Rendang

Mother CountryThe shades open for landing, I see thepandan-leafed interior expandingtowards the edge of a relieved horizon. Down alongthe banks of the Ciliwung are slums I hadforgotten, the river like a loosely suturedwound. As we begin our descent into theblack smog of an emergingpower, I make out the tin shacks, the stalls selling juices, the red-tiledcolonial barracks, the new mall.It is raining profusely. After years of herurging me to go, me holding back,I have no more excuses.Using long poems, ekphrasis, and ruptured forms, RENDANG is a startling new take on the self, and how an identity is constructed. Drawing on his Anglo-Indonesian heritage, Will Harris shows us new ways to think about the contradictions of identity and cultural memory. He creates companions that speak to us in multiple languages. They deftly ask us to consider how and what we look at, as well as what we don't look at and why. It is intellectual and accessible, moving and experimental, and combines a linguistic innovation with a deep emotional rooting.