~/a_love_letter_to_kala

~/a_love_letter_to_kala draws on Sisingaan, a traditional lion dance from West Java performed to mark rites of passage and cultural celebration. Wijaya abstracts the lion figures into large red sculptures that explore how cultural practices shift across time and borders, intertwining personal and collective memory. The exhibition presents what the artist calls the 'bad version' of the lion figures—an abstraction rather than a faithful reproduction—reflecting his journey of disidentification and complex relationship with his Chinese-Indonesian heritage. The exhibition's title references Kala, the Hindu and Buddhist god of time, serving as a love letter to time itself and its role in shaping identity.