Whitney Biennial 2024: Even Better Than the Real Thing

Film

Born 1990 in Bandung, Indonesia
Lives in Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Incorporating footage from mainstream Indonesian horror films, low-budget bootlegs (pre-release recordings), and a mix of textual and visual quotes displayed in digital computer windows that emerge and vanish onscreen, Riar Rizaldi’s 2020 video essay Ghosts Like Us reconstructs the history of Indonesian horror genre, highlighting its enduring connection to the country’s politics. Born during General Suharto’s authoritarian New Order regime—which lasted from 1968 to 1998—Rizaldi has focused his practice on researching the history of film and broader narratives of colonialism in Asia, particularly within the context of Indonesia. Reflecting the regime’s efforts to maintain social order, Indonesian horror films under Suharto routinely relied on religious symbolism and often depicted protagonists as religious figures to promote the nation’s moral values. After Suharto’s resignation, the rise of affordable VCD format and broader access to digital technologies sparked a resurgence in the horror genre, giving rise to films exploring diverse Indigenous cultural references. In Ghosts Like Us, Rizaldi foregrounds horror as a political genre through an innovative cinematic space that blends Indigenous ancestral wisdom with contemporary media technologies.