Working with thick dark outlines, Eko Nugroho‘s graphic technique and imagery reflect Indonesia’s media-rich and politically charged environment. The artist cites Malaysian cartoonist Lat, TV series from the 1980s such as Megaloman and wayang kulit (shadow puppets) as early influences. His part man-part machine characters are often accompanied by bizarre and ironic statements in speech bubbles or t-shirt slogans. At times, they can be menacing, displaying the potential for violence – wielding sharp objects in their hands, or with weapons as limbs. In others, they come across as scientific experiments gone wrong –a la B-grade films – where humans mutate into alien-like creatures, sprouting plastic flowers from their orifices, crouching on all fours with test tubes and strange objects growing from different parts of their bodies. Imbued with macabre humour and satire, Nugroho’s comic inspired work may come across as seemingly straightforward – often a central figure standing against a simple background, presented as a series of simple scenes from a larger narrative – while the artist’s inimitable pating tlecek style of fusing and juxtaposing a wide range of visual elements (and languages), lends his work a certain layer of absurdity.

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