Lust Room Exhibition by Moro Kanggo Society Offers an Open Interpretation about Lust
Sex is filthy and taboo, gluttony is something that we should avoid, and you should keep your fantasy to yourself. Well, it is not the case for an art collective based in Malang called Moro Kanggo Society because they exist to bring their interpretation of “Lust”. In an exhibition called “Lust Room: I’m Sorry, I’m Lust”, they involved eleven young artists who display their two and three dimensional artworks. Those artists are Achmad Maulana R., Ardi Firmansyah, Bintang Priyadmadi, Dimas Alfiandi, Faizal Rahadi Wibowo, Hilmo Thioherdiza, Qolby Sifa, Raja Gama Era, Raveizal Ario Sayoga, Reyhan Rahendra and Romizan Iqbal.
Moro Kanggo itself is a word play of Javanese terms which means “suddenly useful” and it becomes the platform for art movement of Malang’s youth. Taking place at Kalampoki Quayhouse in Malang, the Lust Room was divided into four thematic spaces that correlate with one another. Those four spaces mimicked a bedroom, two rooms, and a real toilet. Lust in this case is more than a sexual desire, but also includes emotion, consumptive desire, anger, gluttony and many more. The exhibition opened on November 23rd and ran until November 27th 2016. We were welcomed by five artworks in the form of 2D images using mixed media in courtesy of Bintang Priyadmadi, Faizal Rahadi Wibowo, Ardi Firmansyah, and Reyhan Rahendra in the first space. We could clearly tell that the first space symbolized sexual desire that both woman or man has. In an intriguing artwork called “HIV” by Faizal, it displayed the how sexual activity was seen as a sin and one should be punished for even having the desire through the dark image and the words written on it.
The next room was set up as a bedroom and it represented a room in which it had been used to make love. The artworks showed a deeper tension of love desire, showing the cycle of “instant love” where someone does what youth these days deemed as “hit and run”. The room was decorated with candles, flower petals, little lamps, and scattered make up and underwear to better show an intimate space. It was like we entered someone else’s room and had to see their personal belongings. Moving on to the next space which was wider and less decorated, the artworks there interpreted various kind of lust like gluttony as shown in Raveizal’s artworks which infuse culinary element on them called “Nude-dle” and “Shashi-me” and Bintang’s artwork that showed a kid who lays on top of burgers and eats them titled “Burger Kid”. There were also paintings on wood panels made by Qolby Sifa.
Next to it, we were invited into the fourth and the most epic space which is a toilet. This was a real functioning toilet and there were artworks on display from 2D paintings to 3D artworks painted on a mannequin. Thankfully, an incense was lighted up to give the space a nice smell. The exhibition also utilized women’s maxi pad to display the artworks’ titles and the artists, and don’t worry since they were not used ones. Lust Room by Moro Kanggo Society was able to display the youth’s interpretation of desire which also acted as a critique towards society’s negative perspective about it. Sadly, Lust Room Exhibition lacks a few things, like a short description on each artwork, and a handout that is filled with some insight about the whole event. They might be useful for the visitors in the future. Nonetheless, we can’t wait for the next exhibition by Moro Kanggo Society with more daring and unusual theme.
