GROH GOH (Rehearsal for Rangda) re-imagines performance lineages surrounding the mythological figure of the Rangda; Bali’s queen of the graveyard and patroness of black magic. The story of Rangda and her alter incarnation, the legendary witch widow Calonarang, occupies a central role within Bali’s spirit cosmology, and frames a narrative around an undesirable woman as a dangerous and deviant social disrupter.

Alongside her feared otherness however, Rangda is also conceived as a balancing force for spiritual order, and a powerful matriarchal protector. The film centres upon a matrilineal building and passing of knowledge around Rangda, channelling her presence through different bodies, performance genres and landscapes.  Using bodily movement and vocalisations, GROH GROH repositions the mythical demon queen Rangda, positing her as a balancing force for spiritual order and as an empowering female force. GROH GROH proposes a matrilineal reshaping of Balinese art histories, as a counter to sustained colonial and touristic interpretations, and examines how these stories migrate and reconfigure in diasporic contexts.

About the Artist

Leyla Stevens is an Australian-Balinese artist who works within a lens-based practice. Her work has made a significant contribution to expanded documentary genres in Australian video art, as well as exploring the reparative potential of artmaking framed within political and social justice issues. Her practice is informed by ongoing engagements with storied places, archives, cultural geographies and performance lineages through a transcultural lens. As research led artist, she is guided by collaborative engagements with place and communities, and her interest lies in the recuperation of counter histories within dominant narratives.

In 2021 Leyla was awarded the prestigious 66th Blake Art Prize for her film, Kidungm which engages with Bali’s silenced histories of political violence. Her immersive multi-channel video installations have been exhibited widely through major national and international group exhibitions, including recent presentations at: Museum of Contemporary Art, TarraWarra Museum, UQ Art Museum, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Artspace Sydney, West Space, Campbelltown Arts Centre, Guangdong Times Museum and Seoul Museum of Art.

Her work has been represented in major biennales including:  TarraWarra Biennial 2023: Ua usiusi faʻavaʻasavili, curated by Léuli Eshrāghi; The National 2021: New Australian Art at the Art Gallery of New South Wales; and the 17th Jogja Biennale, Titen: Embodied Knowledge, Shifting Grounds in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

She works collaboratively as a member of Woven Kolektif, an artist group exploring diasporic connections to Indonesia.