Sriwhana Spong, a New Zealand-born artist of Balinese heritage based in London, is presenting her first major solo exhibition in Australia at the Monash University Museum of Art in Melbourne.
Spong was born to a Balinese father and grew up in New Zealand. Coming to know her Balinese family as a teenager gave her a unique perspective on identity and cultural heritage, Spong said. Everything revealed itself gradually, and it is precisely that slow unfolding that has continued to fuel her work, she added.
A painting by her grandfather, I Gusti Made Rundu, a Balinese artist whose works are held in museum collections, became the starting point for a film that now anchors her first major solo exhibition in Australia. Titled HA HA HA, the exhibition runs at the Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA) in Melbourne from 24 April to 28 June 2026.
The exhibition also features the historic Gamelan Digul. The instrument was made in 1927 by Indonesian political prisoners held at a Dutch colonial prison camp in Tanah Merah, Upper Digul, Papua, fashioned from kitchen pots, sections of railway track, and whatever materials were at hand.
Spong said she discovered it sitting behind glass in a display case on the Monash campus and pushed for it to be heard by the public once more. For her, the gamelan is proof that creativity can endure even in the face of oppression.
Now based in London, Spong works across film, sculpture, textiles and musical instruments. All of it is held together by the same question: how do we come to know the world, and ourselves.
Listen to the full conversation with Sriwhana Spong.
