Christine Ay Tjoe’s work delves into the human condition with her explorations on philosophy and spirituality, revealing an inner world of private thoughts, melancholy and struggle. Lama Sabakhtani #03 is part of a body of work exhibited in 2010, marking Ay Tjoe’s foray into creating mechanical installations which produce sound to evoke a heightened state of emotion and consciousness. The title of the work draws on Ay Tjoe’s Catholic faith, and refers to Christ’s last moments of suffering on the cross as he questions why God has forsaken him. For the artist, this represents “the ultimate calling” that constitutes “the essence of relations in life: intimacy between those calling and those being called”*. In expressing this ‘calling’, or the “intimate relationship between the ‘human being’ and the Maker”, Lama Sabakhtani #03 centres on a solitary typewriter resting on a long black plinth, stripped of all external casings to reveal its bare bones. Its long, skeletal arms suggest a reaching out for or a desire to grasp the divine; they recall Ay Tjoe’s other works in two dimensions: her paintings with their long lines searching for moorage; her etchings with their wiry, yearning incisions. The keypads have been removed from the arms, and viewers are invited to press on the exposed metal arms: a combination of strokes will cause the ambient music in the background to diminish, and eventually stop. However, to press down on these metal arms would result in significant pain for the viewer – a reminder of Jesus’s suffering on the cross as well as the intimacy and violence of inter-subjective relationships.*(Hendro Wiyanto, “Lama Sabachthani: from the Hill of Mekarwangi”, lama sabakhtani club, exhibition catalogue, 2010)