DOWN DOWN DOWN the rabbit hole

 

DOWN DOWN DOWN the rabbit hole at ROH Projects is the fourth solo exhibition by Bandung-based artist Cinanti Astria Johansjah (who is better-known as Keni; Balikpapan, 1985; cinantiastria.com). And for this exhibition Keni decided to deal with a solemn theme: grief.

In psychology, grieving is described as a five-stage process: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and, finally, acceptance – the so-called Kübler-Ross model. Keni’s work in this exhibition is situated in between the two stages of bargaining and early depression. And the stage of bargaining is considered to be a bargaining with one self, and one’s anger issues, and one’s surrounding. And in the early stage of depression there is still hope that the depression doesn’t run too deep and too long, and thus there is still hope that one could get out of the black void any time soon.

In-betweenness is a significant motif throughout Keni’s oeuvre. She considers the in-betweenness as an essential ‘adempauze’. ‘Adempauze’ is a Dutch-Indonesian word signifying an ephemeral respite, eerily frozen in time for a brief moment. In the context of this show, ‘adempauze’ also refers to the in-between lulls of grief coming and going in overwhelming waves (thus complicating the linearity of the psychological model).

Download the e-catalog here.

4 April – 2 May 2017

Artist talk: 18 April at 6pm

– Roy Voragen, curator