Utami Atashi Ishii, an artist from Magelang, displayed 10 types of chili sauces (sambal) in her paintings which were exhibited at Media Art Globale (MAG) 2021 in Austria back in September.

The artist, who graduated from the Indonesian Institute of the Arts (ISI) Yogyakarta, has been actively working since 2014. Utami focuses on abstract paintings inspired by specimens seen from a microscope. For example, she will look at mushrooms with a microscope and what she sees will be painted on canvas.

In this year's MAG exhibition, Utami presented her chili sauce artworks consisting of 10 types of chili sauces from 322 types of chili sauces found in Indonesia. According to her, sambal is a characteristic of Indonesia that can be found from Sabang to Merauke and it is very interesting to be introduced to the world.

"Sambal is usually red in colour. But after I looked through the microscope, it turned out that sambal also has a little blue, green and black. I also found some white spots. So, I also captured the results of the microscope and made it into a  2x2 painting," said Utami as reported by VOA.

The 10 “Sambal” artworks that were displayed at MAG 2021 do not only feature paintings, but also combined with technology that produces sound art. The sound of the main ingredients of the chili sauces is combined with a video on how to make chili sauces.

“I made a concept and contacted several new media art artists who I think are interesting and may fit the theme. I talked with Utami about something related to Indonesian cultural heritage. Finally, I chose spices and combined them with science and technology. Utami at that time proposed sambal as a characteristic of Indonesia,” said Mona Liem, curator of the exhibition.

According to Mona and Utami, art enthusiasts were very impressed and interested in the traditional chili sauce because previously they only knew about fried rice and rendang. A senior painter who also graduated from ISI Yogyakarta, Untung Yuli Prastiawan also responded to Utami's work.

“I think it's a very interesting work because it's phenomenal, revealing about culture, technology, art and tradition into one. Second, the work can be all-time, modern," said Untung.

In addition to the virtual event which took place in September, the organiser of the exhibition, Ars Electronica Austria will also hold a live exhibition in Jakarta and Yogyakarta National Museum this November.