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Elia Nurvista / Indonesia b.1983 / Sucker Zucker (detail) 2016 / Isomalt, water, mahogany and mixed media /Dimensions variable / Installation view, ‘Dialogue with the Senses’, Galeria Fatahillah, Jakarta, 2016 / © The artist / Photograph: Fajar Riyanto /Image courtesy: Arcolabs
Elia NurvistaSucker Zucker 2016
Not Currently on Display
Elia Nurvista’s sugar sculptures are colourful, jewel-like objects produced with the assistance of local artisans in Yogyakarta. For APT9, her sculptures are accompanied by a mural, and explore some of sugar’s complicated history, including its links with global exploitation.
Sucker Zucker 2018 builds on a 2016 work, for which she created a series of crystalline sugar sculptures, displayed like gems atop pedestals, with take-home containers decorated with diamond shapes. According to the artist, sugar and diamonds have a shared appearance and narrative, from their colour and shape to their material extraction and history of labour, slavery and exploitation.
Elia Nurvista is a young Indonesian artist whose practice focuses on food production and distribution, and the associated broader social and historical implications. Nurvista uses food and its related activities — from the planting of crops to the act of eating and the sharing of recipes — as entry points to exploring issues of economic and political power, labour, culture, gender and status. She also runs Bakudapan, a food study group that undertakes community and research projects.