One measure of human civilization can be traced to our earliest attempts to transform natural materials into objects—whether functional tools or forms that carry personal and social meaning. Each object passes through a chain of processes, yet this chain is rarely complete or circular. In Sasana Gelung (2022), Maharani Mancanagara reflects on this imperfect cycle, revealing the shifting tensions between raw material, use, and the imagined life of things. Residues and offcuts from production—often dismissed as waste—become sources of both difficulty and possibility. In Maharani’s practice, these remnants reappear as objects that echo the functional world, their roles shaped as much by the viewer’s imagination as by their material form.
Through an installation resembling the remnants of a room encircling a quiet, spiraling core, Maharani gently unravels our assumptions about how objects live, decay, and transform. Educated in Bandung and active across national and international art platforms, she presents Sasana Gelung as a contemplation on the sustainability of everyday making. The work considers how production cycles extend beyond economic systems, touching deeply on the social and political conditions that shape how we inhabit, value, and ultimately understand the things around us.
Bob Edrian
