Archives
Costume National : Contemporary Art from Indonesia
Exhibition, Performances
SAW and AXENÉO7
Artists
Curator
AXENÉO7 and Galerie SAW Gallery were proud to co-present the major exhibition Costume National featuring the work of seven leading Indonesian artists. Spanning different generations, the artists presented in this exhibition worked in media as diverse as robotics, sculpture, textile, performance, video, film, photography and new media.
The exhibition looked at the influence of fashion, textile and performance on the contemporary art of Indonesia. With over 300 distinct ethnic groups and close to 750 different languages spoken, Indonesia is a land infused in arts and culture. Religious rites, traditional rituals and contemporary performance spill out onto the streets in an exhilarating clash of language and culture.
Highlights of the exhibit included:
- A custom-designed robotocized woodblock by Montreal gamelan musician and composer Pierre-Emmanuel Lévesque;
- The voluminous sculptural installationg by acclaimed Indoneisan artist Arahmaiani, consisting of large Arabic letters suspended in the air and spelling out I Love You;
- For Mella Jaarsma's Pulang project, participants were asked to go in the four cardinal directions of the Hindu compass adorned with GPS-enabled backpacks. These can unfold into full body costumes that are relayed to other participants who continue the journey throughout Indonesia and beyond;
- Agus Suwage's feminist performance art hommage Pause/ Replay featuring 50 drawings and watercolours documenting the seminal work of Yoko Ono, Carolee Schneemann, Marina Abramović and many others;
- All works included in the exhibition have not previously been shown in Canada
Produced by Galerie SAW Gallery and AXENÉO7 in partnership with the Embassy of Indonesia in Ottawa