GROUP EXHIBITION

An ambitious curatorial project, Noughties by Nature examines the practices of artists who came to prominence in the early 2000s—a generation that straddled the seismic shift from analogue to digital. This second chapter, Together in Electric Dreams, delves into their deep engagement with media art—video, sound, photography, electronic music, and performance—tracing how these creatives helped shape and subvert the very notion of ‘new media’ in the region.

The exhibition title is both a clever play on the era-defining hip-hop group Naughty by Nature and a nod to Giorgio Moroder and Philip Oakey’s 1984 synth-pop anthem. It captures the speculative, future-facing ethos of this cohort—artists whose practices were not simply responsive to technological change, but who helped mould its creative possibilities. From hacked projectors to pirated software and grassroots collectives, their works emerged at a time when access to tools was limited but imagination was boundless.

Together in Electric Dreams is not a retrospective—it is a revival, a reconnection, and a reflection on the dreamers who carved artistic paths through flickers of VHS, pirated code, and midnight screenings,’ says Jasdeep Sandhu, Director of Gajah Gallery. ‘Jakarta—forever glitching, regenerating, and recoding—is the perfect city to host their return.’

Featuring 14 boundary-pushing artists, this exhibition revisits the raw experimentation and radical hybridity of early 2000s Indonesian contemporary art. Their practices defied institutional norms, often flourishing in informal spaces—university labs, warehouse gigs, cyber cafés—and spoke directly to the complexities of identity, access, and class in a rapidly digitising world.

Wardani, a long-time chronicler of this influential movement, eschews linear retrospection in favour of entangled narratives that celebrate the era’s messiness and multiplicity. Her approach maps not only the aesthetic evolution of a generation, but the cultural and political provocations embedded within their works—then and now.

Together in Electric Dreams is an invitation to re-tune our eyes, ears, and memories—to experience a time when digital was still new, glitches were invitations, and dreams had static edges.

The exhibition runs from 14 June – 13 July 2025 at Gajah Gallery Jakarta.