Artforum Reviews ‘Contemporary Worlds: Indonesia’

30 Jul 2019

“Zico Albaiquni layers bright backgrounds with images of towering palms and monumental art museums, reflecting a careful study of historical predecessors. “For Evidently, the Fine Arts Do Not Thrive in the Indies”, 2018, re-creates a nineteenth-century photograph of Papuans posing with a Dutch Catholic missionary—now in the National Gallery of Australia’s collection—and overlaps it with gambar pemandangan, an Indonesian landscape perspective teaching motif. In combining these disparate elements, Albaiquini fuses visual energy with a message about the legacy of colonial imagery.”

Artforum reviews “Contemporary Worlds: Indonesia” at National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, where Zico Albaiquni is currently presenting five works. Read the full review here.

The exhibition is on view until 27 October 2019.

Image: installation view of Zico Albaiquni’s works at the National Gallery of Australia. Courtesy of the artist.