Bahasa Entang Wiharso
Entang Wiharso is perhaps best known for his cut-out metal wall reliefs, which hark back to traditional narrative bas-relief panels that adorn ancient Hindu and Buddhist temples such as Borobudur in Central Java. In the Temple of Hope series, which Wiharso began in 2009, the artist developed his cut-out wall panels into large-scale monumental installations. Temple of Hope: Door to Nirvana 2018 is an intricate metal house-like structure with an entrance on each side aligning to the cardinal directions north, south, east and west. On the steel walls and roof of the temple are laser-cut texts and complex imagery referring to both historical and contemporary themes—Indonesian traditional and mythical figures alongside motifs drawn from popular culture, everyday life and socio-political issues.
Temple of Hope: Door to Nirvana is the largest temple Wiharso has created to date and for the first time audiences will be able to enter the structure. Internally lit by an elaborate chandelier with organic artery-like branches, the light cast creates shadows of the text and images onto visitors and the surrounding walls. This dramatic visual effect is evocative of wayang kulit shadow puppet theatre—another major artistic tradition in Java.
Wiharso’s work is largely self-referential and he positions his own personal narrative within the larger global context of social and historical narratives. Temple of Hope: Door to Nirvana is a meditation on the impact of intolerance towards difference in an ever-increasingly globalised world and how this threatens any possibility of a harmonious future. The texts cut into the steel roof of the temple speak the voices and views of Wiharso and his friends, family and colleagues reflecting on this theme. One example reads:
I feel the growing intolerance and polarization arising from extreme politics. Misunderstanding, conflict and tension always exist as part of the human experience. My intention is to create a site where people from different backgrounds can have an experience that reflects on hybridity and creates a sense of borderless-ness.
By literally shining light on such issues, Wiharso expresses tolerance, acceptance and peace as a step towards enlightenment. The temple’s four entrances that lead to the central chandelier are used to communicate the idea that there are many paths to peace, through cultivating the acceptance of individual difference and racial and religious tolerance.
Beatrice Thompson
Entang Wiharso
