Condo takes its name from ‘condominium’ and is a large-scale collaborative exhibition of international galleries. Host galleries share their spaces with visiting galleries – either by co-curating an exhibition together, or dividing their galleries and allocating spaces. The initiative encourages the evaluation of existing models, pooling resources and acting communally to propose an environment that is more conducive for experimental gallery exhibitions to take place internationally.

In this iteration of Condo, set in London, UK, we are pleased to participate in collaboration with Project Native Informant, bringing forward a duo presentation of Bagus Pandega and Flo Brooks. 

Flo Brooks’ paintings utilise his own specific personal experiences as a means to scrutinise wider societal shifts and changes. Composed of overlapping images, symbols and exploded shapes, Brooks’ paintings act as vignettes to subtly signify narratives of people, objects and architectures.

The sweet spot (2020), taken from a new series of paintings set in a public lavatory, becomes an embodied allegory for our current economic, cultural and political issues: gentrification, austerity, privatisation and their effects on non-heteronormative and gendered subjectivities. Builders and a property developer are depicted dismantling the architecture and taking measurements, suggestive of impending gentrification. Remnants of the lavatories former use remain intact with graffiti on the walls, alongside a person shielded by an emergency blanket on the ground. Two smaller works, in part referencing 17th century Dutch paintings, present views through a window - discarded corrugated iron, a fox slipping through a hole in the fence as well as flowers, funghi and weeds sprouting from the ground. However, upon closer inspection both depict a solitary figure in darkness, oblivious to the viewers presence.

Bagus Pandega is an artist who communicates his ideas through complex, albeit analogue, electronic assemblages that discuss issues pertinent to his present surroundings. His work often engages issues regarding privacy, labor, as well as the increasingly intimate connection between man and machine.

For his presentation, Pandega presents a series of new installations based on his recent experience of having a son, deconstructing objects related with the process of birth - a breast pump, a rocking chair and a bilirubin light - then reconstructing these objects aesthetically and functionally with 3D printed components or ready-mades that have appeared previously in his work, such as a turntable, vinyl records, and LED screens. These assemblages act as channels of communicating more subtle, specific nuances of his experience: trepidation, excitement, happiness, pride, responsibility, that otherwise would be more difficult to communicate. The works also allude to the notion of an unprecedented future that children will be exposed to, one involving a symbiotic relationship to technology that requires further consideration. The rhythm of the heart we hear throughout the space, as well as the small beating heart, begins to communicate this quiet anxiety.

Copyright belongs to The Artists

Photography by Project Native Informant

Courtesy of The Artists, Project Native Informant, and ROH