Doxa & Episteme – In Search of the Real Deal

PRESS RELEASE     |     E-CATALOGUE

Agan Harahap, Budi Agung Kuswara, Miti Ruangkritya, Nakrob Moonmanas, Naraphat Sakarthornsap, and Victoria Kosasie
Curated by Loredana Pazzini-Paracciani
13 January – 8 February 2024
Vernissage: Saturday, 13 January 2024, 3pm – 7pm
Curator’s Talk: Saturday, 20 January 2024, 4pm – 5pm

Mizuma Gallery is pleased to announce Doxa & Episteme – In Search of the Real Deal, an exhibition curated by Loredana Pazzini-Paracciani, featuring artworks by Agan Harahap, Budi Agung Kuswara, Miti Ruangkritya, Nakrob Moonmanas, Naraphat Sakarthornsap, and Victoria Kosasie.

Referred to as popular opinion or common belief, the ancient Greek term doxa became a topic of major concern in Western philosophy when Plato associated it with the emotional and illusory part of the brain. In classical rhetoric, doxa is contrasted with episteme, the Greek term for knowledge, or true belief. In the context of this exhibition, the opposing concepts of doxa and episteme (illusion and truth) are lightly adopted as a syllogism for pervasive and nowadays often digitally construed visual representation. Through digital and conceptual manipulation of cultural knowledge, we are lulled into certain shared values that ultimately define our beliefs, national identity, and sense of belonging.

The transformative potential of visual representation in shaping social and cultural narratives is the point of departure of this exhibition, on one hand questioning the significance of increasingly prevalent digital adaptation and, on the other, investigating perceptions of propaganda and control. In a time of visual information overload, both real and artificial, is it possible to discern illusion from truth – the real deal? Do technological advancements, from artificial intelligence to other generative systems, enhance or distort the interpretation of visual culture? What happens to the physical process of creating art, for instance, by assembling, sculpting, or printing?

To address these questions, the invited artists from Thailand and Indonesia examine ongoing issues of national and cultural identity from both personal and collective perspectives, prompting us to ponder the consequences of invasive visual representations. Spanning video, photography, and AI-generated mixed-media installation, the featured works examine the implications of mutation, digital and otherwise, in reinterpreting national archetypes, such as cultural ideals, mythology, and historical trauma, and explore the use of archives in analysing our current societies.

Doxa & Episteme – In Search of the Real Deal will run from 13 January to 8 February 2024 at Mizuma Gallery, 22 Lock Road, #01-34 Gillman Barracks, Singapore 108939. The gallery will open from 11am-7pm on Tuesdays to Saturdays, and 11am-6pm on Sundays. The gallery will be closed on Mondays and Public Holidays.

In conjunction with the launch of the exhibition, a vernissage will be held on Saturday, 13 January 2024, from 3pm to 7pm. A curator’s talk by Loredana Pazzini-Paracciani will be held on Saturday, 20 January 2024, from 4pm to 5pm. This event is free admission, and is open to the public. To register your attendance, please RSVP at info@mizuma.sg by Friday, 19 January 2024. A digital publication with images of the artworks and a text by Loredana Pazzini-Paracciani will be available.

Text: © Loredana Pazzini-Paracciani and Mizuma Gallery.

About the Artists

Agan Harahap (b. 1980, Jakarta, Indonesia) graduated from the Indonesian Design School (STDI), Bandung, Indonesia in 2005, after which he moved to Jakarta and worked as a senior photographer for Trax Magazine. Since his first solo exhibition in 2009, Harahap’s works have been featured in a range of exhibitions, including: For the House; Against the House: Life Imitates Art by OH! Open House at Gillman Barracks, Singapore (2022); Apa Kabar? at Showroom MAMA, Rotterdam, The Netherlands (2019); Hello World. Revising a Collection at Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin, Germany (2018); The History of Boys: the MES 56 and Beyond at DECK, Singapore (2017); and 5th Singapore Biennale: An Atlas of Mirrors, Singapore (2016). In his studio practice, he has maintained a fascination with the art of photo manipulation often combining satire or parody with social commentaries. Harahap was the resident artist of Objectifs Centre for Photography and Film, Singapore, in 2017. His works are part of the Sigg Collection in Mauensee, Switzerland; Freunde der Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany; and Tumurun Private Museum, Solo, Indonesia. Agan Harahap lives and works in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

Budi Agung Kuswara (b. 1982, Bali, Indonesia) graduated with a Bachelor in Fine Arts from the Indonesia Institute of Arts (ISI), Yogyakarta, Indonesia in 2009. Trained in kamasan painting, Budi retains the intricacy and delicate linework of this traditional art form in his contemporary works. His paintings celebrate the treasury of aesthetic and cultural influences on the Indonesian archipelago, marrying these baroque sensibilities with observations on social tensions and dynamics. His notable exhibitions include Repose: Under The Sun at Kiniko Art Room, Yogyakarta, Indonesia (2023), Residual Memory at Mizuma Gallery, Singapore (2021); Arus Berlabuh Kita at the Asian Civilization Museum, Singapore (2018); Love Me in My Batik at ILHAM Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (2016); and The Wax on Our Fingers, a collaboration with Singaporean artist Samantha Tio (Mintio) at the Indonesian Contemporary Arts Network, Yogyakarta, Indonesia (2012); and his first solo exhibition, i.self at Komaneka Fine Art Gallery, Bali, Indonesia (2009). He has also undertaken residencies at Bamboo Curtain Studio, Taipei, Taiwan (2016); Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan (2012); and TAKSU, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (2012). Budi Agung Kuswara lives and works in Singapore and in Bali, Indonesia, where he co-founded Ketemu Project Space, a visual collective and social enterprise hybrid with focus on social engagement.

Miti Ruangkritya (b. 1981, Bangkok, Thailand) is a visual artist whose photography practice incorporates video, text, and publishing in examining the notion of the City. Encompassing topics ranging political upheaval, ecological change, dislocation, and economic inequalities, his oeuvre chronicles personal responses to his everyday observations while communicating the urban urgencies of contemporary living. His utilisation of media beyond traditional digital and film photography elucidates the nature of image generation, presentation, and consumption in a world increasingly defined by the visual experience. He is the recipient of numerous awards and commendations, and his art practice and publications are represented in public and private collections and libraries worldwide. Miti Ruangkritya lives and works in Bangkok, Thailand.

Nakrob Moonmanas (b. 1990, Bangkok Thailand) is a visual artist and illustrator who works mainly with the medium of collage. His interest lies in historical memories, which he tries to reveal, play, and question in several aspects. Through the pictorial archives across multiple times and places, his artworks are made by juxtaposing local and outlandish fragments of history and visual culture with the touch of present-day aesthetic to create an alternative narrative, which leads to a state of reexamining the past. Moonmanas has done editorial and commercial works for notable clients including the Delegation of the European Union to Thailand, Thai Airways, Mercedes Benz Thailand, and Vogue Thailand. He has exhibited across Thailand, France, South Korea, Singapore, and The Czech Republic. In 2020, Moonmanas was the laureate of Cité Internationale des Arts Paris, an artist residency programme in Paris. Nakrob Moonmanas lives and works in Bangkok, Thailand.

Naraphat Sakarthornsap (b. 1991, Bangkok, Thailand) presents stories of social inequality and gender discrimination from his lived experience. Through his photographs and installations, he expresses the endeavour to heal from the trauma that haunts him till today. He uses various types of flowers as the main objects to narrate his stories, directly affecting our memory and perception. His works are simply and explicitly presented through ordinary local flowers found in his hometown. Naraphat’s early works presented the challenge against nature in trying to prolong the freshness of the flower, and subsequently, he developed his ideas to become the challenge against power and influence in the society through the pictures of those flowers. His works are relatable to many, as problems of social structure such as discrimination and inequality have been ongoing for a long time. Naraphat Sakarthornsap lives and works in Bangkok, Thailand.

Victoria Kosasie (b. 2000, Jakarta, Indonesia) is a performance artist living and working in London, UK. Her performances often bleed into different media, including video, installation, and sculpture. Kosasie has exhibited between London and Indonesia and is one of three winners of the 7th biennial Bandung Contemporary Art Awards 2022. She is a member of the London-based Southeast Asian artist collective ‘Unamed’. Kosasie’s performance practice is situated at the intersection of her maternal and paternal ancestry. Born to a Javanese mother and a Chinese-Indonesian father, the positionality of her ancestry during the wake of the country’s independence is the focal point in which the tensions of intergenerational trauma arise in her performances. Lost archives, alternative histories, and speculative futures are the textures and patinas of her practice, as she draws from familial archives (of photographs, texts, and conversations) and post-colonial and feminist literature. In the narratives of her performances, fragmented histories of national and familial identity intertwine to speculate what will be post-human. The ‘body’, for Kosasie, is the instinctive medium which captures the temporal qualities of her practice; her body becomes the vehicle for endurance, against entropy, through which tensions converge, collide, manifest, and ultimately dissipate with time.

About the Curator

Loredana Pazzini-Paracciani is an independent scholar and curator of Southeast Asian contemporary art. Her research and curatorial practice revolve around critical sociopolitical issues in Southeast Asia, advocating a counter-hegemonic and non-Western-centric discourse. Her articles have appeared in several academic journals such as Visual Anthropology, Routledge UK; Photographies, Routledge and University of Westminster UK; Frames Cinema Journal, University of St Andrews, UK; Convocarte: Revista de Ciências da Arte, Lisbon University, Portugal; and M.A.tter Unbound, LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore, among others. Together with Patrick D. Flores, she co-edited the anthology Interlaced Journeys: Diaspora and the Contemporary in Southeast Asian Art, published in 2020 by Osage Art Foundation, Hong Kong. Notable museum exhibitions she has curated include Déjà vu: When the Sun Rises in the West, solo show by Natee Utarit at Silpakorn Art Center, Bangkok, Thailand (2022); Homecoming / Eventually at UP Vargas Museum, Manila, Philippines (2021); Diaspora: Exit, Exile, Exodus of Southeast Asia at MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum, Chiang Mai, Thailand (2019); and Architectural Landscapes: SEA in the Forefront for InToAsia: Time Based Art Festival 2015 at Queens Museum, New York, USA. In 2022 Loredana was invited to curate the online program for the ASEAN-EU Cultural Festival titled “Youth Voices” to celebrate the 45th anniversary of ASEAN-EU cross-cultural relations. Loredana was one of the appointed curators for the Bangkok Art Biennale 2022.