Iwan Effendi’s practice in the solo exhibition Once Was at ara contemporary moves through the act of erasure as a method of remembering. Rooted in his extensive background as a puppeteer, Effendi’s relationship with gesture and trace forms the conceptual spine of the solo show, in which paper and canvas become sites of motion.
The works, bringing together moving image, paintings, and works on paper, confront the residue of memory, rather than to illustrate it. Again and again, drawings are overwritten, leaving only the faintest suggestion of a previous image, visible just enough to signal that something once occupied the space. This repetitive process might mirror the nature of puppetry, where performances are momentary, yet their effects might linger.
As ara contemporary puts it, the exhibition highlights the contrast between stillness and movement, permanence and impermanence, the visible and the invisible. But these dualities are not resolved. Instead, they build into one another, as if one can only exist because of the other. Moving image works play against drawings on paper, not to highlight difference but to underscore continuity.
Furthermore, what the viewer encounters in the exhibition is a cyclical timeline of works, leaving no clear point where one ends and the other begins. Even as scenes disappear under layers of redrawn strokes, they assert themselves in the grayness that accumulates, which is a result of insistence.
This insistence is most strongly felt in Effendi’s self-portraits, which continues the dialogue that runs throughout the exhibition. Here, the body is rendered as an object, caught in the length of recognition and withdrawal. The face is present, but often veiled by line, shadow, or blur. Like the puppets he has long animated, Effendi positions himself as both subject and stand-in, less a self than a form shaped by repetition.
This idea refers to the title, Once Was, which suggests elements of memory and transformation, particularly in a puppeteer’s process of capturing, embodying, and ultimately translating a story and identity into a puppet. In this way, the exhibition becomes a stage for puppets without strings, bodies without certainty, where figures animated by the insistence of what persists. Opens from 17 May to 21 June 2025, the exhibition requires thoughtful looking, because experiencing Effendi’s work reveals a careful balance, documenting what existed while urging viewers to consider the marks left behind.
Iwan Effendi is the Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Yogyakarta’s Papermoon Puppet Theatre, bringing puppet characters to life with their narratives and emotions. His artistic practice spans puppet-making, painting, drawing, and performance, all grounded in a fascination with the memories and stories that each puppet embodies, even when their expressions remain static. This approach invites the viewers to have the authority to interpret it, and by doing so, they find reflections of themselves in the puppets.
ara contemporary
Once Was
by Iwan Effendi
17 May – 21 June 2025
Jalan Tulodong Bawah I No. 16
Senayan, Kebayoran Baru,
Jakarta Selatan 12190, Indonesia
