Interrogation

Curator: Hank Bull

Artist -in – residence

January 12 February 9, 2002

Opening
Friday, January 11, 7pm

Web Streaming Event
Thursday, January 17 at the Western Front

Performance
Friday, February 1, 9pm, at the Western Front

Heri Dono is one of the leading contemporary artists in South East Asia.  Based in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, Dono’s work is an integration of classical dance, music and shadow theatre with a radical experimental practice that includes performance, video, sound, painting, electro-mechanical sculpture and installation. His work is charged with humour, sexuality and political commentary.

Having studied at the Indonesian Institute of the Arts (ISI), Dono was also a student of Sukasman, who taught `Wayang Kulit´, the traditional Indonesian shadow play which portrays characters through deformation, mimicry, and transformation. This influence is evident in the development of his works and ideas, which seek, through a variety of mediums, a sharp but witty criticism of society, not in an act of despair, but optimistic play and mocking.

Heri Dono installed Interrogation at Centre A. His concurrent residency at the Western Front took the form of a production workshop, involving the participation of members of Vancouver Community Gamelan and students of the School of Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University, under musical director Sutrisno Hartana (who is also from Yogyakarta).

Heri Dono was included in the landmark exhibition, Traditions / Tensions which was seen at the Vancouver Art Gallery in 1997. He was one of three prize winners at the Third Shanghai Biennale in November, 2000. At the same time he was the subject of a major solo exhibition at the Japan Foundation’s Asia Centre in Tokyo, curated by Apinan Poshyananda. This year he has participated in exhibitions New York, Yokohama, Sollentuna, Yogyakarta, Berlin and Rotterdam.