Mother Giving Birth to Her Three Children

Mother Giving Birth to Her Three Children

Inspired by the profound mystery of birth and the spiritual philosophy surrounding human origins, Mother Giving Birth to Her Three Children explores the sacred passage of a child from the silent world of the womb into the visible world of life. Before birth, the unborn child exists within a secluded realm—an environment without the familiar sounds and light of the outside world—until the moment arrives when the jabang bayi passes through the sacred goa garba of the mother. In the artist’s interpretation, this passage is not merely a biological event, but a profound threshold between two realms of existence, in which the mother becomes the living gateway through which human life enters the world.

The artwork draws upon Javanese philosophical traditions in which the stages and elements surrounding birth carry profound symbolic meaning. The first to emerge is the amniotic fluid, referred to in the artist’s philosophical framework as sastrojendro; this is followed by the birth of the human child, and then by the placenta, known as hayuningrat. These are understood as spiritual companions of the child: Kakang Kawah, associated with sastrojendro, and Adik Ari-Ari, associated with hayuningrat. The artwork presents these relationships as an intimate cosmology of birth, suggesting that human existence begins not in isolation, but within a network of visible and unseen companions.

As the child grows, the artist’s interpretation further connects this philosophy to four other companions recognized through the faculties of sight, breathing, hearing, and speech. Together, these ideas form the concept of a human being arriving in the world as part of a complete spiritual relationship of seven siblings. This understanding is associated by the artist with Kitab Sastrojendro Hayuningrat Pangruwating Diyu, also referred to in Javanese tradition as Kitab Adam Makno or Kitab Tulis Tanpo Papan. Research on this philosophical tradition likewise describes Sastrojendro Hayuningrat Pangruwating Diyu and its connection with Kitab Tulis Tanpo Papan and Kitab Adam Makno, while interpretations of Kakang Kawah and Adik Ari-Ari place amniotic fluid and placenta within a wider Javanese conception of spiritual kinship surrounding birth.

Through this artwork, the act of childbirth becomes a meditation on origins, motherhood, spiritual companionship, and the mystery of becoming human. The mother is presented not simply as the giver of physical life, but as the sacred threshold through which an unseen existence enters the world of experience. By bringing these layers of Javanese philosophical thought into visual form, the artist invites the viewer to contemplate the profound question of where human life begins, what accompanies us into existence, and how the unseen dimensions of birth continue to shape our understanding of who we are.

Medium: Acrylic and Iron Brush Technique on Pancadisc 610 gr
Dimensions: 52 × 37 cm