Plastic Democracy speaks of the elasticity and dynamism of the transition to democracy – plastic after all is flexible, malleable but it is also man-made, synthetic. Nugroho presents monochrome works reflecting on the perceived simplicity of democracy ‘on paper’, as a system. Black and white, right and wrong, true and false however in between black and white – black bleeds into white and white drips onto black in his canvases and embroideries to show democracy in Indonesia is far from simple. Eko reflects similarities in democracy globally, universally. His colour burst works, such as the Garden full of Blooming Democracy series present democracy as a sprawling garden – where politics, culture and religion grow side by side, in competition and entangled in one another like climbing vines, wildflowers and weeds. Colours offset, clash and contrast; as diverse as international cultures and people. These colours are still contained in strong black lines, demonstrating the pressure of containment of so much diversity and difference in systems of democracy and questions if the strength of people without systems of democracy will ever be enough while we wait for these systems to stick. (Text source: A3)