ISCP presents We like it up here, it’s windy, really nice. by Dublin-based artist Brian Duggan. 

We like it up here, it’s windy, really nice. features a new installation specifically created for the ISCP gallery space inspired by methods of crowd control in Indonesia. In 2012, state-owned railway company PT Kereta Api introduced a new deterrent to stop people from riding on the roofs of trains on their overcrowded network. After other efforts had failed, they decided to introduce concrete balls hanging as hazard barriers, to knock passengers off the roof of the trains.

The installation intends to present a situation that actively engages viewers in the dichotomy between governing systems and how people respond and navigate powers placed in their way.  Duggan’s mock up train roof allows participants to walk in the center of the gallery and see it from a new perspective. Central to the project is the roof riders response to the new life threatening hazard. 

“I was really scared when I first heard about these balls,” said Mulyanto, a 27-year-old shopkeeper, who rides between his hometown of Bogor and Jakarta almost every day for work. “It sounds like it could be really dangerous.”
“But I don’t think it’ll last long,” he said. “They’ve tried everything to keep us from riding … in the end we always win.”
“We like it up there, it’s windy, really nice.”