Stylish foxes, guarded birds of prey and raspy equines flock together in Ida Lawrence’s latest series of wild story-paintings at ISA Art Gallery. 

Enter at own risk! Hand sanitiser provided!

Solo exhibition
with an accompanying film by Monika Proba
29 November 2025 – 7 February 2026
ISA Art Gallery
Wisma 46, Jl. Jenderal Sudirman No.Kav. 1, Jakarta ID
Open: Tuesdays – Saturdays, 11:00 – 18:00 free entry

Events:
Opening: Saturday 29 November, 16:00 – 20:00
Artist talk & music concert: Saturday 17 January 2026, 15:30 free entry

Ida Lawrence will lead an interactive artist talk, where playful storytelling, dialogue and activities bring the show’s themes to life in new and surprising ways. Berlin-based musician and composer, Khaled Kurbeh, will perform a concert amongst the paintings — featuring a sonic menagerie: cow bells, jangling cat collars, bird call whistles, field recordings from nature and live improvised electro-acoustic textures of not yet imagined creatures and landscapes.

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Film:

Monika Proba & Ida Lawrence, film stills from HOARSE HORSE 2025, 9 minutes

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Exhibition installation views:

Ida Lawrence, Artist Statement, 2025, acrylic on polycotton, diptych, 155 cm x 240 cm total

ARTIST STATEMENT
This exhibition is accompanied by a film by Monika Proba¹, or perhaps it is the other way around. Monika and I first met in Indonesia in 2011 while we were both studying at ISI Yogyakarta, where sheep were frequently found grazing on campus. Back then, I was dancing like a peacock² or a buffalo³ or a masked clarinet-playing giraffe⁴ and Monika and her video camera⁵ were chasing kuda lumping⁶. Before we became housemates, I lived around the corner in a kos⁷ on the edge of the ricefield which hummed at night with a chorus of frogs. My room was frequently visited by fireflies, crickets and butterflies while down the road was a flink⁸ of cows who I frequently visited⁹ and I’d occasionally spy other university students there too¹⁰. Our first sharehouse had an outdoor kitchen — I used to enjoy cutting vegetables and then chucking the scraps directly into the garden just beyond the stove, where hungry and hopeful chickens would loiter. We once had a snake in the bathroom which a human visitor discovered while locked inside. We were asked to move out of that house, I suspect because the kepala desa caught us horsing around during jam belajar¹¹. While house-hunting we visited a three storey house in a perumahan complex which had walls stuffed full of antlers with or without their furry heads attached, and unsmiling faces with or without their four-legged bodies attached. We eventually found an old house¹² near campus, which had a very much alive resident tokek¹³ in the ceiling and at least one resident rat under the fridge. We rarely cooked there, but a weekend highlight was preparing and devouring scrambled eggs¹⁴ after a pilgrimage to the shops “in the city” for sourdough rolls (a luxury) and butter (utter heaven). Chickens also roamed the yard of this place. I’m sure there were plenty of mosquitos at both houses but I can’t remember a specific one. On the main road near our place was a warung that served gudeg¹⁵. I remember Monika once asked for it “tanpa krecek” because she didn’t want the usual side serving of cow skin but the waiter must have heard “tambah krecek” because a moment later out came her gudeg¹⁶ buried under a mountain of fat. That was the end of Monika’s vegetarianism.

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¹ https://youtu.be/nRRKJQVWHnE
² https://youtu.be/LwH5fklaFBY
³ https://idalawrence.info/2012/03/05/bule-2012/
⁴ Sadly no documentation survives. Performed in a larvae infested pond, it was a true avant-garde masterpiece that confused everyone including the four performers.
⁵ https://www.shortfilmwire.com/en/embedded/film/200046160/Dreams-of-Java
⁶ https://www.youtube.com/live/ztNAqMg8Cb0?si=i_efqUj2IiDRT7ac&t=4908
⁷ https://maps.app.goo.gl/jBL3dB3xwUrhkehA6
⁸ Collective noun for 12 or more cows.
⁹ For good company and good dance moves inspiration.
¹⁰ Searching for gold amongst the shit.
¹¹ https://smkn3jogja.sch.id/2016/10/patuhi-jam-belajar-masyarakat/
¹² Which everyone in the village claimed was haunted, though I’m not sure this belief existed prior to us moving in?????
¹³ https://youtube.com/shorts/-fCziwAwLD8
¹⁴ I’d add a dash of milk, which Monika found — and still finds — strange.
¹⁵ https://youtu.be/eaZtFbfOShc
¹⁶ https://idalawrence.info/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/ida-lawrence-gudeg-khas-jogja-2022-acrylic-on-canvas-155x180cm.-photo-eric-bell.jpg?w=1536

Ida Lawrence, NO FUN NO JOY, 2025, acrylic on unstretched polycotton, cutting, found metal sign, wood, 215 cm x 165 cm

NO FUN!
NO JOY!
NO ENTHUSIASM!
NO CURIOSITY!
NO BALANCING!
NO BEGGING!
NO TRICKS!
NO TONGUES!
NO WHIMPERING!
NO WHINING!
NO LONG EARS!
NO FLUFFY TAILS!
NO SOFT COATS!
NO WET SNOUTS!
NO PLAYING!
NO FRIENDSHIPS!
NO COMPANIONSHIPS!
NO UNCONDITIONAL LOVE!
NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!

Photo: Rania Reihanah.

more images to come

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Exhibition tour with Fio:

Watch on instagram (50 seconds)

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Paintings:

Ida Lawrence, HOARSE HORSE 2025, oil on clear primed linen, 180 cm x 155 cm

JOIN THE CLUB!
IF YOU WANT TO
THE HOARSE HORSE FORCE!

more images to come

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Catalogue

Installation views

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Film credits:
A film by Monika Proba
Artworks by Ida Lawrence
Music by Khaled Kurbeh
and Nime & Muhawalāt, live improvisation at Bergheider See, recorded 27 July 2025 by niuee
Artwork documentation by Eric Bell 
Filmed in Berlin, Germany, October 2025
Produced with the support of ISA Art Gallery.

Additional thanks to:
Rob Crosse, Dorota Proba, Ellinor Aurora Aasgaard & Zayne Armstrong, Carsten Becker, Caitlin Hespe, Alexander Schulz, Karla Neumeyer and Poodle.

Installation credits:
Human scale bird swing co-design and fabrication: Miranti Dian, Deni Supriyanto.
Human scale cat scratch pole co-design and fabrication: Paryadi, Miranti Dian, Clea Soebroto.
Wall painting: Paryadi, Priscilla Velove Lie, Hasna Nareswari Amani, Kyla Gani, Rania Reihanah.
Install team: Deni Supriyanto, Dimas Jamawi.

Exhibition tour video with Fio:
Gallery visitor: Fio
Camera & Chief Treat Officer: Kyla Gani
Music: Jeremy Ratib, excerpt from Petrol Blue Swimming Pools (Live 2024)
Tech/Treat Support: Amri Muhammad, Clea Soebroto, Miranti Dian, Ida Lawrence

Exhibition credits:
Thank you to the entire ISA Art Gallery team for bringing this project to life with me.

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