Batak Sarcophagus

Starting in the 1970s, she was part of the second intake of students and one of three women to major in sculpture at the Jakarta Institute of Art Education (Lembaga Pendidikan Kesenian Jakarta, LPKJ), which advocated for a pedagogy leaning towards Western Formalism. Expanding on her lecturers’ teachings through field research around the Indo-Malay archipelago outside Jakarta, Dolorosa began to study sculpture in connection with Indo-Malay ancestor worship. Form Study I (1976) and Batak Sarcophagus (1979) are considered prime examples of her early study and exploration of this intersection. The pre-modern Indo-Malay motif in Batak Sarcophagus can be seen repeated in her later work Why Did You Kidnap Our Children? (2015).