Zico Albaiquni is an Indonesian artist studying at the Victorian College of the Arts, Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, at the University of Melbourne. In this zine he reflects on the relational ethics of arrival and welcome, drawing on the concept of menitipkan diri, loosely translated as “temporarily placing oneself in the care of others”; and on resonances between the Smoking Ceremony and the traditional Javanese ruwatan ceremony.

Menitipkan diri is not a final ethics. It is a daily reminder. I am here, but this place is not mine.

I am welcomed, but welcome is not possession.

I carry stories, but those stories must learn how to listen.

I make paintings, but the surface is already marked.

I speak of ruwatan, but I must not collapse it into Smoking Ceremony.

I speak of smoke, but I must not trap it as my symbol.

I stand on Kulin Country, but I stand as someone received, not as someone who claims.

This is the problem of arrival.

And perhaps also its gift.

Because if arrival remains a problem, then I cannot become too settled in my own innocence. I cannot say: I am here now, let the work begin. I have to keep asking how the work begins, with whom, under what conditions, and at whose expense.

The smoke remains as a reminder.

Not everything that touches me belongs to me.

Some things pass through.

Some things cleanse.

Some things ask me to breathe differently.