When visitors walk into the Henry Radford Hope Wing of the Eskenazi Museum of Art, they will see a forest of yellow and orange fish suspended from the ceiling and coral reefs clustered across the floor. Bright oranges, purples and greens glow under soft blue lighting, creating the illusion of descending into a living reef.
The environment is part of the exhibit “Mulyana: Vital Ecosystems,” currently on display at the museum. It highlights biodiversity mixed with Indonesian tradition, exploring themes of climate change, pollution and underwater biospheres.
The reef is constructed out of plush felt and plastic bags. The exhibit allows visitors to flow through each piece seamlessly; everything carefully intertwined with one another.
Indonesian artist Mulyana’s personal vibrant art style, which uses mixed media, has become internationally recognized.. His fictional character “Mogus,” a friendly octopus-like creature, often appears in his installations as a symbol of empathy, interconnectedness and care for the natural world.
The exhibit is a mixed bag of styles, using crochet and plastic to create a vision of an underwater world
“I think one thing that's really exciting about Mulyana's work is that he hand knits and crochets each of these sculptures, and then he combines them together to create these immersive installations,” said Natasha Kimmet, the Pamela Buell Curator of Asian Art at the Eskenazi Museum. “And so, when you get up close to each object, you can really see in detail how each is made and how some of them have these really kind of almost realistic conveyance of the coral reef ecosystem and its biodiversity.”
Kimmet said Mulyana created the plastic jellyfish out of old take-out bags he collected during the pandemic. All the textiles used were from factories in Indonesia.
“It’s this reminder of how this material plays into our connectedness with the environment and whether we're helping it or harming it,” Kimmet said.
Carson Freund, a freshman at IU, said he enjoyed all the different tactical features the exhibit had to offer.
Freund said the biggest thing that stood out to him was all the crochet that made up the exhibit, and the time and effort Mulyana went through to create these pieces.
“My initial impression was ‘wow there's cool crochet stuff going on right here,’” Freund said. “Then I looked closer and I noticed a hidden meaning about pollution.”
Jacob Mack, another freshman at IU, shared a similar opinion.
“It made me feel surprised because it was talking about coral bleaching, and I didn't understand the impacts it actually had on the underwater ecosystem,” Mack said.
While the exhibit stands out for its colorful pieces and tactile imagery, Kimmet says there is more cultural significance behind each piece.
“I just think that what's so profound about Mulyana's work as well, he's really thinking locally about the coral reefs in Indonesia,” Kimmet said. “He's also really thinking about these bigger global issues that affect us… he's also thinking about social anxieties and loneliness and like this epidemic that we face of being very isolated.”
In between the art, craft stations are set up. The crafts consist of making your own underwater creatures, like octopuses and fish. These crafts allow visitors to get hands-on experience, and create through the lens of Mulyana.
“I think it was a very insightful and creative look into underwater ecosystems, and I ultimately think the goal for spreading awareness was achieved,” Mack said.
The exhibit will run from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. until June 26. Check out the exhibit Tuesdays through Sundays. For more information check out on the exhibit’s website.
