The 10th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

‘The 10th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ (APT10) at the Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art (4 Dec 2021—25 April 2022) includes 69 projects with new and recent work by emerging and established artists and collectives, together comprising more than 150 individuals from 30 countries. ROH is hereby pleased to share the participation of Bagus Pandega and Syagini Ratna Wulan in this landmark tenth edition, which looks to the future of art and the world we inhabit together.

Bagus Pandega builds objects and devices into modular systems that operate as live and active multi-sensory works. His sculptures and installations are webs of mechanical, sound, light and automated kinetic constructions, developed around narratives of specific social contexts. Cheap, everyday technologies are combined with industrial and machine materials, instruments and cymbal stands from drumkits. In Pandega’s recent works, he has introduced natural materials, carefully selected not only to contribute to the works’ underlying narrative but also for their biological energy and mechanical triggering potential. Plants and flowers are incorporated in installations, connected through MIDI sprouts (which convert biodata from plants into music) to trigger instruments and mechanics.

A Diasporic Mythology is a kinetic and sound installation developed from Pandega’s interest in the historical narratives and circulation of instruments. Connected to a series of tea plants, it brings together examples of Indonesian and Japanese string instruments to explore a history of influence and exchange.

ROH The 10th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

On the opening weekend of APT10, Queensland’s eminent koto player, Takako Nishibori, performed a combination of improv with a composed piece, together with Composer Michio Miyagi's (1894-1956) 'Matsuri no Taiko' (Festival drums), alongside Bagus Pandega’s artwork, 'A Diasporic Mythology' 2021, a kinetic sound installation comprising of Indonesian and Japanese string instruments.

Co-presented by Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art and the Japan Foundation, Sydney.

Meanwhile, Syagini presents her most recent body of work, Halo, where she expresses her fascination with regard to how color is perceived, as it relates to the individual sensibilities colors may evoke in us. The 𝘏𝘢𝘭𝘰 series emerged as a consequence of a certain exploration of geometries and how artificial colors may emulate physical and mathematical phenomena producing light and color in nature. The works speak towards a certain transcendental aspect of light and color, and its relation to a certain spiritualism.

Born 1985, Jakarta, Indonesia
Lives and works in Bandung, Indonesia

Working primarily through the medium of installation, Bagus Pandega often challenges pre-conditioned relationships between objects and its viewer. In his works, Pandega assembles various electronic systems as ‘modules’ and explores objects such as voice recorders, cassette and record players, lamps and electronic circuit boards— among others— to construct his works. Many of his artworks become activated through the interaction of movement, sound and light.

Pandega graduated from Bandung Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art) in 2008, majoring in sculpture. Pandega’s selected solo exhibitions include A Pervasive Rhythm at Yamamoto Gendai, Tokyo, Japan (2018); Random Black, ROH Projects, Jakarta, Indonesia (2016); and A Monument That Tells Anything, Cemeti Art House, Yogyakarta, Indonesia (2015). Selected group exhibitions include Frieze Seoul with ROH, Seoul, South Korea (2022); WAGIWAGI at documenta fifteen, Hübner areal, Kassel, Germany (2022); Declaring Distance: Bandung — Leiden, Selasar Sunaryo Art Space, Bandung, Indonesia (2022); ArtJog MMXIX: Common Space, Jogja National Museum, Yogyakarta, Indonesia (2019); Paris Internationale with ROH, Paris, France (2018); all of which feature his collaborative practice with Kei Imazu; Art Basel Hong Kong with ROH, Hong Kong (2023); The 10th Asia Pacific Triennial at QAGOMA, Brisbane, Australia (2021-2022); Tiger Orchid presented at Art Basel OVR: Miami Beach (2020); Condo London at Project Native Informant, London, UK (2020); Ripples: Continuity in Indonesian Contemporary Art at Taipei Dangdai, Taipei, Taiwan (2019); Distorted Alteration at Project Fulfill, Taipei, Taiwan (2018); Amsterdam Light Festival, Amsterdam, the Netherlands (2017); and Clandestine Transgression at Art Basel Hong Kong: Discoveries with ROH Projects, Hong Kong (2015). After winning third place at Bandung Contemporary Art Awards #2, Pandega completed his first residency at Le Centre Intermondes, La Rochelle, France in 2012. A nominee of the 2016 Sovereign Art Prize, Pandega had also collaborated with Adi Purnomo and Irwan Ahmett in presenting Freedome, Indonesia Pavilion at the London Design Biennale: Utopia by Design in 2016.