Memories of the Unseen

A GROUP EXHIBITION BY AKIQ AW, JIM ALLEN ABEL & WIMO AMBALA BAYANG CURATED BY ALIA SWASTIKA

12.04.2018—05.05.2018

THIS CATALOGUE IS PUBLISHED IN CONJUNCTION WITH EXHIBITION MEMORIES OF THE UNSEEN — A GROUP EXHIBITION BY AKIQ AW, JIM ALLEN ABEL & WIMO AMBALA BAYANG, CURATED BY ALIA SWASTIKA HELD AT A+ WORKS OF ART, KUALA LUMPUR FROM 12 APRIL – 5 MAY 2018.

CURATOR ALIA SWASTIKA PROJECT MANAGEMENT JOSHUA LIM NIKKI ONG COPY EDITOR LEE WENG CHOY DESIGN NOWORNEVER.MY PHOTOGRAPHY AKIQ AW JIM ALLEN ABEL KUWAKENTA WIMO AMBALA BAYANG

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Memories of the Unseen: What is visible from the Unseen?

ESSAY BY ALIA SWASTIKA

Memories of the Unseen presents a conversation between three artists: Akiq AW, Jim Allen Abel and Wimo Ambala Bayang. The exhibition explores the imaginary and performative contexts of “invisibility”. While the term “unseen” may refer to something like an invisible spirit, this word can also be discussed in the framework of an ever-haunting memory.

The notion of the unseen — something of contradiction in the realm of the visual arts — challenges us to consider different layers of meaning than those immediately given to us by our visual senses. In this context, the unseen encourages new visual interpretations grasped from the processes of editing, magnifying, juxtaposing and deleting. In a world where visual images and simulacra predominate social life, it is crucial to develop and sustain a critical awareness of how images not only function but overwhelm. Juxtaposing the seen and unseen, reversing the established semiotic meanings of visual symbols, or raising questions on how images are showcased, are what artists, especially photographers, often do as a means of subverting the status quo.

French philosopher Jacques Rancière observes that we usually assume and expect that there is stable relation between the A+ WORKS OF ART — MEMORIES OF THE UNSEEN

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seen and unseen. For Rancière, photography becomes an art precisely because of its capability to exploit the double poetics of the image, making its photographed object, either simultaneously or separately, occupy two positions: firstly, a legible testimony of history casted on an object or face; and secondly, a pure blockage of appearance which resists narrativity.

The three artists in Memories of the Unseen are keen to bring this duality into specific sociocultural contexts — the localities where an image originally emerged, or the period when an image was born, or the cultural field where an image fights against established meanings.

Jim Allen Abel’s works come from a reflection on his lived spiritual experience during his mother’s funeral procession.

The grand funeral tradition of Toraja employs a performative ritual (and indeed, tradition and ritual play a role in the birth of performativity as a theoretical concept). On the one hand, his own “outstanding performance” is an affirmation of the meaning of customs in a post-modern situation; on the other hand, Jimbo creates a space of solitude in order to make sense of the event. Death is a moment of loss, a moment of parting, a moment of disengagement. In this moment of parting from his mother, Jimbo explored and re-read his own life narrations — on the lost things and those that have yet to be released. For his mother’s funeral ritual, Jimbo borrowed a buffalo head (buffalo is a sacred animal in Toraja), and in his four series of Larung, we can see Jimbo bringing the buffalo head to riverbank and performing a ritual.

In many cultures, water is a symbol of self-purification. Jimbo selfpurifies, then walks around carrying a buffalo head. Larung #1 to Larung #3 are a depiction of personal spiritual relation between Jimbo and the customs of his community: how an individual links to the cosmos and universe. Meanwhile, in Larung #4, Jimbo stands next to his mother’s coffin, carrying buffalo meats, in a red-luminous room. All these build a relation between an interior world of Jimbo as an individual and “the social” exterior.

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Also for this exhibition, Jimbo presents two video works. The first is a documentary of his performative act of carrying the buffalo head around his village accompanied by an elegy commonly sung in the Ma’badong ceremony. Ma’badong is a ritual in the form of celebration, performed for the deceased; the participants sing and dance in a circle. The second is a family video taken after the funeral. All family members posed for a photograph session (taken as a documentation) and then Jimbo recorded their movements as a silent moving picture.

For me, the symbols presented in the Larung series — buffalo, funeral ritual, purification — show the way Jimbo questions the meaning of the tradition for the present community. The artist told me that the buffalos used for funeral are often imported from faraway regions, and weeks after the ceremony, the buffalo meats are left abandoned. In our current human ecology, however, continuing with this tradition generates a significant tension for the Toraja youth. Jimbo does not mean to reject tradition by using the term “tension”; tradition has been embodied in their lives and is inseparable from their identity.

Akiq AW offers an example of how the propaganda of uniformity and discipline had been a fundamental pattern during the New Order period of Indonesia through its family planning program.

He documents the visual artefacts of the propaganda, most of which has been abandoned and forgotten. These simple pictures of father, mother and two children — the ideal family — were ubiquitously uniform and a highly effective means for the campaign of the New Order’s Family Planning programme.

It was one of Soeharto’s top priorities, aimed at controlling the population growth of Indonesia, and was implemented in 1970s, at the same time when the ideology of developmentalism intensified. Just as with other New Order’s programs, it was top-down, from the central government to the controlled village apparatuses, making it a new social construction imposed on the Indonesian family. Akiq AW is part of a generation that grew up within this ideological construction and experienced the inundation of this campaign. A campaign that has now has A+ WORKS OF ART — MEMORIES OF THE UNSEEN

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become a collective memory about the tension between the “individual” and their surrounding “community”.

Akiq AW was born in 1970s, in the suburban area of a small city in East Java. It was then that the family planning campaign was just launched by the government. In the suburban areas across Indonesia, this new “illusion” and “imagination” contradicted the previous ideal, which was for a big family — “banyak anak, banyak rezeki” (many children, much fortune). The downfall of the New Order of course affected the campaign, and the agencies implementing the programme were frozen during the Abdurahman Wahid (Gus Dur) administration. Collective memory of the images of family planning is gradually fading away, especially for those born after the 1998 Reformasi. By photographing these artefacts that were made for more than 25 years, Akiq AW seems to reflect the almost forgotten project initiated by Soeharto’s power, and tries to see it from a different view and from a different time. The presence of these images is a reminder to bear the unseen in mind: a narration of dark history and hegemony; the spectre of the past pops up in the form of images of the ideal family.

Wimo Ambala Bayang presents images of the unseen in a more direct or frontal manner. In his new photographic series about various scenes in art world, Wimo deletes the images of the art works. In his five photographs, we see scenes of people looking at whited-out objects in several typical art world moments: an exhibition in gallery, a local art exchange, and then an international art exchange, a biennale/triennale, and an open space exhibition. In the series, Wimo emphasises the position of the various agents of the contemporary art world — audience, curator, journalist, gallery owner, critic, academic, and other stakeholders — as the spectator. Each agent has a function in determining or affecting the dynamics of the contemporary art world, where struggles over power are inevitable. Wimo not only renders the original artworks absent, taking away their identities, he makes them seem as A+ WORKS OF ART — MEMORIES OF THE UNSEEN

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if they don’t even belong there in the first place. This kind of displacement has been a significant strategy of contemporary visual art practice; it is an attempt to continually question and edit a regime of images that are available almost only as clichés. The artist offers us a game of frames: by deleting the artwork, making it unseen, and at the same time revealing it as the frame that can be seen and read.

REFERENCES 1. Rancier, Jacques. The Future of the Image (2007), London/New York: Verso Book. Translated by Gregory Elliott.

2. Rancier, Jacques. The Emancipated Spectator (2011), London/New York: Verso Book. Translated by Gregory Elliott.

3. Aditjondro, George Adi. Pragmatisme menjadi to sugi dan to kapua di Toraja (2007), Yogyakarta: Penerbit Gunung Sopai 4. Shiraisi, Saya Saasaki. Keluargakeluarga Bahagia (2003). Jakarta: Kelompok Penerbit Gramedia

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PHOTO BY KUWAKENTA A+ WORKS OF ART — MEMORIES OF THE UNSEEN

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PHOTO BY KUWAKENTA

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PHOTO BY KUWAKENTA A+ WORKS OF ART — MEMORIES OF THE UNSEEN

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Akiq AW Akiq AW (born in Kediri, East Java, 1976) studied at Communication Department Gadjah Mada University and Photography at Indonesian Institute of the Arts, both in Yogyakarta. With his double major in universities, these two perspectives had been overlapped shaping his position as an artist.

His long going projects investigate the tactics of everyday life with his surrounding, how human face realities through innovation and strategy that they created. His first exposed photo series, The Order of Things, was a story on how people lives on their own creativity and imagination; he took photos of “installation” made by common people Akiq AW exhibits his works individually or together with Mes 56’s members. His solo exhibition includes “The Order of Things” (2010) at Mes 56, Yogyakarta and “One Man Different God” (2011) at The Goods Dept, Jakarta. He had been shown in Jogja Biennale 13 in 2011 “Shadow Lines”. With Mes 56, he was part of the exhibition in CCP Melbourne (2013), Song Eun in Seoul, South Korea (2016). He exhibits his works in special focus in Art Dubai (2012), and in Amsterdam (2017). He was Artistic Director for Archive Festival Exhibition organized

by Indonesian Visual Art Archive (2017).

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Indonesian Family Portrait Series 2016 – 2017 Archival inkjet print 75 × 60 cm Edition of 5 + 1 AP

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Indonesian Family Portrait Series 2016 – 2017 Archival inkjet print 75 × 60 cm Edition of 5 + 1 AP

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Indonesian Family Portrait Series 2016 – 2017 Archival inkjet print 75 × 60 cm Edition of 5 + 1 AP

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Indonesian Family Portrait Series 2016 – 2017 Archival inkjet print 75 × 60 cm Edition of 5 + 1 AP

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Indonesian Family Portrait Series 2016 – 2017 Archival inkjet print 75 × 60 cm Edition of 5 + 1 AP

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Indonesian Family Portrait Series 2016 – 2017 Archival inkjet print 75 × 60 cm Edition of 5 + 1 AP

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Indonesian Family Portrait Series 2016 – 2017 Archival inkjet print 75 × 60 cm Edition of 5 + 1 AP

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Indonesian Family Portrait Series 2016 – 2017 Archival inkjet print 75 × 60 cm Edition of 5 + 1 AP

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Indonesian Family Portrait Series 2016 – 2017 Archival inkjet print 75 × 60 cm Edition of 5 + 1 AP

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Indonesian Family Portrait Series 2016 – 2017 Archival inkjet print 75 × 60 cm Edition of 5 + 1 AP

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Indonesian Family Portrait Series 2016 – 2017 Archival inkjet print 75 × 60 cm Edition of 5 + 1 AP

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Indonesian Family Portrait Series 2016 – 2017 Archival inkjet print 75 × 60 cm Edition of 5 + 1 AP

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Indonesian Family Portrait Series 2016 – 2017 Archival inkjet print 75 × 60 cm Edition of 5 + 1 AP

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Indonesian Family Portrait Series 2016 – 2017 Archival inkjet print 75 × 60 cm Edition of 5 + 1 AP

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Indonesian Family Portrait Series 2016 – 2017 Archival inkjet print 75 × 60 cm Edition of 5 + 1 AP

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Indonesian Family Portrait Series 2016 – 2017 Archival inkjet print 75 × 60 cm Edition of 5 + 1 AP

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Indonesian Family Portrait Series 2016 – 2017 Archival inkjet print 75 × 60 cm Edition of 5 + 1 AP

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Indonesian Family Portrait Series 2016 – 2017 Archival inkjet print 75 × 60 cm Edition of 5 + 1 AP

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Indonesian Family Portrait Series 2016 – 2017 Archival inkjet print 75 × 60 cm Edition of 5 + 1 AP

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Indonesian Family Portrait Series 2016 – 2017 Archival inkjet print 75 × 60 cm Edition of 5 + 1 AP

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Indonesian Family Portrait Series 2016 – 2017 Archival inkjet print 75 × 60 cm Edition of 5 + 1 AP

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Indonesian Family Portrait Series 2016 – 2017 Archival inkjet print 65 × 105 cm; Suite of 4 Edition of 5 + 1 AP

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Indonesian Family Portrait Series 2016 – 2017 Archival inkjet print 65 × 105 cm; Suite of 4 Edition of 5 + 1 AP

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Indonesian Family Portrait Series 2016 – 2017 Archival inkjet print 65 × 105 cm; Suite of 4 Edition of 5 + 1 AP

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Indonesian Family Portrait Series 2016 – 2017 Archival inkjet print 65 × 105 cm; Suite of 4 Edition of 5 + 1 AP

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Langkah Kecilku Langkah Besarku i. Olah Raga, ii. Sawah, iii.Ka’bah (video stills) 2016 – 2017 Single-channel video 01:23 minutes

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JIM ALLEN ABEL Jim Allen Abel (Jimbo) was born in Makassar 1975. He studied photography at Indonesian Institute of the Arts. After graduating he went on to work as a commercial photographer for some of Indonesia’s top music bands touring extensively throughout the archipelago.

Jimbo was first known widely through his project series on uniform, where he chose performance as his approach in discussing about the idea on identity and state apparatus. He performed himself wearing different uniforms, with a witty yet strong gesture that created the narrative of the photos through the contradictory appeared there. From this project, he developed more photo series where he questions the notion of social reality and performed reality. Jimbo’s works primarily respond to and comment on the ways historical events are interpreted through the prism of power politics, investigating hierarchical power structures and their effects on social and interpersonal relationships.

He actively exhibits his works in various platforms: Photography Biennale Musee du Quay Paris France, CP Biennale Jakarta, Art Stage Singapore, Art Dubai, Art | Jog, Cryptic Festival Glasgow Scotland, Bazaar Art Jakarta, Centre for Contemporary Photography Melbourne, Ricoh Ring Cube Tokyo, White Cube Gallery Kuala Lumpur, Element Art Space Singapore, Bangkok Cultural Art Centre, SongEun Seoul, Oz Fest Adelaide, Cemeti Art House and D Galeri Jakarta.

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Larung Series #1 2018 Inkjet print on paper mounted on aluminium 120 × 80 cm

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Larung Series #2 2018 Inkjet print on paper mounted on aluminium 120 × 80 cm

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Larung Series #3 2018 Inkjet print on paper mounted on aluminium 120 × 80 cm

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Larung Series #4 2018 Inkjet print on paper mounted on aluminium 120 × 80 cm A+ WORKS OF ART — MEMORIES OF THE UNSEEN

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Larung: Ode to My Mother (video stills) 2018 Single-channel video 11:35 minutes

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Larung: Hello Goodbye (video stills) 2018 Single-channel video 02:37 minutes

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Larung: Hello Goodbye (video stills) 2018 Single-channel video 02:37 minutes

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WIMO AMBALA BAYANG Wimo Ambala Bayang is an artist who works with photography and video. His works reflect unique perspectives on culture that are not made under a pretense to criticize, but to make us rethink the habits that seem to have always been there History and facts, minor and major, are important aspects that must always be considered in his creative process. Wimo is always interested in finding a unique and hidden perspective from our everyday life, to encourage the audience to rethink and to question all the small things that happen in our life. Using his camera, he plays with visual reality, combining the real visual view and imagined fantasy. Wimo also tends to open up layers of different culture, bringing us to reach a common understanding of our heterogeneous contemporary society.

In the past 5 years, Wimo participated in international artists exchanges, such as in China, Australia, Netherlands and Denmark.

There he explored new ideas, approaches and different contexts related to the development of contemporary photography, which influenced his decision to juxtapose photography with other disciplines in art. As individual artists, he has been participated in Jakarta Biennale (2009), Jogja Biennale (2011), Art Dubai (2012), Sharjah International Photo Exhibition (2014), Song Eun Art Space, Seoul (2016), Herbert F Jonston Museum in Cornell University (2017), and many others.

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SPECTATOR SERIES Art Dealer 2016 Archival inkjet print, mounted on aluminum 80 × 120 cm Edition of 3 + 2 AP

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Journalist 2016 Archival inkjet print, mounted on aluminum 70 × 105 cm Edition of 3 + 2 AP

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Researcher 2016 Archival inkjet print, mounted on aluminum 70 × 105 cm Edition of 3 + 2 AP

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Guided Spectators 2016 Archival inkjet print, mounted on aluminum 80 × 120 cm Edition of 3 + 2 AP

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Philosopher 2016 Archival inkjet print, mounted o n aluminum 80 × 120 cm Edition of 3 + 2 AP

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A+ WORKS of Art would like to thank: Adelina Luft Akiq AW Alia Swastika Bingley Sim Iskandar Lee Weng Choy Jim Allen Abel Rachel Ng Tom Tandio Valentine Willie Wimo Ambala Bayang

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CURATOR PROFILE Alia Swastika has worked as Program Director for Ark Galerie, Yogyakarta, Indonesia since 2008 and is actively involved as a curator, project manager and writer on a number of international exhibitions. With Suman Gopinath, she was the co-curator of the Jogja Biennale XI, Shadow Lines: Indonesia Meets India (2011), and was one of the co-artistic directors for the Gwangju Biennale IX (2012): Roundtable. She also participated as the curator of a special exhibition of Indonesian artists in the 2012 edition of Art Dubai.

She has extensive experience for her curatorial projects in Indonesia and abroad. Her recent curatorial works includes co-curators for Europalia Arts Festival Indonesia for Contemporary Art Projects (2017) and “Songs for the People” (Art Sonje, Seoul, 2018).

As the director of Jogja Biennale 2015, she was a member of the International Biennale Association Board (2013–2017), and she recently founded ‘Study on Art Practices’, a platform for research into contemporary art in Indonesia.

She writes for Frieze, Art Forum, Broadsheet journal, and many others, as well as for numerous publications in Indonesia.

A+ WORKS of ART is a contemporary art gallery based in Kuala Lumpur. Founded in 2017, A+ WORKS of ART strives to engage contemporary practices and discussions in new media art, especially photography, video, installation and performance art. While the main geographic scope of the gallery is Malaysia and the rest of Southeast Asia, it keeps its ears attuned to global conversations on social issues, critical imagination and material experimentation.

Collaboration is the key ethos of A+ WORKS of ART, based in the belief that wonderful things can happen w hen people share and exchange ideas. Artists working with gallery are not so much represented by the gallery

but engaged in an ongoing conversation and collaboration. Likewise, curators, writers, collectors and galleries are welcome to initiate conversations about potential collaborations. The main name, A+, refers then not just to the gallery’s strive for distinction and professionalism in its services and working processes, but also a sense of readiness to start a dialogue with any interested party.

Founded by Joshua Lim, who has d ecades of experience in the hospitality industry, A+ WORKS of ART represents a natural progression for the avid art lover. Lim has been an art supporter for the past decade through his ongoing art acquisition and his promotion of contemporary art in his network.

A+ WORKS of ART d6 - G - 8 d6 Trade Centre 801 Jalan Sentul 51000 Kuala Lumpur Malaysia +60 18 333 3399