Image: Writing in the Rain, 2011, by FX Harsono, installation view at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, June 2026. Color digital video, sound; wood. Asian Art Museum, Museum purchase, Mortimer-Harvey Fund, 2019.70a-d2. Photograph by David Armstrong, © Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.
Asian Art Museum
FX Harsono: Writing in the Rain
Witness a profound meditation on identity and resilience in this solo exhibition featuring FX Harsono, one of Indonesia's most celebrated contemporary artists. At its heart lies a haunting six-minute video installation where Harsono paints his Chinese birth name—once forbidden—onto glass in the rain, surrounded by empty schoolroom desks that echo a dark chapter of Indonesian history. Through poetic imagery and symbolic gesture, the artist transforms personal trauma into an act of reclamation, documenting his adult journey to recover a language and identity suppressed under decades of state oppression. Though rooted in Indonesia's specific past, this powerful work speaks urgently to ongoing struggles against cultural erasure and discrimination.