The Gamelatron Kebangkitan: The Red Birds
Dates: January 2015
Exhibited: Palazzo Grimani Museum Venice, Italy May - Nov 2015
Soho Loft, 2016
Description: Diptych of Bronze Balinese Gongs, Robotic Mallets, and Powder Coated Steel
Within this work there is a direct correlation with the mythology of the Phoenix. The gongs themselves are born from the ashes as they are smelt and pounded into shape from the fire.
The Gamelatron project in its own way gives new life from the pyre - a rebirth, a re-imagined future to the tradition of gamelan and its social context. Many historians trace the Phoenix or the Brahminy kite bird (which is a red winged and often found in Java) to the Garuda. Furthermore a 2-headed Garuda or Gandaberunda is a mythic bird of destruction in the hindu diaspora. Kebangkitan (resurrection): The Red Birds shows how birth (or rebirth) and destruction are completely intertwined.
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