Conversation Unknown is an installation comprised of 3,500 pieces of plexiglass arranged along an array of 91 horizontal bars. The work references Indonesian Art World, a book by Dr Melani Setiawan, a patron of the arts who has carefully documented her journey as it relates to the development of Indonesian contemporary art throughout the past 40 years or so, and more importantly, the numerous people who have been involved with it in some way, shape, or form. Throughout the years, Novali has developed a special relationship with Dr Melani Setiawan, oftentimes travelling together as well as discussing many things together both in the context of art as well as with regards to more personal matters related to their lives.
Every individual plexiglass component in Conversation Unknown contains a meticulously composed portrait of the different people – artists, curators, gallerists, collectors, journalists, as well as other individuals related to the Indonesian contemporary art scene – captured in the hundreds of photographs in Dr Melani Setiawan’s book and archive, alongside the corresponding name of the person depicted. The plexiglass components are then distributed randomly across the different bars in a symmetrical structure, perpendicular to the position of a person facing the work from in front of it. When the installation is illuminated by light, the portraits cast a multifarious array of shadows within the gaps between each plexiglass panel. The work and its corresponding shadows act as metaphor for the dynamic ebbs and flows of the community networks surrounding the Indonesian art scene, as well as perhaps communities in general, how people enter and leave, appear and disappear in a state of constant flux. Depending on the nature, intensity, and position of the light source, the shadows become a sort of abstract, nebulous entity.