PERSONALIA

ROH is pleased to present Tromarama’s first solo exhibition with the gallery, PERSONALIA, which focuses on the blurring of how people relate to the digital realm, specifically pertaining to the notions of labor and leisure.

PERSONALIA centers around the increasing quantum of possibilities in which new forms of value are constantly created through the collection, interpretation, and utilization of data provided by people as they traverse cyberspace, consensually or otherwise. The interplays of agency, in this case the capacity by which one is aware of or is able towards making conscious decisions resulting in particular ends, becomes the other central exploration to this exhibition.

The term personalia itself is in Indonesian best translated to English as the employee deployment and management aspect of an organization's human resource management. The word suggests a relationship to corporate structure both in the more traditional notion of its understanding, as well as how it may be translated further into the ever-changing, dynamic realities of the digital world. Throughout the exhibition, Tromarama employs an aesthetic strategy that brings together seemingly familiar everyday objects and transforms them into performing more unusual functions.

PERSONALIA is divided into two primary components: the first phase in the first hallway to the space, Gallery Apple with Bonding (2022), the first work encountered by visitors of the gallery taking the form of a human figure built out of a stack of speakers emitting the lively rhythm of a fetus heartbeat live-connected with social media. Offset lithography displaying the scanned thumbs surfaced the entire walls of the Gallery Apple with a video work, sculptural works, found objects installations, as well as new lenticular prints interplaying with each other–building a new audiovisual experience to visitors. Demarcated by a PVC partition, the second component of the exhibition takes place inside the Gallery Orange with Patgulipat (2022), an immersive cacophony of installation made out of an inverted bouncy castle displayed alongside sixteen worker helmets each with a speaker powered by a similar structure from the first work.

Art collective formed in 2006

Tromarama is an art collective consisting of Febie Babyrose, Herbert Hans, and Ruddy Hatumena whose artistic interests include the notion of hyperreality and interrelationships between the virtual and the physical worlds. Their art often combines video, installation, and algorithmic based computer programming.

Tromarama has participated in major exhibitions at various notable institutions worldwide. Selected solo exhibitions namely Contraflow at Kiang Malingue, Tin Wan, Hong Kong (2023); PERSONALIA at ROH, Jakarta, Indonesia (2022); Beta (2021 and 2019) respectively at DOCUMENT Space, Chicago, USA, and at Paris Internationale with ROH Projects, Paris, France; LLIMIIINALL (2019) at Edouard Malingue Gallery, Wan Chai, Hong Kong; Amphibia at Centre A, Vancouver, Canada (2017); Tromarama (2015) at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Netherlands. Notable special projects include Tromarama: The Lost Jungle at the Children’s Art Space at Museum MACAN, Jakarta, Indonesia (2021-2022); Madakaripura (2020), at Edouard Malingue Gallery, London, UK; and Private Riots at Encounters, Art Basel Hong Kong presented by Edouard Malingue Gallery, Hong Kong (2016). Tromarama’s selected group exhibitions include 84 Steps at Kunstinstituut Melly, Rotterdam, the Netherlands (2023); CLOUD WALKERS at Leeum Art Museum, Seoul, South Korea (2022); Distrik Seni X Sarinah: Berdikari! at Sarinah, Jakarta, Indonesia (2022); NOT IN MY NAME at CCA Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel (2022); 1 at ROH, Jakarta, Indonesia (2022); Last Words at ROH, Jakarta, Indonesia (2021); Interdependencies: Tropical Lab, Lasalle College of The Arts, Singapore (2021); The Turn of the Fifth Age at Selasar Sunaryo Art Space, Bandung, Indonesia (2021); NGV Triennial at National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia (2020); Contemporary Worlds: Indonesia at National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia (2019); The Extra Extra Ordinary at Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MCAD), Manila, Philippines (2018); Cinerama at Singapore Art Museum, Singapore (2017); Jakarta Biennale 2015: Neither Back nor Forward: Acting in the Present at Gudang Sarinah Ekosistem, Jakarta, Indonesia (2015); and the 11th Gwangju Biennale: The Eight Climate (What Does Art Do?) in Gwangju, South Korea (2016); and more. For the last quarter of 2023, Tromarama is the commissioned artist for the moving image work at M+ Facade, M+ Museum, Hong Kong.

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