Gajah Gallery Jakarta is delighted to announce Renjana, Rencana, Wacana, Bencana (Desire, Design, Discourse, Disaster), a compelling group exhibition featuring eight contemporary Indonesian women artists. Drawing through the arc of creation—from longing to planning, from confrontation to collapse—the showcase unfolds a cycle where artistic practice becomes not a path to resolution, but a site of resistance and reckoning. The exhibition is accompanied by an essay written by Anathapindika Dai.
Opening on 19 April 2025, the exhibition will be inaugurated by Ms Irene Umar, Deputy Minister of the Creative Economy of Indonesia.
Rather than offering neat narratives, these works explore the friction between intuition and structure, the vulnerability of making, and the moments when creation gives way to rupture. Renjana (desire) sparks movement. Rencana (design) brings it into form. Wacana (discourse) breaks it open. And bencana (disaster) becomes not the end, but the revelation. Where does creation begin? In yearning? With a plan? Through dialogue? Or in collapse?
Renjana, Rencana, Wacana, Bencana (Desire, Design, Discourse, Disaster) traces a cycle of artistic practice that resists linearity. Desire ignites. Design leaves a mark and gives shape. Discourse sharpens. And sometimes, disaster unravels it all. These stages do not unfold insequence but collide, repeat, and transform. At any point in the creative process, rupture may occur—and when it does, it reveals new truths, demanding response rather than resolution.
What is designed must be questioned.
What begins in desire will find form.
What is discussed may not be gentle.
Every disaster is a future conversation.
The participating artists lean into this instability. They embrace the friction between structure and intuition, the vulnerability of making, and the shifting terrain between planning and surrender. Through diverse media—including painting, sculpture, installation, textiles, and new media—they reflect on the energy that propels creation, the narratives that mould it, and the ruptures that refine it. Their works delve into both personal and collective histories, exploring how women artists respond to their environments and internal landscapes alike. This exhibition honours theresilience embedded in the artistic process and challenges the notion that creation is ever straightforward. Through tenderness and confrontation, subtlety and defiance, these artists show that creation is never neutral. It is layered, instinctive, and deeply charged.
Renjana, Rencana, Wacana, Bencana (Desire, Design, Discourse, Disaster) is not an exhibition of answers, but of openings. It invites viewers into a space where passion, intention, challenge, and undoing coexist—where art resists closure, and meaning continues to shift.We are grateful to have the support of Business Lounge Journal, Harper’s Bazaar Indonesia, HighEnd, IndoArtNow, and Seniman Muda Berkarya as our media partners, amplifying the reach and resonance of Renjana, Rencana, Wacana, Bencana (Desire, Design, Discourse, Disaster).
The exhibition runs from 19 April to 11 May 2025 at Gajah Gallery Jakarta.
