Ari Angkasa is in a tiny singlet, unbothered by the elements, as Zari Moss shivers in their jacket ahead of Ari’s performance at Abbotsford Convent. After several years working as a performance artist and arts producer in Melbourne, Ari recently turned to filmmaking, creating a series of gender-defying film performances that draw on her Indonesian roots and reframe trans identity. She tells Zari she wants to make 'normal' films, like rom-coms and superhero movies, and yet her work defies the conventions of both medium and genre.

Zari and Ari meet at the preview of Medium, Ari's live film set that unfolds as an exploration of light and movement. What the audience sees on screen is being filmed simultaneously just out of sight. While they may catch glimpses of what’s happening beyond the frame, their vision is largely confined to the camera until the performance is brought indoors, merging the filming process with the screening in the effect of a mirror. The work conjures the Observer Effect, the idea that light behaves differently when being observed.

ZARI MOSS How are you feeling about tonight?

ARI ANGKASA Strangely calm. I think part of me doesn’t really care if it goes well or fucks up. That’s the beauty of it.

ZM The beauty of live performance?

AA Yeah, when making a film, you really have to be aware of the mistakes that you make because those details really pop up on screen. I think that’s what I find compelling about making it live. You don’t really have room for error. And the preparation has to be different as a result.

ZM Is there more pressure on the preparation than the performance?

AA Absolutely. I’ve been envisioning this work for far too long, and all the prep has been around conversations with collaborators. With my Director of Photography, Andrea, a lot of our prep involves dreaming up and fantasising the crazy shots we want to do. Andrea and I have this dream where she’s strapped onto a harness that sends her flying as she films. As a trans woman and as a person of colour, I never really get handed these opportunities. So, I either put myself out there, or I just don’t get any jobs at all. 

ZM You have to invent a new matrix.

AA Exactly.

ZM What does reinventing filmmaking practice mean to you?

AA I think it’s about shaping the context, making this world work for me. I’ve been so frustrated because I have quite ‘normal’ ideas in my head. I want to make a romcom. I want to make a superhero film. I want to make normal films. I want to make narrative-driven films that are not super abstract. People expect me to make work that is really transgressive but half the time I just want to make films. 

When I began developing Medium, I thought it was going to be driven by clear political research. For the first few months, I was really into French politics and Emmanuel Macron and the French Revolution and how the economy in France is kind of dissipating at the moment. I think for a long time I thought this work was going to be very dialogue-heavy. I essentially wanted to make a political thriller.

I don’t know if this is me putting up limitations for myself, but I don’t think there are opportunities for me to make something like that. I’m waiting for that to change in the industry. You look at filmmakers like the Wachowski sisters. They're doing fucking amazing transgressive work, but they’re always shoved to the side because of who they are. There’s always that kind of sidelining because their work is seen as too experimental or too avant-garde. Everyone's worried about the state of the world and politics and their relationships with each other and at its core, I feel like that’s kind of always been my focus. But I realise that that’s not what people think my focus is.

ZM You have a humanistic approach to your work. 

AA I just want to evoke some sort of feeling, possibly the breadth of all feelings. I don’t find it useful to think of my work in terms of audience. I don’t ask myself whether I’m speaking to them, or if I am representing them, or if I am representing anyone. Thinking that way can become very narcissistic. Also, when you turn the camera inwards, you go crazy. It can be maddening when you constantly focus on yourself. I think it is particularly helpful to think of my work as following core humanistic values.

ZM I want to know more about your reference to the Enlightenment. This might be a stretch, but you’re utilising moonlight for this live show, and cinema is a medium of light, and then you are also thinking about the Enlightenment. 

AA: I’ll let you in on a secret. None of that shit is happening. I’m just decorating my words for the program. I am incorporating light to an extent. When I think about using the moon to light my film, I think about how wherever you are, the moon pulls the water with it. We are 75% water. Surely, we are at the whim of the moon. I make my best work when it’s a full moon. There is all this creative energy. I don’t use the moonlight literally.

ZM What do you think of the concept of moonlight cinema?

AA It’s catchy, you know; it hooks. But I am quite sincere about how strongly and how spiritually I feel about the moon. I may not have the particular language to back that up because that goes into astrology territory.

ZM How did you choose this space? Did you have a clear idea of where you wanted to perform when you were devising the performance?

AA I always wanted it to be outdoors, and the initial concept was that the cinema was going to be outdoors but, girl, the amount of tech stuff that I had to think about was too much. Having people sit inside was sort of the next logical step because it felt much more cinematic and more considered.

ZM So, the entire film is recorded live outside? I thought you were showing a pre-recorded film with a performance. 

AA I tell some people I’m showing a film and other people that I’m showing a live performance. I try to blur the lines between cinema and theatre, and that factors into the promotion of the work. Consciously confusing people into thinking that it’s going to be one or the other. Because then, if I tell someone it’s a film, it indeed is a film. But then the gag for them is that it’s being made live. Whereas if I tell someone it’s a performance and all they see is this screen, the gag is that they’re watching a film now. 

ZM You’re into tricking people.

AA It might not feel clear now, but I know it’s necessary for me to blur these lines between cinema and theatre. People constantly expect me to conform to a specific mould. That’s something that I’ve carried with me, and that expectation just needs to be fucked around with a little. How else will people realise that those expectations, which are set up for me and, in turn for themselves, are made up?