Anton Gautama Light Persists: Selected works between 2015-2020

For Fotofest 2025, the O’Kane Gallery presents the work of Indonesia artist Anton Gautama (1969-2021). In 2015, he began a series of works that would form a trilogy resulting in three publications, Pabean Passage, Home Sweet Home and The Outsider. The trilogy document cultural aspects of his place of residence, Surabaya, Indonesia. This exhibition presents works from all three series with an emphasis on his final project, published after his untimely passing in 2021.

Pabean Passage documents a spice market Gautama knew as a child. Home Sweet Home is an intimate portrayal the interiors of homes of Indonesians of Chinese descent. The Outsider documents a dilapidated three-hundred-year-old Dutch Colonial building which became a landing place and refuge for Chinese Indonesians in the 1940s following social unrest. Known as “Satan House” for its proximity to a cemetery and its menacing appearance, the building continues to house an ethnic mix of Indonesians surviving and resilient despite unfortunate circumstances. Anton Gautama is quoted from Singapore base publisher DECK’s website:

“The Outsider is the last part of my trilogy project. I have previously published two books: Pabean Passage and Home Sweet Home. Pabean Passage tells about a century-old market in Surabaya, a place that was very memorable during my childhood. Home Sweet Home features Chinese-Indonesian home interiors in Makassar and Surabaya – where I was born and raised. The Outsider, this book, offers a view towards my life as an adult and the result of my lifelong rumination on life.”