Drawing from the inspiration of the performative installation MALAM / NIGHT (2021), Grace Ellen Barkey creates The Garden of Earthly Disquiet, a new dance performance. MALAM / NIGHT began with obsessively filming flowers and plants in her garden during sleepless nights. Over the past years, Tjang was seriously ill and spent a long time in - as she describes herself - the twilight zone between the passing world and the real one. The nights made this wondrous time even more mysterious. In her intense observations of the flowers, she connected with her deceased parents and ancestors. Born in Indonesia, these magical encounters are not strange to her.

The stories of her family are sad and violent. Each story hides the whole colonial history and its wounds. She decided to combine her night videos with Wayang, the Indonesian shadow play. Grace, as the Dhalang or puppeteer, creates the images and tells stories in a very abstract way. Instead of using shadow, she plays with light to bring her world to life. This performative installation honours her ancestors and connects past and present in a ritualistic, healing way.

For MALAM / NIGHT, Grace decided to decolonise her name and uses her grandmother’s name, Tjang.

For the new performance ‘The garden of earthly disquiet’, Grace Tjang goes back to the cruelty of her family stories. Bringing the violence of the night alive together with five performers.