Part of PERSONALIA, 2022, Offset lithography, Variable dimensions.

PERSONALIA

Tromarama

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 of this exhibition.

The term PERSONALIA 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 disparate constituent forms that appear familiar and transformed into performing more unusual functions.

PERSONALIA is divided into two primary components: the first phase in the first hallway to the space, Gallery Apple, as well as an interstitial space thereafter, the second part, demarcated by a PVC partition, takes place in Gallery Orange. The first section of the show contains a binary synthesizer sound installation, offset lithographic wallpaper, 3D-printed wall sculptures, video, two found object installations, new lenticular prints, as well as unique screen prints on found materials. The second section of the show emphasizes a major installation comprising of an air-filled bouncy castle inverted upside down in the middle of the space, alongside a sound installation built using found objects throughout the space.

Tromarama

Tromama (est. 2006, Bandung, Indonesia) is a collective initiated by Febie Babyrose (b. 1985 Jakarta, Indonesia), Herbert Hans (b. 1984, Jakarta, Indonesia) and Ruddy Hatumena (b. 1984, Manama, Bahrain). Graduates of the Bandung Institute of Technology (Institut Teknologi Bandung), the artists were first acquainted with each other through the “trauma” of conceiving a music video, Serigala Militia, in 2006, a video based on hundreds of individually sculpted woodcut plywood boards. These collaborative origins would form an aesthetic basis for an interest in meticulously constructed stop-motion videos that would oftentimes appear playful and yet touch upon the very fundamental notions of humanity through the personification or animation of otherwise static objects. The practice of Tromarama has developed organically to expand further within moving images and beyond thereafter and has expanded to include complex installations, algorithmic programs, as well as explorations into lenticular prints. Though the initial aesthetic underpinnings in their work remain consistent until today, the methodology and complexity of the conceptual explorations are ever-expanding.

Tromarama has participated in major exhibitions at various notable institutions worldwide. Their upcoming show is with the Leeum Museum of Art, entitled Cloud Walkers (2022-2023) and their recent commission was Tromarama: The Lost Jungle (2021-2022) at the Children’s Art Space at Museum MACAN, Jakarta, Indonesia. Selected solo exhibitions namely Beta (2021 and 2019) respectively at DOCUMENT Space, Chicago, USA, and at AAAAHHH!!! Paris Internationale 2019 with ROH Projects, Paris, France; Madakaripura (2020), at Edouard Malingue Gallery, London, UK; LLIMIIINALL (2019) at Edouard Malingue Gallery, HK; Amphibia (2017) at Centre A, Vancouver, Canada; Tromarama (2015) at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Netherlands. Tromarama’s selected group exhibitions include Distrik Seni X Sarinah: Berdikari! (2022) at Sarinah, Jakarta, Indonesia; NOT IN MY NAME (2022) at CCA Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel; 1 (2022) at ROH, Jakarta, Indonesia; Last Words (2021) at ROH, Jakarta, Indonesia; Interdependencies: Tropical Lab (2021), Lasalle College of The Arts, Singapore; The Turn of the Fifth Age (2021) at Selasar Sunaryo Art Space, Bandung, Indonesia; Contemporary Worlds: Indonesia (2019) at National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia; NGV Triennial (2020) at National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia; The Extra Extra Ordinary (2018) at Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MCAD), Manila, Philippines; Cinerama (2017) at Singapore Art Museum, Singapore; Jakarta Biennale: Neither Forward nor Back: Acting in The Present (2015), Jakarta, Indonesia; and the 11th Gwangju Biennale: The Eight Climate (What Does Art Do?) (2016), South Korea; and many more.