In Bodies in Penumbra: The Soft Machinery of Light, figures and fragments emerge from the residues of the world of plantations. Two human figures poised, recall the grandeur of classical sculpture, yet their surfaces tell another story. Under the appearance of melted palm oil wax, the bodies seem to be slowly dissolving under invisible heat. Appearances of the monumental are instead fragile, as the artist substitutes the ideals and representation of perfection with the realities of plantation labour. A single charred palm trunk bears carved human faces, and two sculptures woven from discarded palm fronds take on a figurative form of palm oil trees. These works transform plantation residue, which once served the plantation’s economy, into both relic and resistance, quiet monuments to exhaustion, planned obsolescence and the persistence of materials after their intended use.

Installation view of Elia Nurvista’s Bodies in Penumbra: The Soft Machinery of Light (2026) as part of Elia Nurvista and Bagus Pandega: Nafasan Bumi ~ An Endless Harvest at SAM at Tanjong Pagar Distripark. Image courtesy of Singapore Art Museum.

Elia Nurvista's Exhausted turns palm oil wax into a material of memory. Extending from her batik work The Route (2024), part of the ongoing Long Hanging Fruit series, the earlier work traces the linked histories of palm oil and Dutch-African wax prints. Using batik’s wax-resist process, this new work depicts palm trees and fruits within a plantation, as well as the hands and bodies that harvest them, the latter portrayed as mutating under the toxic conditions, drawing attention to the women whose unseen labour sustains these plantations.

Installation view of Elia Nurvista’s Exhausted (2026) as part of Elia Nurvista and Bagus Pandega: Nafasan Bumi ~ An Endless Harvest at SAM at Tanjong Pagar Distripark. Image courtesy of Singapore Art Museum.

Upon a slow-moving conveyor, small 3D-printed sculptures—houses, lilies, shrimps, and seated figures—travel in quiet procession. Some of these forms were modelled from drawings made by residents who once lived near the site of the 2006 Sidoarjo mudflow disaster in East Java. These forms are printed using filament produced from the same mud, from the gas-drilling accident, which continues to release mud to this day. An Indonesian flag stalked into the still-erupting ground loops in an accompanying video, demonstrating the depth of the source. Echoing this endless outpouring/flow of mud, the printing of the sculptures continues throughout the exhibition, expanding the installation over time and transforming it into a time-based record of production and displacement, echoing the ongoing expansion of the mudflow itself.

Installation view of Bagus Pandega’s Fabric of the Earth (2025) as part of Elia Nurvista and Bagus Pandega: Nafasan Bumi ~ An Endless Harvest at SAM at Tanjong Pagar Distripark. Image courtesy of Singapore Art Museum.

A copper-coated sculpture is submerged into a tank of electrolyte solution, bearing the face of Bagja, a nickel mining worker who had been subjected to workplace abuse. Through natural chemical interaction, Bagja’s face and features are continuously layered with nickel. The process continues throughout the exhibition, with the transformation being broadcast in real-time across L.O.O.P (Less Organic Operation Procedure). Even the screens themselves contain nickel. The live image appears inverted, turning the upward rise of hydrogen bubbles into a downward fall that resembles rain or tears. Indonesia remains the world’s largest producer of nickel, where intensive mining has led to widespread deforestation, polluted waterways, and toxic soil conditions. Gurat Lara (Scars) examines how these environmental shifts disrupt not only ecosystems but also the social and spiritual ties that bind communities to their land.

Detail view of Bagus Pandega’s Gurat Lara (Scars) (2026) as part of Elia Nurvista and Bagus Pandega: Nafasan Bumi ~ An Endless Harvest at SAM at Tanjong Pagar Distripark. Image courtesy of Singapore Art Museum.

Fragments of nickel ore move in a measured rhythm along a ten-metre conveyor belt. While mechanical in nature, the machine’s tempo is not dictated by machine nor human, but by the tropical plants around it whose biofeedback signals regulate its motion. Travelling to the end of the conveyor loop, the ore is dropped into a metal basin, producing a resonant strike that marks the passage of time. In this installation, industrial mechanisms and living systems share a single circuit. Nickel, drawn from the red earth of Sulawesi, meets the biological responses of plants. Here, mining is reimagined as a system responsive to nature, which once extracted, becomes the operator. Across this looping system of movement and sound, the artist reflects on labour, technology, and the shifting boundaries between the organic and the mechanical.

Installation view of Bagus Pandega’s L.O.O.P (Less Organic Operation Procedure) (2026) as part of Elia Nurvista and Bagus Pandega: Nafasan Bumi ~ An Endless Harvest at SAM at Tanjong Pagar Distripark. Image courtesy of Singapore Art Museum.

Plantation Tragedy presents a surreal dreamscape where trees, labourers, scientists and artificial intelligence confront one another in a shared state of exhaustion. Four figures—Francis the overseer, Dona the vegetal communicator, Watiman the scientist and Cyborg the sentient machin e—voice conflicting desires for progress, justice and rest. The oil palms begin to groan, complain and ultimately refuse to produce, a fantasy of vegetal strike in action. As the trees “strike,” the plantation becomes a scene of imagined resistance, inviting us to consider whether the Earth itself might one day refuse and retaliate.

Installation view of Elia Nurvista’s Plantation Tragedy (2026) as part of Elia Nurvista and Bagus Pandega: Nafasan Bumi ~ An Endless Harvest at SAM at Tanjong Pagar Distripark. Image courtesy of Singapore Art Museum.