ILHAM Gallery Marks 10th Anniversary with Dual Exhibitions on Hacking and Colonial Legacies

ILHAM Gallery celebrated its 10th anniversary with the launch of two exhibitions. The show "Menggodam" features nine artists who creatively repurpose technology, with curators Gunalan Nadarajan and Roopesh Sitharan describing the practice as a form of cultural ingenuity that subverts exclusionary systems. Haris Abadi's 2018 work "Open Source <Plant Your Own Tree>" uses IKEA products to create a representation of the Pohon Beringin, or "Tree of Life," accompanied by DIY instructions that challenge standardized global consumer goods. On the fifth floor, "The Plantation Plot" presents works by 28 artists from Southeast Asia and the Americas, examining the enduring impacts of colonial agriculture through historical disclosure and interventions aimed at repair. The opening event attracted a lively crowd who gathered on the third-floor mezzanine, enjoying local snacks and pulled tea while discussing the exhibition texts. Both exhibitions opened in 2024 as part of the gallery's anniversary programming, with "Menggodam" focusing on technological appropriation as a strategy to reclaim agency from inherited infrastructures. "The Plantation Plot" specifically maps structures of extraction and seeks to reconfigure narratives about agricultural history. The gallery's anniversary programming emphasizes collaborative approaches and inclusion through artistic practice.