Perhaps the quintessential rock music instrument, the electric guitar is layered with meaning. Rudi Mantofani’s impossible but impeccably crafted, multi-necked instrument can be seen as parody, homage and fetish, as well as a critical comment on the excesses of the rock music industry.

Mantofani was a founding member of the Jendela Art Group in 1993 — a collective of five Sumatran artists who continue to work and exhibit together. The impetus for this absurd, exaggerated object came from seeing a benefit concert in New York and the apparent disconnect between the philanthropic intent of the event and the reality of the United States’ foreign policy. This oblique reference is characteristic of Mantofani, and of the Jendela Art Group: in the tradition of Marcel Duchamp, these artists operate in the often-ambiguous space of everyday life.