Elia Nurvista and Bagus Pandega: Nafasan Bumi ~ An Endless Harvest

Artists Elia Nurvista and Bagus Pandega explore how the demands of a relentless extraction, from plantations to electric futures, cast a shadow on the very "breath of the Earth."

Elia Nurvista and Bagus Pandega: Nafasan Bumi ~ An Endless Harvest imagines the afterlives of materials that persist long after their use, outlasting our time in this age of excess. Plantations, mining sites, and the promise of electric vehicle technologies become places where the stories of tomorrow are formed, bound by Indonesia’s extractive economies whose resources sustain the pulse of today’s global demand.

From the need for oxygen to nickel’s role in lithium-ion technologies, from the cutting down of forests to palm oil’s many applications, these materials represent the state of the Earth’s breath (Nafasan Bumi) today, strained by extraction. The planet’s natural rhythms no longer move freely but are drawn into the labour of industry, breathing through the exhaustion of a harvest that never ends.

Across the exhibition, labour appears as both memory and speculation, a rhythm shared by humans, machines, and the living world. Conveyor belts, once emblems of the industrial revolution and the mechanisation of labour, now hum to the pulse of tropical plants, creating a continuous cycle of productivity. Nearby, sculptures cast in palm oil wax evoke the stillness of carved stone yet resist ideals of perfection, creating a dreamscape haunted by plantation residues. Others, made from discarded palm waste, hold the tension between fragility and endurance.

Together, these artworks trace how human and non-human life have been enmeshed in cycles of ceaseless pursuit of productivity, asking: What will the future shaped by these material conditions? Like the recurring haze that engulfs Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia during the southwest monsoon, the Earth’s breath, shadowed by an endless harvest, lingers as a reminder of what extraction conceals and refuses to let us forget. ~

about the artists

Bagus Pandega
Bagus Pandega (b. 1985, Jakarta) is an artist based in Bandung, Indonesia whose practice interrogates Indonesia’s ecological and socio-political conditions. He incorporates elements including programming, industrial machines, sound systems, and plant biofeedback into immersive kinetic. Through this dynamic interplay, Pandega reveals the entangled legacy of Indonesia’s colonial history and its abundant natural resources, highlighting how extractive economies have shaped both landscapes and lives. His installations not only trace the scars of environmental degradation, but also give voice to the lived realities of communities across Indonesia, surfacing the tensions between technological progress, capitalism, industrialization, and human existence. Pandega received his Bachelor of Arts in Sculpture in 2008 and his Master of Fine Arts in 2015 from the Faculty of Art and Design at Institut Teknologi Bandung. His past exhibitions include Sumber Alam (2025), a solo show at Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland, WAGIWAGI (2022) at Documenta 15 in Kassel, Germany, and The 10th Asia Pacific Triennial (2021–22) at QAGOMA in Brisbane, Australia.

Elia Nurvista
Elia Nurvista (b. 1983, Yogyakarta) is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice scrutinizes the politics of food, exploring its relationship with the power dynamics and socio-economic inequalities in this world. Utilising a wide range of mediums, including sculpture, batik, performance art, and video installations, she engages with the social implications of the food system to critically address wider issues such as ecology, gender, class, and geopolitics.

In 2015, Nurvista initiated Bakudapan, a study group collective that undertakes community and research projects about food’s larger position within culture. She is also part of Struggles for Sovereignty: Land, Water, Farming, Food, a collective platform which aims to build lasting solidarity between Indonesian and international groups who are engaged with struggles for the right to self-determination over basic resources. Her past exhibitions include Sharjah Biennial 15 (2023) in Sharjah, UAE, Karachi Biennale in Karachi, Pakistan (2019) and ‘The 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’, at QAGOMA in Brisbane, Australia (2018).