Transformers

From the exhibition:
OUT OF JOINT: Malcolm Smith, Prihatmoko Moki, Rudi Hermawan. Curated by Roy Voragen 
Dia.Lo.Gue. Artspace, Jakarta. 16 March – 10 April 2016

Deep in the basements of office towers, shopping malls and apartment blocks there is a room marked ‘Transformer’; a low hum emanating from behind the door. The Transformer room is always locked, so I can only speculate about the Transformer and its universe. I am interested to know if the Transformer is called that because it undergoes a transformation, or because it transforms others. Perhaps both. I see it as noble, timeless, and somewhat melancholy.

This series of if images is part of a larger body of work that I have been developing for several years about modern technologies; telephones, airconditioners, transformers, computers… By Modern, I don’t mean ‘the latest’; I mean ‘produced in the Modern era’. This was an era when science sought to discover the truth and to solve problems. There was something very honorable about those modern technologies, but no matter how hard they tried, the truth remained hidden, and problems are still unsolved.