Paper can be surprisingly versatile. One sheet can hold a drawing, preserve an old photograph, become part of an archive or be folded, layered and reworked into something completely new. At ISA Art Gallery at Wisma 46, that versatility is the starting point for Paper Menagerie #3: On Equal Grounds, an exhibition featuring works by 63 Indonesian artists, collectives and researchers from 19 September to 27 November 2026.
The third edition of Paper Menagerie takes its title from Ken Liu’s The Paper Menagerie and looks at what happens when different stories and artistic practices share the same material. The idea also connects with Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, or Unity in Diversity, with the exhibition creating space for different generations, perspectives and ways of working to exist side by side and contribute to a wider picture of Indonesian art.
Walking through the exhibition means moving between very different approaches to paper. There are prints, paintings, drawings, collages, maps, archival works and three-dimensional pieces, with each artist finding their own way to use the material.
Memory is one of the threads running through the exhibition, although it takes different forms from one work to another. Restu Meliantha looks at the traces left behind through objects, sensations and experiences, while Ratnaningtyas, Anastasia Astika, Suvi Wahyudianto, Arum Dayu, Jim Allen Abel Muliawan, TEMPA, Dewi Fortuna Maharani, Erna Garnasih, Muhammad Revaldi and Luh’De Gita connect personal memories with cultural inheritance, places and changing landscapes.
Places and landscapes also become important points of reference. Works by Mira Rizki, SURVIVE! Garage, Aulia Ibrahim Yeru, Irene Febry, Marten Bayuaji, Etza Meisyara, Melati Suryodarmo, Egga Jaya, Arahmaiani and Zikry Rediansyah, among others, consider territory through ecology, cultural practices, landscape and the relationship between the body and its surroundings.
The exhibition also considers how stories are recorded in the first place. Agung Eko Sutrisno, Ferial Afiff, Meicy Sitorus and Enggar Rhomadioni work with ideas around archives and personal or historical records. Artists and collectives including Riono Tanggul, ruangrupa, Mujahidin Nurrahman, Sillyndris, Res Harris, Amenk and Grafis Huru Hara artists Adi Dhigelz, Amy Zahrawaan and Anita Bonit take another route, using paper to reconsider narratives, social realities and the structures that influence what becomes visible.
For some artists, the appeal lies in what paper can physically do. Adriel Arizon, Naela Ali, Addy Debil, Budi Santoso, Galih Adika Paripurna, Ardi Gunawan, Ida Lawrence and Igi Anjangbiani experiment with processes that involve changing, revising and building up the material. Soni Irawan, Rega Ayundya Putri, Dian Mayang Sari and Dapott Kesuma also question the value placed on ordinary or discarded materials.
With so many approaches in one exhibition, On Equal Grounds does not ask every work to tell the same story. Instead, the works sit alongside one another, creating connections between memory, place, history and material. Paper simply gives them a common starting point.
Paper Menagerie #3: On Equal Grounds runs until 27 November 2026 at ISA Art Gallery, Wisma 46. The gallery is open Tuesday to Saturday, 11 AM to 6 PM, and closed on Sundays, Mondays and public holidays.
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