With ‘The Garden of Earthly Disquiet’, starting from her own traumatic history and the emotional legacy she inherited, Grace Tjang tells the story of all mothers who have been brutally torn away from their children. It is a reproach to the colonial history underpinning this personal trauma.

In search of primal emotions such as pain and sorrow, but also consolation and the ultimate joy of togetherness, Grace Tjang delves into so-called “forgotten memories,” where forgetting becomes a deliberate process because reality is too unbearable to face.

For her most recent works, Grace chose to decolonise her name, adopting the name of her grandmother, Tjang, in honour of her grandmother and her family history.

What makes ‘The Garden of Earthly Disquiet’ by Indonesian-born Grace Ellen Barkey so unique is that it has such a highly personal starting point, but amplifies this with images, dance and music borrowed from Indonesian traditions. Her tragedy thus has an exceptionally powerful impact: it is that of a single woman and a single family, but also that of an entire people. It is both heartbreaking and heartwarming. - Pieter T'Jonck (Pzazz)