WHEN : 22 January – 12 February 2011
WHERE : BOXCOPY
LIVE FOR SATAN is a solo exhibition of new and recent work by Indonesian artist Ican Harem. Incorporating performance, video, illustration, design and music, Harem’s practice weaves with a sense of equivalence through a broad field of cultural production. For his exhibition at Boxcopy, Harem focuses on the presentation of a series of short, low-fi videos, made initially as visual accompaniment to his black metal karaoke band, CangKang Serigala. Often darkly humorous, Harem’s karaoke videos shift between visual arbitrariness (a quality true to the karaoke style) and other more composed moments that are unexpectedly disarming.
Developed in response to the size of the Boxcopy gallery, the exhibition LIVE FOR SATAN will re-imagine the exhibition site as part karaoke den, part Islamic mosque. In the absence of the performer, Harem will create an anticipatory zone – a space both open for the viewer to use (for karaoke? prayer? sacrifice?) and a stage awaiting the blood, sweat, and theatrical posturing of a CangKang Serigala performance. Harem playfully negotiates the difficulties of a ‘hybrid place’, using his art practice and on stage persona to test out conflicting identity discourses, a place influenced by nationality, religion and personal interests. LIVE FOR SATAN is Harem’s first solo exhibition in Australia.
