Lawrence Blackman Maximalist Studio Nomad
  • Work
    • Drawings
    • Collections (books/pdfs)
    • Objects
    • Installation shots
  • About
  • Contact
Picture
www.facebook.com/bgbjcommunitycollaboration2018/

In November 2018 Lawrence organised the BGBJ Community Colalboration Rpoject with the community in Bantar Gebang, near Jakarta, Indonesia. 

Bantar Gebang is host to the largets landfill in South East Asia. 

Here, BGBJ is an NGO which has for years worked with the local community and in particular the local children and yong people. It is at once a school, hostel, safe place, community hib, and medai linchpin for the many people who come to Bantar Gebang. It is run by Resa Boneard who grew up on the dump and, after her education, returned there to develop her community. 

In 2022 BGBJ was compulsory purchased by the Indonesian government and will be demolished. 

Learn more about BGBJ and their work here ​www.bgbj.org/

The residency included taking oral histories from people in the local community as well as working with the young people. It was represented as a photography project on Instagram with micro histories and profiles. It culminated in a community event where disparate aspects of the area were represented - BGBJ was completely filled with people, and the event, which had originally been made to be a display or photographs and artwork, as well as pieces made by the local young people, developed into a large scale event with local food sellers, a band led by local artist Aphenk, a dance troope, and more - elements of the community which could often have difficulty mixing - for example, different social, religious  or economic classes - were in attendence, and it was covered by international media in the UK, Indonesia, and China. 

In addition to the Instagram project, the interviews can be found online on Youtube and Soundcloud. The work represents a unique link to and a lasting record of the living history of the globalised world we all now live in. The closing of BGBJ in its current form highlights the fragility of place and also the importance of recording the histories that exist on an every day level, as distinct from 'flash point' events which can come to be shown in the media. 

​The lens of poverty
Picture