are being represented in museum collections— and who gets to do the telling.
Biography
Leyla Stevens is an Australian Balinese artist who works within a lens-based practice. Her work has made a significant contribution to expanded documentary genres in Australian video art, as well as exploring the reparative potential of artmaking framed within political and social justice issues. Her practice is informed by ongoing engagements with storied places, archives, cultural geographies, and performance lineages through a transcultural lens. As research led artist, she is guided by collaborative engagements with place and communities, and her interest lies in the recuperation of counter histories within dominant narratives.
In 2021 Leyla was awarded the prestigious 66th Blake Art Prize for her film, Kidung which engages with Bali’s silenced histories of political violence. Her immersive multi-channel video installations have been exhibited widely through major national and international group exhibitions, including recent presentations at: Museum of Contemporary Art, TarraWarra Museum, UQ Art Museum, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Artspace Sydney, West Space, Campbelltown Arts Centre, Guangdong Times Museum and Seoul Museum of Art. Her work has been represented in major biennales including: TarraWarra Biennial 2023: Ua usiusi faʻavaʻasavili, curated by Léuli Eshrāghi; The National 2021: New Australian Art at the Art Gallery of New South Wales; and the 17th Jogja Biennale, Titen: Embodied Knowledge, Shifting Grounds in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
Leyla is currently working towards a solo exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, as part of the new Contemporary Projects series, co-commissioned by AGNSW and Artspace Sydney. She has been the recipient of multiple arts grants for the development of new work and has been a finalist in major art awards including John Fries (2018) and NSW Visual Arts Emerging Fellowship (2014, 2018). Leyla’s works are held in significant collections including Museum of Contemporary Art, AGNSW and Kadist. She works collaboratively as a member of Woven Kolektif, an artist group exploring diasporic connections to Indonesia.