Indonesian artist Irfan Hendrian presented his solo exhibition "CLOSED" at ara contemporary in Jakarta. The show featured new works from his Chinatown Window Sample series, which use layered paper sculptures to replicate the ornate metal trellises found on Tionghoa (Chinese Indonesian) shophouse windows, alongside interactive installations like Paranoia Holder that invited visitors to deboss their keys.
The exhibition matters for its profound engagement with Indonesia's social history and intergenerational trauma. Hendrian transforms architectural elements into a powerful commentary on racial discrimination, fear, and segregation faced by the Tionghoa minority, while also connecting this historical tension to recent political unrest, making the show a compressed history of both past and present social fractures.