Tromarama’s First Solo Exhibition in China

The Indonesian artist collective at Edouard Malingue Gallery
By Jaclyn Chong

Tromarama, ‘Soliloquy’, 2018, lamps, software, social media, #kinship, variable size. Image courtesy of MCAD, Manila and the artist.

Tromarama’s show ‘LLIMIIINALL’ opens at Edouard Malingue Gallery, Shanghai, an exhibition showcasing works combining art and digital technologies. Straddling a liminal space between data and human consciousness, the exhibition presents installations, videos and two-dimensional works.

The Indonesian artist collective engages with hyperreality, blurring the lines between reality and the virtual realm. “Our works try to expose the terms and conditions that are embedded in recent digital technology which we tend to take for granted,” say members Febie Babyrose, Ruddy Hatumena and Herbert Hans.

Taking inspiration from the digital revolution of Indonesia during the early 2000s, their works animate the relationships people have with social media in quirky, lighthearted ways. ‘Soliloquy’ (2018) for example, tracks user activity of the hashtag “#kinship” on Twitter, which is then converted into a binary code that initiates the lamps to flicker.

Tromarama, ‘001.selfghosted’, 2019, lenticular print mounted on aluminium dibond, 80cm x 120cm. Image courtesy of Edouard Malingue Gallery and the artist.

Data input from social media drives many of the works of Tromarama in this show. The hashtag “#selfportrait” receives an alienating reconfiguration in ‘001.selfghosted’, where each character in the tweet becomes a binary code that is then translated into an RGB colour code. The resulting artwork is an uncanny portrait of our anonymous interactions on the Internet.

The gallery hopes the exhibition will draw parallels between the development of digital interactions in Indonesian and Chinese societies. “As one of the most populous countries in the world, Indonesia undergoes remarkable changes due to the development of the Internet technology,” says the gallery. “Similar changes can also be seen in China with the world’s largest population, hence we want to guide more Chinese young people to ponder over the impact of the Internet and social media on themselves.” 

‘LLIMIIINALL’ will run from 12 January to 10 March 2019 at Edouard Malingue Gallery, Shanghai.