<< Featured Works List

Apanorama
2005
610 x 460 x 330 cm
Multimedia Installation





Entang Wiharso

Entang Wiharso was born in Tegal in 1967, and concurrently has residence in either Yogyakarta, Indonesia, or Foster, in the United States. He graduated from the Indonesian Art Institute (ISI) in Yogyakarta in 1994, and has actively exhibited. His solo exhibitions include: “Inter-Eruption” at Bentara Budaya, Jakarta, Indonesia (2005); “Sublime Tunnel” at CP Artspace, Jakarta, Indonesia (2004); “Hurting Landscape: Between Two Lines” at Gallery Agniel, Providence, Rhode Island, the United States, and in Chouinard Gallery, Hong Kong (2003); “NusaAmuk” in Jakarta and Yogyakarta (2001); “Amuk” at CP ArtSpace, Washington, D.C., The United States (2001); and “Melting Souls” at Gallery Agniel, Providence, Rhode Island, The United States (2000).

From Britannica Dictionary:

Urban Climate:
Any set of climatic conditions that prevails in a large metropolitan area and that differs from the climate of its rural surroundings.
Urban climates are distinguished from those of less built-up areas by differences of air temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction, and amount of precipitation. These differences are attributable in large part to the altering of the natural terrain through the construction of artificial structures and surfaces.
For example, tall buildings, paved streets, and parking lots affect wind flow, precipitation runoff, and the local energy balance.

The physical landscape always has a relationship to, and reflects the mentality of, the inhabitants. Urbanization without structure and/or a systemic pattern exists within our daily lives and becomes a part of our lifestyles. Development that prioritizes financial power blinds us to right and proper patterns of life. The position of nature is far distanced from that of mankind. Space is filled with things and an urban atmosphere that expands continuously. Mankind becomes insensitive to nature. Human beings who previously lived in peace and harmony with the natural environment now live in a new urban environment that offers only a semblance of comfort.

It has become consistently more difficult for us to find fresh air to breathe. Mankind and nature have, in the end, become no more than horrifying lifeless objects. Urbanization creates new landscapes about perceptions, relationships, and the reality of man as relates to mankind and to the relationship between mankind and nature, and mankind and God. We have collided with a panorama and conditions that scatter us at the crossroads of these relationships, which attract at a terrifying level, stumbling over one another to penetrate the membranes of our minds to freeze within us. It is these landscapes that emerge and submerge, becoming a part of our lives that at once bring endless pleasure and deep continuing bitterness.

We live in the midst of these urban climates without the awareness that the natural order that we are experiencing has been shifted by mankind. The physical and psychological positions of mankind are shifting as a result of the encroachment and confinement of urban space. The functions of nature and mankind have changed, and are both distancing themselves and drawing themselves toward one another. We are facing and simultaneously experiencing this seductive shift in the urban climate. News about flooding emerges every year without absence, especially in Jakarta. The cries and struggles of the populace become strains of music to us. The wealthy and the powerful dance to these tunes, while holding their swollen heads. We cannot reject this reality, but I can make it a tool of subversion.

Art allows us to channel our sensibilities through an aesthetic approach. Urbanization changes and is no longer god-like. We shed the elitist mentality (of both indigenous and colonial heritage) or at the very least put it away from us. Hopefully. (Artist's Statement)

<< Featured Works List | back to top