Solas Gallery is proud to present Jason Hendardy’s
This Is A Test.
This Is A Test reflects on a family’s shifting identity as
they assimilate into a new culture, and a child’s view
of that process. Building on childhood experiences of
documenting family moments with a Hi8 camera,
Hendardy interrogates the role of media, the camera,
and the screen in shaping and controlling society.
Through the use of vintage and contemporary images,
some translated through the Hi8 camera, This Is A
Test explores how different generations experience
the same process of assimilation into American
society, the relationship between documentation and
memory, and questions our idealized concepts of the
American Dream.
The title refers to the Emergency Broadcast System messages that aired on American televisions from 1963 to 1997, a
system intended as a public safety measure that also cultivated a sense a danger and threat.
Jason Hendardy is a photographic artist born in the San Francisco Bay Area to Indonesian immigrants, currently residing
in Seattle, WA. His visual work is characterized as existential and subjective documentary, featuring layered narratives
that often delve into themes of assimilation and Foucault’s disciplinary society. He studied photography and media arts
at the California College of the Arts and is currently pursuing an M.F.A. in photography at the University of Hartford.
The book, This Is A Test, will be released in late 2024 with independent publisher Gnomic Book.
Image: Untitled (2022) from This Is A Test (2024), Jason Hendardy
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