IO, Jakarta – As a new exhibition space, SCB is a wonderful sanctuary for contemporary art enthusiasts and serving as a talent incubator for young and emerging artists, primarily those from Indonesia. ROH Gallery Projects has an elegant and minimalist gallery space with white-colored interiors and splendid lighting dispositions. The interior concept enables visitors to gain a full focus when studying a particular exhibit.
The art space hosts numerous art media, resulting in a dynamic move of every solo exhibit [artist] to modify the platforms’ theme to match their work, encompassing multimedia installations, sculptures, paintings, to their own lighting styles, ROH Projects is extremely smart at captivating visitors’ senses. With unique art displays and different stage arrangements in each exhibition, this gallery stands on its own distinctive character.
The regular activities of the exhibition, such as Artist Talk, which is usually held in the main showroom, creates a platform for artists to interact with individuals who are curious about the ideas behind the works, in a two-way dialogue.
ROH Gallery Project was established in 2012 with a vision to build a leading gallery for contemporary art in Indonesia, also encouraging other works over the Greater Asia Pacific Region. The gallery focuses on providing platforms for new artists with alternative practices also featuring senior artists in a way of showcasing their intellectual masterpieces. ROH also promotes its own artists to the international stage and by far has been featured in some of Asia’s most prestigious art exhibitions.
The ROH Gallery Project is housed in an office building called Equity Tower at Sudirman Central Business District (SCBD) Central Jakarta, on the 40th floor. During the visit of Independent Observer (2/3/2018), this gallery was hosting a colossal exhibition event. Handoko Eko Saputro, an artist from Yogyakarta-Indonesia, delivered an engaging presentation about his collections titled ‘Wall Street Gymnastics’ as he displayed various new artworks over different media.
The general idea of his working practices is based on exploration of topics and artistic method that evolved with personal experience influenced by social and art disciplines within his working environment. One of the interesting exploration fields for him is the art market mechanism, in which the relations of power and the interrelationship within entities create particular tensions affecting art practice, the commodification of artwork, and the position of artists in today’s social art scene.
In his art exhibition, he revealed, ‘This work was driven by a specific question of how artwork is prominently devoured by its audience during the exhibition. Here, I discover the perspectives of observing artwork in an arguably very exclusive way, based on the various factors that influence someone to finally purchase [the artworks]. This observation drove me to build an assumption over people’s desire to be a collector, hence I want to welcome their willingness through a performative work that promotes an acrylic painting on a 260 x 750 cm canvas divided by 10 x 10 cm per lot. In this case, everyone has the same opportunity over a certain period of time to collect each part of the work according to their needs. Each part of the work collected by these speculators is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity to be consigned or resold at the price they wish. In addition, if I successfully sell their property at the price they have made, I will get a commission from the sale. Through this work, I want to reveal how the art market works’ said Handoko.
The athletic symbol he chose is an analogy which reflects the similarities between artists and athletes, in which the nature of their achievement changes rapidly, always demanding to remain innovative, and tangible achievements over numbers. Besides, the presence of agents, both in the careers of artists and athletes, has a similar role in terms of legitimizing and constructing their speculative and competitive values.
(Muhammad Akbar)