The Syncretic Wilds exhibition at the Monash University Museum of Art in Melbourne features an installation by Minahasan artist Natasha Tontey alongside Phasmahammer, running until 19 September 2026. The duo exhibition presents Tontey's multi-part installation, Primate Visions: Macaque Macabre.
In this work, Tontey explores the complex relationship between Minahasan communities and the black-crested macaque, known locally as yaki, in North Sulawesi. She weaves together primatology, ancestral knowledge and speculative fiction through film, sculpture, costumes and audio, questioning the boundaries between human and animal, nature and culture, tradition and technology.
Tontey, who grew up in Jakarta as part of the Minahasan diaspora, said distance and migration have shaped her relationship with Minahasa.
Being a Minahasan artist, Tontey said, is about holding pride and critique at the same time. She said she approaches her culture with love, humour and sometimes a bit of bad taste, without romanticising it.
Amanda Haskard, First Nations curator at MUMA and co-curator of Syncretic Wilds, said MUMA chose Tontey for her ability to bring Minahasan cosmologies into the gallery in a playful yet complex way. The exhibition sits within Kindred People, the inaugural Indigenous-led festival at Monash University, which celebrates indigenous cultures internationally under the theme of knowledge rising up, Haskard added.
The exhibition opened on Saturday 18 July and runs until 19 September 2026, with free entry.
Tontey shares the exhibition with Phasmahammer, the artistic persona of Sydney-based artist Justin Talplacido Shoulder, who generates queer Filipinx futurisms through hand-crafted costumes and choreography drawn from Philippine ancestral mythologies.
Listen to the full interview on the SBS Indonesian podcast.
