Mella Jaarsma is an artist who has become known for her complex custom installations and her focus on forms of cultural and racialdiversity embedded within clothing, the body and food. She was born in the Netherlands in 1960 and studied visual art at MinervaAcademy in Groningen (1978-1984), after which she left the Netherlands to study at the Art Institute of Jakarta (1984) and at theIndonesian Institute of the Arts in Yogyakarta (1985-1986). She has lived and worked in Indonesia ever since. In 1988, she co-foundedCemeti Art House, now called Cemeti Institute for Art & Society together with Nindityo Adipurnomo, which to this day remains an importantplatform for young artists and art workers in the country and region