This drawing series, made with coloured pencils on paper, is inspired by the ongoing project “Between Stars and Earthquakes”. It explores the Earth’s profound movements, focusing on the tectonic forces that shape the landscape and highlight the interconnectedness of human and nonhuman life and its fragility and instability. The drawings were created during my time at Cemeti Institute for Art and Society in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, where I engaged with both the physical landscape and the region’s intangible cultural heritage, from Mount Merapi to the Southern Sea. My research focused on geomythology, including the myths, rituals, cosmologies, and sounds associated with the volcano. Through conversations and exchanges with local communities around Cemeti and Mount Merapi, I explored how seismic and volcanic activity has shaped the region across generations. Java’s mythologies and belief systems often explain natural phenomena through the presence of gods, spirits, and other unseen forces, reflecting a close relationship between people and the environment. In this cosmology the volcano’s peak is seen as a meeting point between Earth and sky. It forms a vertical axis that links the planet’s core to the cosmos. These drawing sections expand our usual sense of space, offering a perspective in which the deep movements of the Earth resonate with those of the universe.
