invasion.

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Invasion is a kinetic sculpture that is a contemplation of geopolitical border.
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As you enter the exhibition space, the first thing you see are the pots with red sands in it on the floor.
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Out of the pots come red threads, all going through an opening on a thick wall.
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In the opening, you see some little metal things – razorblades. They float. It might be magic.
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But obviously it’s not magic. So perhaps it is science.

Or just trickery of the mind. Perhaps the white threads are made rigid and therefore can hold the razorblade up?

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You can’t really tell – but the razorblades do float: they bob up and down. And when you touch them they collapse.
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Each of them is held up by a rare earth magnets cylinder that hangs from the top of the opening. Each of them, however, is also pulled down by the white threads, so that it doesn’t stick to the magnet, but is still within a considerably strong magnetic field. This, in effect, leaves a gap in between, where the red threads coming from the pots can pass.
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You follow the thread. At the end of it you see kites, hung with hooks at the end of white threads emerging from the ceiling.
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The kites are made of my family’s citizenship documents. They don’t fly, they’re dead kites. Perhaps they could fly, if the wind was stronger.
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And if the wind was stronger the fragile razorblades would surely fall. In fact, everything will fall if the wind was strong enough. If the wind was not that strong, perhaps the wall and the opening will stay, and perhaps the pots will stay, but nothing else.
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All elements in this installation are subtly interconnected. The floating razorblades are as vulnerable as the threads that hold the hanging kites. Thanks to the subtle movement of the air during the exhibition, some threads got cut (and some kites fell down to earth), but some razorblades fell several times as well.
Photos courtesy of Sari Handayani/Cemeti Art House. Invasion is one of a series of work made during my residency at Cemeti Art House.