M HKA – WISNU [W] WISDANTIO

An art exhibition design project exploring the fragments of Toba Land’s long historical narrations during the Tapanoeli War in the colonial era
(2017)

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“The Tale Of Tiger And Lion” installation is the first art exhibition developed and designed as part of the Lifepatch project’s exhibition series, which was exhibited in two cities in Belgium. The first exhibition, titled “IN SITU: Lifepatch – The Tale Of Tiger And Lion”, was held in Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen (M HKA) from 16 September 2017 until 7 January 2018, curated by Nav Haq and Alia Swastika. The second exhibition, titled “Tano Toba Saga”, was presented as part of the “Power and other things: Indonesia & Art (1835-now)” within the framework of “Europalia Art Festival Indonesia – 2017”, curated by Charles Esche and Riksa Afiaty in Palais des Beaux-Arts (BOZAR), Brussels, from 18 October 2017 until 21 January 2018. Both exhibitions comprised several artworks and installations that depict the stories of two key figures and their relationships within a small fragment of North Sumatra’s long colonial history: the Swiss-Dutch soldier Hans Christoffel and the last king of the Toba people, Sisingamangaraja XII.

Both installation projects, “The Tale Of Tiger And Lion” and “The Tano Toba Saga”, began with an opportunity for Lifepatch to conduct brief research through various well-preserved Indonesian historical artefacts at the Museum Aan de Stroom (MAS) in Antwerp. The museum holds thousands of collections from the Nederlands Indisch colonisation era, including weapons, jewellery, heirlooms, flags, documents, and old photographs, many of which were granted from Hans Christoffel’s private collection. Those artefacts serve as silent witnesses to Christoffel’s military expeditions, effectively functioning as spoils of war and personal mementoes that he carried back to Europe following his years of service in the archipelago. From this vast archive, a selection was curated to present Sisingamangaraja XII and the Toba people’s resistance against the Dutch colonisation in North Sumatra, along with the narration about Hans Christoffel, who successfully ended the resistance during his service as an officer in the Koninklijk Nederlands Indisch Leger (KNIL). At the same time, we also had the opportunity to learn about both key figures through the artefact collection at Bronbeek Museum in Arnhem, which is the main KNIL archive to preserve their histories from the East Indies colonisation era.

Witnessing thousands of artefacts, including irreplaceable historical heirlooms that are directly related to Sisingamangaraja XII and the Toba People’s resistance, being stored and valued to construct or verify historical narrations far from their origins, brought Lifepatch to conduct further research in various places in North Sumatra, such as Medan, Balige, Bakkara, Parlilitan, Pangururan, and many more places. During the exploration, we realised that even though people in North Sumatra did not possess their rightful historical heirlooms and were oppressed culturally and politically by the colonial government, they still believed and preserved their histories through generations. Slightly different from the structure of Western historiography, which tends to be conveyed in a linear fashion and facts are generally collected based on written sources and the existence of historical objects as physical proof, the history and knowledge in Indonesia are produced and delivered orally and culturally through storytelling, theatre, song or even dance. Sifting through those scattered materials in North Sumatra, we begin to gather fragments of the stories based on the Toba people’s perspective about Sisingamangaraja XII, the people’s resistance against the Dutch, Hans Christoffel, the connection between colonialism and evangelism, as well as the myths that accompanied the Tapanoeli war stories.

Working with these artefacts, materials, and narratives, there are tendencies for the histories often depicted and articulated in several versions based on ideological and political perspectives, as well as by personal identity. It appears that the “truth” is slightly different between the conflict “winners” version and the Toba people’s version. However, instead of trying to summarise the long history of colonialism in North Sumatra or compare each version to determine the most accurate one, Lifepatch presents the scattered historical fragments and their contrasting attributes to show the complexity of history. Furthermore, driven by its identity as a collective-based community with collaboration between its interdisciplinary members as the core of their work, “The Tale Of Tiger And Lion” is presented through the integration of historical artefacts on loan from the MAS Museum, several artwork installations, and archival material, unified by a major narration that connects all the exhibits. As part of Lifepatch, I was tasked with designing an exhibition layout that served as a physical manifestation of the narrative. At the same time, I also contribute to the exhibition by presenting Hans Christoffel’s ghostly memories through “The Lucid Memories” Installation.

Drowning in the stream of history, I find myself lost in a labyrinth of historical tales, struggling to understand the complexity hidden within those scattered fragments. Yet, despite appearing dispersed, often emerging in differing and contradictory versions, shattered by clashing ideologies and identities, there is a tendency that these scattered remnants of the past remain bound by a faint and tenuous thread that connects those pieces into a complex sequence of causality.

In ‘The Tale of Tiger and Lion,’ this blurry “benang merah” thread weaves various fragments into two major narrative arcs that are both intertwined and opposing. One arc gathers a cluster of historical fragments telling the story of Sisingamangaraja XII, the King and religious leader of the Toba People who lived in North Sumatra. On the opposite side, another narrative arc is composed of historical fragments centred on Hans Christoffel, a soldier who serves under the Koninklijk Nederlandsch-Indische Leger (Netherlands Royal Army) or KNIL, a military force that was established to protect the Dutch interests when expanding their colony’s territories and maintaining their colonial rule in the Dutch East Indies. Furthermore, the story began to get complicated in the early 19th century when the Dutch implemented policies of ‘unification and pacification’ to bring a conducive atmosphere for economic interest in the East Indische archipelago as their colonisation region. These policies drove a systematic expansion that sparked fierce resistance from the local community, forcing the Toba people to rise and fight under the leadership of Sisingamangaraja XII. Inevitably, as the resistance escalated, they collided with the KNIL forces—including a relentless officer named Hans Christoffel—in a massive conflict known as the Tapanuli War. After occurring for up to 29 years, the long-term struggle finally reached its conclusion with the death of Sisingamangaraja XII during his final guerrilla resistance.

The experience gained from the ‘struggle’ of being lost in the labyrinth of historical fragments is what underlies the design of a structural blueprint for the exhibition layout. Instead of presenting a rigid linear chronological sequence, the complex causality is translated into a tangible spatial experience and reflected in the exhibition layout. The gallery space is envisioned not merely as a container for objects, but as a physical manifestation of the ‘blurry thread’ itself. The layout is designed to guide visitors sensorially and physically, allowing them to experience the same tension as the research process unravels each fragment of the complex narrative.

The exhibition layout is structured and designed to reflect a complex causal journey, translated into the spatial exhibition space by dividing it into two primary sections. The first section, beginning at the entrance, serves as a space where various narrative exhibition items are presented to tell the story fragments about Sisingamangaraja XII and the Toba people through historical artefacts, old photographs, and contemporary artworks. Moving further, almost to the end of the section, several artworks that hold the story of Hans Christoffel and the colonial machinery are laid out side-by-side but remain separate, as if forming two individual narrative arcs that occur within the same time span.

Moving deeper, the space slowly transforms into the next section, the main conflict area. Following the narrowing architecture shape of the gallery space, this zone is designed to depict the escalation of the stories established in the preceding sections. Several artworks from the Lifepatch members’ exploration are arranged side by side and intertwined, presenting the visceral moment where the two opposing historical arcs finally collide within the Tapanuli War. This serves as the critical intersection where characters and stories inevitably meet, dismantle one another, and ultimately forge a new narrative that persists to this day.

Reference Site:
* Details of “IN SITU: Lifepatch – The Tale of Tiger and Lion” exhibition on M HKA ensembles official website
* Details of The Tale of Tiger and Lion Exhibition on Meer Magazine official website.

February 26, 2018April 28, 2026 by Wawies - Wisnu Wisdantio

Prototype of The Pepper’s Ghost Projector V.01.3 as a visual tool to display both holographic images and physical materials
(2017)

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Pepper Ghost Holographic Projector With Single Reflector V.01.3 is the following up experiment of the Pepper’s Ghost holographic image projector with a single reflector Version V.01.1 and Version V.01.2, which are small experiments to make a simple projector tool for Pepper Ghost illusion that quite popular to use in various performance since successfully implemented by John Henry Pepper on the theatre performance during the production of Charles Dickens’s “The Haunted Man” in 1862.

Reviewing the former experiments, the Pepper Ghost holographic projector V.01.1 is a model that is based on the basic law of reflection, which is creating a ghostly image as a reflection of an actual object on a transparent mirror. As a mirror image, the ghostly image is a negative or opposite direction from the actual object. Meanwhile, the Pepper Ghost holographic projector V.01.2 is the basic model for further development, which is successfully installing a simple image inverting mechanism that makes the ghostly image as same as the actual image. In a simple explanation, the image inverting mechanism is adding a flat mirror to reflect the actual object and create a negative image, which is to be reflected or appear in the 45-degree transparent sheet as a ghost illusion that is similar to the actual object or a positive image.

The Pepper Ghost Holographic Projector V.01.3 experiment is trying to develop a connection between the Pepper’s Ghost illusion and physical object. Based on notes from the V.01.2 experiment, the implementation of inverting mirror made the source image reflected twice caused an affect the final result, which is the accumulation of distance between the actual image, flat mirror and transparent reflector brought the ghostly image reflection equal with the distance accumulation and seems projected far behind the box.

Under this phenomenon, The Pepper Ghost Holographic Projector V.01.3 experiment is focusing on building a compartment to support the connection between the illusion image and the physical object, which is more into the measurement of the projection image result distance from the 45-degree clear screen as a point to determine the location of physical object base on its value, such as became the foreground, the background, or became at the same level with the holographic projection result.

The concept became based on designing and developing the Pepper’s Ghost Holographic Projector With Single Reflector V.01.3 model. Furthermore, some ideas also determined the projector design, such as:

The Pepper’s Ghost Holographic Projector With Single Reflector V.01.3 model was designed as a wooden box that has 2 compartments, which are the illusion mechanism compartment and the holographic projection with the physical object compartment.
The illusion mechanism compartment is the place where the image source device is hidden and reflected through both the flat mirror and the transparent mirror. During the experiment, a 17″ television is chosen as the image source under the hypothesis that the device is a common electronic tool that could be found easily in almost every household and it has medium-sized that still could be easy to hide within the Pepper Ghost V.01.3 Box.
The projection compartment is the place where the animated image illusion will appear with the physical object. Within the experiment, the compartment of pepper ghost illusion will be designed to support a medium-sized object that could be found easily in every household, which has approximately 30 – 40 cm tall or have a similar size to the tall or height of the image source.

During the test of Pepper’s Ghost Holographic Projector V.01.3, an animated video will be played simultaneously on the 17″ television that is hidden in a small image source compartment to be reflected or projected by both of flat mirror and a diagonal transparent sheet to the physical object compartment that already placed an old Storm Lamp. The connection between the animated video as “the ghost” and the old lamp as a physical object is arranged to build the story with the title “The Ghost Lamp“

The result of the Pepper’s Ghost Holographic Projector With Single Reflector V.01.3 development

The Ghost Lamp – Pepper Ghost Holographic Projection
courtesy of Wisnu Wisdantio youtube.com channel

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The V.01.3 prototype and schematic became the base of several Peppers Ghost Holographic Projector models development for an exhibition installation so-called “The Lucid Memories” as part of the Lifepatch exhibition projects under the framework of Europalia Indonesia 2017 in Belgium.

The first model was a V.01.3 enforced with a steel structure. The model was designed as a single object that could become both a stand-alone installation and part of a bigger exhibition concept. However, the structure’s main function wasn’t only to support the wooden box, it also became the box height adjustment to achieve the spectator’s eye level. Produced with help of Wiratmo Amin Nugroho, a craftsman and also a musician from Salatiga city, the model was supported with a knock-down system and designed as part of the Lifepatch exhibition with the title “IN SITU: Lifepatch – The Tale Of Tiger And Lion” in Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen (M HKA) – Antwerp at 16 September 2017 until 7 January 2018.

The second model was a mini V.01.3. The model was designed for a tablet computer with a 10″ display size as the source image or object. Produced with help of the Pro-Studio, an acrylic cutting laser small company in Yogyakarta, the mini V.01.3 was built with 3 mm thick acrylic combined with a 1,5 mm flat mirror as the image inverter and 3/4 mm plexiglass as the transparent sheet reflector.

The mini V.01.3 model itself was designed with the title “The Lucid Memories” installation as part of all the Lifepatch exhibitions during Europalia Indonesia 2017 in Belgium, which were the “IN SITU: Lifepatch – The Tale Of Tiger And Lion” exhibition in the Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen (M HKA) – Antwerp and the “Tano Toba Saga” within the “Power and other things: Indonesia & Art (1835-now)” in Palais des Beaux-Arts (BOZAR) – Brussels at 18 October 2017 until 21 January 2018.

May 2, 2017July 24, 2022 by Wawies - Wisnu Wisdantio