Jungle Flame

Solo Exhibition - 22 September – 21 October, 2017
REDBASE Foundation Indonesia


Jungle Flame presents Adam de Boer’s critical exploration of his hybrid Dutch-Indonesian-American heritage through seven new multimedia works created during his residency at Redbase Foundation. Steeped in Javanese craft traditions, de Boer thoughtfully synthesizes batik, carved wood, and leatherwork to investigate cultural appropriation and identity. His practice merges seemingly contradictory elements such as embedding figures of contemporary Javanese women into colonial tegel tile patterns to reflect the nuanced paradoxes of modern Indonesian society.

Confronting historical artistic movements, the exhibition re-engages with the controversial Mooi Indie ("Beautiful Indies") landscape aesthetic, questioning the impact of revisiting a style deeply tied to both sides of his familial lineage. Set against Yogyakarta’s thriving contemporary art scene, Jungle Flame asserts that traditional aesthetics and material processes remain vital to understanding evolving visual cultures, offering a compelling lens into personal and collective hybrid identity.