CLOSED

For thousands of years, paper has embodied both temporality and permanence. Manuscripts, letters, and documents preserve histories on single sheets that carry layers of latent ambiguity. In an age that increasingly promotes the decline of paper-based culture and printed materials, Irfan Hendrian, by contrast, continues to employ paper as his primary medium, both intensively and extensively. Yet he does not work with, on, or upon paper; rather, he looks into the medium itself. His processes of crafting, designing, and structuring always originate from the most basic unit: a single sheet. Through the works presented in Closed, Irfan seeks to reopen the space of memory to an “other side” of form that invites alternative dialogues and reveals dimensions beyond purely aesthetic considerations.

Certain recurring forms in Irfan's works such as window trellises, corrugated metal fences, locks, and keys are what the artist describes as an architecture of fear. These forms carry specific historical and contextual weight, functioning as a lived reality shaped by Irfan's memories and experiences of the anxieties faced by the Tionghoa community in Indonesia. Together, the works operate as objects that establish a broader context, revealing a dimension beyond what is immediately perceived as visual form. Closed ultimately invites us to look more closely, to confront the shadows within the “scars” that persist in memory.