I first saw Anggun Priambodo’s Sinema Elektronik at Gallery Loop in Seoul where Move On Asia: Single Channel Video Art Festival was held. Being a shameless fan of kitsch, I immediately fell in love with the work which draws on the cliche tropes that populate Indonesian soap opera or sinetron. Some of the more immediately recognisable ones are the father who coughs out blood, the maid being run over by a hooligans on motorcycle, asmara scenes, a tight slap across the face, a repentant supporting actress praying in her jibab, abandoned babies, etc. Many of these are, of course, familiar to us because they can also found in our local cerekarama.

Sinema Elektronik

So I was really excited to hear that Anggun is putting up his first solo exhibition over at RuangRupa. Working in collaboration with RuangRupa’s head honcho Ade Darmawan as exhibition curator, he set up a Toko Keperluan (roughly translated to a ‘shop that sells what you need’) in RuruGallery to create a playful environment for commerce of the mom and pop tuck shop variety. In short, old time SME (small medium enterprise) la, before the word SME was invented.

Of course what is needed is a matter of debate especially when one factors in how our everyday lifestyles come to shape personal standards that distinguish between needs and wants. Therefore, in some ways, a tuck shop is kind of like a mini compendium of the community it serves. How does a mini market that serves the art community look like? Here’s the catalogue of goods for sale. Looks just like our normal mini-markets kan? Now we know who actually buys these stuffs. Enjois!

Toko Keperluan runs from 22 May – 5 June 2010 at RuRu Gallery, RuangRupa, Jakarta.

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This is a completely random trivia: Anggun is also a rather accomplished music video director! Here’s one of my favourite music video of his for Goodnight Electric.

Goodnight Electric A.S.T.U.R.O.B.O.T.

(SS)

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Toko Keperluan catalogue taken from here.
Check out Anggun Priambodo’s other awesome works (art, commercials, music videos, etc.) here.