Between Currents and Bloom

Mulyana began knitting while working part-time at a bookstore in Bandung, Indonesia, and has since gone on to produce visually stunning installations at grand scale, using a crochet technique to replicate “the ideal sea as remembered.” Making extensive use of recycled yarn, including surplus from factories, he reconstructs his vision of the sea and memories of marine life, while drawing attention to the need for environmental restoration in Indonesia. Mulyana has earned international recognition for works that address pressing global environmental issues with playfulness and imagination, and today his activities extend beyond fine art to include fashion and product design.

The dazzlingly colorful marine life in this work reveals, on close inspection, that every detail is crocheted from yarn. Coral and marine creatures flourish in shallow, sunlit waters, with schools of small fish darting among them. Beyond lie coral bleached by warming seas and whale bones resting in the stillness. The work condenses the vastness and depth of the ocean within the exhibition space, conveying the abundance of a marine environment in which the vigorous energy of life and the silence of death coexist in a continuous cycle.

Having witnessed firsthand the severe marine pollution in Indonesia caused by plastic waste and other factors, Mulyana uses the patient, deliberate crochet process and vividly colored yarn to evoke the beauty of the sea and the memory of its former state. His works embody the deep bond between the sea and humankind, and are infused with primal strength and poetic beauty that connect the people who took part in creating the works with those who encounter them.