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The curators of the visual-art exhibition Crash Project give no pretense about the rushed nature of their show. In fact, they thrive on the spontaneous creative energy of the artists’ involved. According to their curatorial notes, the exhibit’s arbitrary preparation was intended to challenge artists to give their best under pressure. This is what makes Crash Project worth a visit — or two. It’s haphazard quality is intriguing.

The exhibition, which officially opened on March 13 and is scheduled to run through March 28 at the SIGIarts Gallery in South Jakarta, involves 21 artists from a sundry array of backgrounds and focuses primarily on photography, although other forms of visual art are on display.

The Crash Project brings together members of established Jakarta-based art communities like Mess 65 and the well-known Ruang Rupa collective, which was formed by students and alumni of the Jakarta Art Institute (IKJ).

Artists such as Ade Darmawan, Julia Sarisetiati, Indra Ameng, Henry Foundation and Wimo Ambala Bayang are all in the collection.

Most of the photography has the feel of a snap shot. Many of the pieces were taken with a Polaroid camera, which gives the exhibit a depleted aesthetic quality that is somehow endearing in its spontaneity.

Event curator Asmudjo Jono Irianto said he appreciated the fact that the artists were all willing to partake in the experimental creative event. He jokingly added that they did it “even though some of them were grumbling throughout the process.”

Asmudjo stressed that the exhibition’s rushed nature is not meant as a disparaging comment toward the art of photography. On the contrary, he said he believed that Crash showcases and highlights just how in tune the country’s local artists are with their art and how they are continually embracing their creative mind-set.

“I completely believe that the artists were able to create great works of art within the two weeks time frame they had.”

Muhammad Akbar, whose “Sleeping Glimmer” is on display as part of the project, said that he appreciated the rushed process.

“It was basically like being held at gunpoint and told you had to quickly produce something — which was cool,” he said.

Asmudjo also wanted to ensure that the exhibition elevated the value of photography as a form of art, especially in the eyes of the Indonesian art community. He said he feels like there is still an incredibly erroneous stigma that points toward photography as something too easy to partake in to be considered a serious form of art.

“There’s a complete disregard toward photography — especially in its digital form — amongst the local art community,” Asmudjo said.

He added that the imagery of photographs in the general media — such as magazines and the Internet — helped fuel the wrong-headed notion.

Asmudjo quoted the well-known freelance curator, author and photography art expert Susan Bright, who referred to photography’s popularity as its own obstacle.

“The trouble is that it [photography] lends itself to many varied uses,” Bright writes in her book “Art Photography Now.”

Akbar said that the “distance” between a photograph and its viewer gives this particular form of art its niche.

“You see images in various forms in different media such as advertisements,” he explained. “And in a way, they manipulate your mind into receiving a certain message, which is something I’m very interested in. That power of manipulation that the photograph has is intriguing.”

Although the exhibit’s focus is on photography, there are also other forms of visual art on display, including video.

Asmudjo said that he believes video art is a mere extension of the boundless photography landscape.

“The artists aren’t here to work within the understood and expected parameter of what is considered art photography,” he said. “They’re here to break the notion that there’s even a parameter at all.”

“As long as the artists see their work as having a connection with photography, then it does.