Jakarta’s National Gallery of Indonesia is currently presenting Oesman Effendi through both artworks and archival material. I like exhibitions that refuse to separate the finished object from the traces surrounding its creation. A painting may appear self-contained once it reaches a museum wall, but sketches, letters, photographs and documents can reveal a much less orderly process. Archives remind us that an artistic career is not a straight line of masterpieces. It is made from experiments, discarded directions, friendships, arguments and unfinished thoughts.
Indonesian Art
A Classroom Full of Agreement
Heri Dono’s Fermentation of the Mind places fibreglass heads on old school desks. Step on a pedal and they nod together while distorted chanting begins. It is funny for a moment, then slightly disturbing. A classroom should create independent thought, yet here agreement has become mechanical. Dono turns propaganda into choreography, using recycled electronics and references to Indonesian shadow-puppet traditions.
https://www.mplus.org.hk/en/exhibitions/heri-dono-fermentation-of-the-mind/
mplus.org.hk Heri Dono: Fermentation of the Mind | M+ Museum Join us at M+ to explore Heri Dono’s kinetic installation 'Fermentation of the Mind' (1992–1993), which resembles a classroom, featuring rows of old wooden desks topped with white fibreglass heads.