#2 – This is how Foodmasku's Antonius Oki turned his meals into top selling art
The best way to dispose of your face mask after use is to eat it
There is a story I often tell to friends who are going through a difficult period in their lives. As a young child who had suffered unbelievable trauma, I carried around much pain and anger in my heart, hating myself and everyone else. One day, after hawking for hours to get money to eat, I sat by the road, hungry and drenched by the rain. Frustrated, I looked skywards and screamed silently: “I do not deserve this. I’m so tired of this life. I do not deserve this!”
I did not receive the immediate intervention I sought; instead, my mind answered, “Who does?” That simple question — as well as the countless Japanese anime I won’t stop watching — has taught me the power of grit and turning one’s life around amid pain.
When I asked to interview Antonius Oki Wiriadjaja of FoodMasku, I had some expectations for our conversation. To me, it would revolve around food, building community, and how he became Known Origin’s biggest selling artist. But I learned a lot more, the most profound of which was courage. I hope you do too.
Antonius’ troubled beginnings
Antonius was born at a time when Indonesia had a dictator ruler who discriminated against Chinese-Indonesians with a law that prohibited them from speaking Chinese, using their Chinese names or celebrating the Lunar new year. He was raised hiding his Chinese heritage for many years.
At 8 years old, his parents moved with him to the United States, leaving his much older siblings behind in Indonesia. While in the US, Antonius struggled to carve a promising new future for himself, and he worked towards becoming a neuroscientist. He started as a research assistant, where he also did MRI scans for people who had suffered strokes as his day job. His bosses said, “You're doing great; but if you want to go forward, you’ve to get your doctor's degree.” That meant six more years of studying.
While working as a research assistant, Antonius also practised his art. “As a young boy, I was always performing, making art, drawing, painting, or writing poetry. I just didn't know what my passion was. I thought a lot about it and one day, I said to my boss, ‘I’m so sorry, but this is the right job for me.’” He went ahead to tell her about how, during a conference, he had focused more on how the poster could look better than on how to make the data more sensible. “And my boss said the craziest thing. She replied, “You're right. You’re in the wrong field even though you’re okay at this job. You’re more creative than that.”
Antonius quit his job with a plan to move to New York and make it as an artist. He scraped together some money to study media in a graduate school, and then he got a job at New York University.
Everything was going well until, not long after, Antonius suffered terrible violence. In 2013, a stray bullet meant for a pregnant woman hit him in the chest and put him in a coma for five days. “I couldn't believe what happened to me. Everything was going so well. I was so angry at myself and the world, and I was unable to do anything. I couldn't even move my legs. His parents and doctors were worried for a while that he would be paralysed.” However, with the help of a physical therapist, he began to walk again after 17 months of physical therapy.
During the months of gruelling physical therapy, Antonius realised how difficult life could be if one didn’t have joy in their life. The bad experiences he’d had were almost too much to handle. First, there was his inability to live in his home country, being unable to bond with his siblings, and then getting shot after starting at a new job. He learned to find moments of joy and happiness that shielded him from the pain and trauma he had suffered. One night, as he returned home with his mother, who was his primary caretaker, an old woman tried to hit his mother with her cane. Although he intervened with his own cane, the ridiculous and awkward cane fight that followed drew passersby closer to watch.
After he and his mother escaped and got on a train, Antonius’ mother burst into laughter. He recalled, “I was so mad, and my mom started laughing uncontrollably. She was like, “Do you realise what happened? Two disabled people fighting with each other.’ I started laughing too, and something lifted off me. Those 17 months, I had been so unhappy and angry. It's those moments where I felt joy and I felt happy that stopped me from feeling pain. That’s the thing about trauma; when you have joyful moments you remember them and they’re very strong too. I realised that life is very difficult, life can be very hard and if you don’t have joy in your life then you’ll have only the bad memories to remember.”
Healing and moving on
Shortly after, the New York University where Antonius worked opened a new campus in Shanghai. It needed new full-time professors, and he jumped at the opportunity. He also applied for the Fulbright scholarship, a US cultural exchange programme for young professionals and artists. Then he moved back to Indonesia to teach media and new ways to create art. Antonius remembers how it felt being back in Surakarta again after 20 years. “I was scared for my life in certain situations; so much had happened in 20 years. People were celebrating the lunar new year. They asked me about my ethnicity, and I was very open about that. I’m American, but my ancestors are Chinese-Indonesian, and I remember people saying oh you’re one of us. 20 years ago, they would never have said that.”
Being back home gave Antonius renewed energy, and he became determined to teach his people to preserve their culture. But he encountered a lot of pushback. “It was hard telling them that this is not going to destroy your traditions; it will authenticate and preserve it. Because when that one man with all the memories of shadow puppets dies, who’s gonna take over and where's that information going to? So, that’s what my 2020 was supposed to be about: record all their show puppets, put them into a database, and give it to them.”
FoodMasku’s impact
Antonius had to return to New York to renew his passport when COVID-19 hit. The plan was to return to Indonesia to work with shadow puppeteers. Unfortunately, Covid struck and the lockdown kept him in place. Trying to keep busy to escape the anxiety and depression that entombed the city in those days, he became part of a collective sewing fabric masks to stem the scarcity of PPE materials in New York. Oftentimes, morale was down and melancholy set in, and they had to schedule calls to talk and encourage each other.
Antonius says, “I was making calls with my colleagues. So, one day, when somebody came on, they had this pickled face filter they couldn’t turn off and it was really funny. They were embarrassed. I was having dinner, so I put a piece of kale on my face and I said look, I have a face filter too. They thought it was really funny and, when they brought their kids to see it, they asked me, "What are you going to wear tomorrow?’” Antonius did that to make someone less self-conscious and embarrassed, but it had a ripple effect because, according to him, “I started wearing food masks every day. I posted it on Instagram and my Instagram blew up.” Antonius had parents message him to say that their children wanted to try out some of the food on his mask and that seeing someone else making food masks made the children less anxious about wearing face masks. A follower’s sick parent also said they looked forward to Instagram stories from FoodMasku.
Joining the NFT community
In 2021, Antonius heard about NFTs and, although he already knew about cryptocurrency, he didn’t understand how NFTs worked. “Were they dangerous to the environment? Was it a scam? Did they do more harm than good?” He joined several Clubhouse rooms and listened to other artists like himself talk about NFTs. He learned how it was offering them a new chance at life, and he knew he had to be part of it. It wasn’t only allowing me as an artist to keep my work somewhere that it could be connected to my name forever. The power is that I got connected to a network of people who had similar ideas as me. We [shared knowledge, compared each other’s notes and made sure we were doing the right thing for ourselves. It’s a lot of trust, and it’s also a lot more social capital than anything. I do know it’s going to be remembered in history.”
He got Foundation invites from two friends who showed him how to mint his work and, within 24 hours, Antonius had his first sale and then another and another. After a few weeks, Antonius decided to quit his job to be a full-time artist. But his family didn’t understand why he would quit his job as a professor “to make jpegs online”. “So I had to trust in myself. I had to believe in myself more than anybody, and I’m glad I listened to my gut. It’s what made me who I am today.”
With sales from his NFTs, Antonius has been able to give back to the community. For 12 weeks after they sold out, he gave out $1,000 per week to non-profit organisations or people in need, and he promises that it will continue.
“My personal art has also come a long way in the crypto space. I’m one of the 25 [top] selling artists in Known Origin. I plan to go back to Indonesia with the knowledge that I have, knowing what I will impart to them. He believes that the language barrier, once broken, will put these people in a better position to operate at a higher level and reach a global audience. “So, that’s my plan from 2022 going to 2023.”
Random things to know about Antonius/FoodMasku
FoodMasku means “food of my brother”.
Although Antonius’ mother is a caterer, he didn’t start cooking until the pandemic.
He spoke at NFT NYC in 2021 after filmmaker Quentin Tarantino.
There’s a spot in his room, right next to his wifi router, which makes his bread dough rise better.
He once got an autographed CD from the musician, Yussef Lateef, with the words “To my brother Antonius, keep practising.”
He loves Sza and Lizzo.
He plans to rest more in 2022 (you should too).
He loves Soto (Indonesian chicken noodle soup).
If you enjoyed reading about Antonius, you can follow him on Twitter and Instagram, and buy his work.
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Thanks to Chidirim, Olaseni, Veronica and Precious for their help.