THE Pasar Malam (Night Market) exhibition is a bit like Fremantle—memorable, dark and a bit weird.

Featuring dense screen prints of strange bodies, old fairground rides and demonic creatures, it’s an ode to the intoxicating night markets in Southeast Asia.

Especially Java, where carnivals travel from town to town with haunted houses and amusements, as well as second-hand clothes stalls, cheap accessories and sugary snacks. These “Pasar Malam” date back to the colonial era.

A highlight of the exhibition is a colourful tent with a grainy video of people dancing at a night market.

It’s a vibrant and garish celebration of life with blaring music and people of all ages enjoying a boogie.

There are also some models including a colourful full-size ticket booth and a cute fairground ride.

Each artwork was created by Krack studio in collaboration with leading Indonesian and Australian artists.  

The exhibition is also influenced by local markets in Java which appear in carparks and dusty back streets, selling counterfeit and stolen goods.

Some of the markets pre-date colonisation and are shrouded in myth and lore.

South of Yogyakarta, at Parangkusumo beach, there is a night market where you can buy magic potions and objects to improve your love and/or sex life, but the market is better known for the sex workers in the shadows at its edge.

• There is an Indonesian season of art at Fremantle Arts Centre.

There are various myths about “Pasar Setan” on the slopes of volcanoes in Java at night; if you hear voices calling to you, throw them a few coins and run.

The Pasar Malam (Night Market) is part of a wider Indonesian season of art at the Fremantle Arts Centre.

Across the hall, you’ll find a giant narrative painting by Ida Lawrence. She’s a member of Woven Kolektif, a group of artists who share diasporic connections to Indonesia.

Couched in the wooden frame of a house, the painting features an angry dog, Misha, barking at the sky.

The black-and-white dog is surrounded by text about how the artist was inspired to paint the dog after visiting her friend’s parents’ house in Canberra.

It’s an arresting work that deftly explores themes of alienation and feeling out of place.

The bold bright colours are visually appealing and the paper bones that protrude from the canvas are a nice touch.

Along the hallway, you’ll find a dark room with a giant projection of GROH GOH (Rehearsal for Rangda), about the mythological figure of the Rangda, Bali’s queen of the graveyard and patroness of black magic. 

Created by Australian-Balinese artist Leyla Stevens, it features an unsettling video of a woman with a sort of evil doppelgänger.

The Indonesian season at Fremantle Arts Centre is on until August 2. For more info see wfac.org.au.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK