In The Artist Studio: Ciwaruga, Zico Albaiquni captures Ciwaruga, a small district in Bandung, Indonesia, where he lives, in a state of destruction. Considered a sacred area and place of worship as it houses an old Sudanese tomb, Ciwaruga was recently designated for commercial development, with the natural environment giving way to a large-scale, high-rise residential development that completely disregards local culture. Albaiquni’s work also makes reference to the Mooi Indie genre of painting during the colonial era, where foreign artists (predominantly Dutch) painted romanticised images of the Indonesian landscape, ignoring social realities and local culture. By further ‘setting’ his painting with the context of an artist’s studio, Albaiquni acknowledges his role as an artist in framing the landscape and locality being depicted, while locating his practice within a wider arc of art history and the genre of history painting.

Image courtesy of Yavuz Gallery