5.3 Underrepresentation
Personal
Talula Zuhra Soehharjo (born in 1994) is an Indonesian Visual Artist from Rural Jakarta.
She graduated from universitas Pelita Harpan with a bachelor of arts – BA Graphic Design from 2012-2016. (LinkedIn, 2002) The Universitas Pelitas Harpan is the only Christian school within Indonesia with liberal arts as the main foundation, focusing on creating holistic individuals. (UPH, 1994)
Work
Ula finds her inspiration in the form of modern women, pop culture, human interaction and early American feminist comics: Wimmens Commix collective, (It’s nice that, 2025).
Ulas projects are based upon the exploration of natural raw comedy intertwined with the messy parts of womanhood that appeals to a young adult, (slouchingtowardsblokm, 2023). She is consistently inspired by subversive women who have had the courage to voice their opinions often being seen as wild or eccentric by society. (GMK, 2024)
Her work is a mixed media based using painting, video, cartoon, sculpturing and illustration; to visualise her feminist artwork. (lustr12, 2024). Ula uses her graphic novels to tell stories through over-analysing her surroundings and rewrites them as creative tales of mundanity (cara, 2024) Her work encompasses themes of gender roles, class, mythology and various topics that are continually underrepresented in modern media. (it’s nice that, 2025)
Career
Within her time at the universitas Pelita Harpan she interned for NYLON magazine as a junior graphic designer learning layout edits as well as creating illustrations for major projects such as IT GIRL (2015) (LinkedIn, 2013)
She was recently an assistant manager for the company – Visualabs that focus on how ideas can become assets and transforming these cultural assets into commercial, curated experiences. She focused on branding, art consulting and event management.
(visualabs, 2014)
Collections
In 2021, Artist Asti Sury and Ula Zuhra collaborated to create a unisex clothing line, LADOUCHEVITA. Her collection of fashion items features her inventive ways of merging contemporary art with clothing to explore gendered self-expression.
In her first fashion project, she explores the dynamic of women empowerment and societal rituals to focusing on how women create routines to escape modern society. She uses her illustrations to show examples of this; a woman with a glass of wine in her hand and a night out with friends both for escapism, (hypebeast, 2023).
She further accentuates this with her choice of media, using digitally-printed illustrations and embroidered techniques on the material to enhance the fluidity of self -expression.
ICA AND ACA
Her main graphic illustration released in 2024, focused on two 20-year-old Jakartan women navigating life in Indonesia. Her characters discuss topics such as sexual health, the intersectionality of feminism in an eastern culture and gender roles.
Published by Cahyati press an independent publishing agency run by women, with their official studio opening in December 2022. (Cahyati press, 2016)
Argument
Discussion of sexual health in Indonesia – how Ulas work can create social change for this
Ulas work deserves further recognition as a growing graphic novel artist because of how she promotes societal change for women in Indonesia by discussing taboo topic such as; women’s sexual education.
This is increasingly important, as the rise of conservatism within the Indonesian religious population creates a crisis surrounding how women’s sexual health is discussed. Indonesian women are socialised towards prioritising traditional family values and to uphold motherhood as the highest societal value. (Bofa, M., 2023)
This uprise in conservatism therefore diminishes the number of safe spaces where women feel supported and confident going into future sexual encounters. This is particularly harmful as the rise in sexual abuse towards women in Indonesia is increasing at a rapid rate, and without giving women the space to be comfortable discussing their own experiences the societal attitudes may never change.
Furthermore, in November 2024 the national library of medicine conducted research on how Indonesian women view sexual discussions in direct correlation with their quality of life. They found women most comfortable discussing sexual-related emotion and sexual fantasies exhibited a healthier psychological functioning. (Hadiprajitho, P. 2024)
Shinta Devi, reveals how her own experience as a young Indonesian women encountered barriers of stigma surrounding her curiosity in sex education. She discusses how her peers viewed her curiosity as an uncomfortable experience as they addressed her reading the second sex by Simone de Beauvoir in a public setting, ‘making people squirm’. She urges the importance of disconnecting discussion around sex as shameful and in erasing this narrow view to allow for wider women’s health conversations. (Devi, 2024)
Ulas work is already academically recognised in Jakartan art exhibitions, and various fine art backgrounds however by bringing her work to a global standard it would make an increasingly large impact by upholding stigmatised topics through discussions of her characters. It would allow for young women in societies that demonise sexual topics to feel empowered to raise their own issues.
HISTORY OF USING GRAPHIC NOVELS TO SHOW WOMENS EXPERIENCE
FEMINISM
Western
The use of graphic illustration remains an important tool to help address feminist social issues, and is still evident in the way that Ula uses her platform.
Her inspiration of the early US 70s commix collective paved the way forward to allow for Ula to express her voice. Historically, the women’s US commix collective was one of the first group of women led graphic novelists. The use of the medium of graphic novels was chosen because Western second wave feminists of the 1970s felt averse in using popular media to promote feminism as they considered them to be tools of the patriarchy that would further oppression. (Kent, M. 2015)
In the 1970s, women aimed to dismantle discriminatory laws that constricted their opportunities. They also aimed to subvert gender roles and allow for women to express themselves freely and create equal pay for both Genders.
(Roundabout theatre company, 2019)
Eastern
Ula relays the importance of creating complex and diverse individual characters in order to create a feminist view to implement further into her culture. Within eastern culture, the role of women has remained within a religious Lense creating a harmful dynamic for younger women.
However, an article by Quantum refutes this in recognising the progress in Indonesian household roles. The author recognises how in the past, Indonesian women have been socialised towards a nurtured role within the family. Despite this, the emerging urbanisation of Eastern cultures have created a more inclusive dynamic in the economy in holding more women in part-time and full-time roles. Although progress is being made, with Indonesian women in more economic roles -the societal expectation of still upholding a nurturing family role is still apparent. Women are then expected to navigate both, and within a typical heteronormative eastern cultured relationship it does not even occur to men to help with household. (Quantum, 2019)
Comic artist Bishakh Som explores the intersectionality between femininity as a trans woman and Indian-American. She explores the complexities of her individuality in order to expand the mediums formal boundaries. Much like Ula, her platform has been used to connect with those who identify with her work, allowing further insight in how modern womanhood can be reshaped from previous societal ideals. (MoMA, 2022)
Bibliography
1. Zuhra (2016) LinkedIn. Available from: <https://www.linkedin.com/in/ula-zuhra-soenharjo-6227b07a/?originalSubdomain=id> [Accessed 19/11/2025].
2. Universidas Pelitas Harpan (1994) UPH. Available from: <https://www.uph.edu/id/> [Accessed 10/11/25].
3. Jama (2025) It’s Nice That. Available from: <https://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/ula-zuhra-illustration-discover-260825> [Accessed 01/11/2025].
4. Zuhra (2023) GMK. Available from: <https://grafismasakini.com/article/issues-of-the-urban-youth-in-aca--ica-collected-stories-by-ula-zuhra/en> [Accessed 05/11/2025].
5. Lustr12 (2024) Ula Zuhra. Available from: <https://lustrfestival.cz/en/artist/zuhra> [Accessed 12/11/2025].
6. Cara Beta (2024) Ula Zuhra. Available from: <https://cara.app/ulazuhra> [Accessed 20/11/2025].
7. Lustr12 (2024) Ula Zuhra. Available from: <https://lustrfestival.cz/en/artist/zuhra> [Accessed 12/11/2025].
8. Zuhra (2016) LinkedIn. Available from: <https://www.linkedin.com/in/ula-zuhra-soenharjo-6227b07a/?originalSubdomain=id> [Accessed 22/11/2025].
9. Visualabs (2014) Ula Zuhra. Available from: <https://www.visualabs.co/services-brand-strategy-and-identity> [Accessed 23/11/2025].
10. Hypebeast (2023) Strange Rituals. Available from: <https://hypebeast.com/id/2023/8/ladouchevita-collab-bareng-ula-zuhra-dalam-strange-rituals-collection> [Accessed 24/11/2025].
11. Cahyati Press (2016) About. Available from: <https://cahyati.press> [Accessed 20/11/2025].
12. Bofa, M. (2023) The struggle for women's reproductive rights: a Southeast Asian perspective. LSE. 1 (01), pp. 1. Available from: <https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/seac/2023/10/20/the-struggle-for-womens-reproductive-rights-a-southeast-asian-perspective/> [Accessed 22/11/2025].
13. Hadiprajitho, P. (2024) Development of the Indonesian sexual quality of life scale for women. National library of medicine. 1 (1), pp. 1-12. Available from: <https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11731793/> [Accessed 23/11/2025].
14. Devi (2024) Why “SEX” is the Most Taboo Word in Indonesia and Why It’s Itching Me Out. Available from: <https://medium.com/@journalingwithshinta/why-sex-is-the-most-taboo-word-in-indonesia-and-why-its-itching-me-out-d4ffcb587b80> [Accessed 28/11/2025].
15. Kent, M. (2015) Selling the Feminist Utopia: Popular Feminism and the Promotion of Marvel’s “A-Force”. Medium. 1 (1), pp. 1. Available from: <https://medium.com/@drmarvel/selling-the-feminist-utopia-popular-feminism-and-the-promotion-of-marvel-s-a-force-72ea9683d4d8> [Accessed 24/11/2025].
16. Quantum (2019) Gender Roles in Indonesia. Available from: <https://quantumcs.com/gender-roles-in-indonesia/> [Accessed 20/11/2025].
17. MoMA (2022) Bishakh Som’s A Convening of Witches. Available from: <https://www.moma.org/magazine/articles/807> [Accessed 22/11/2025].