In Cloning Garden, Ayu Arista Murti takes us into the future, a time filled with hope and optimism; where human beings live in harmony with the nature. But instead of presenting the classical and stereotypical depiction of nature, Ayu wants us to deal with the planet we live in now.

The idea for Cloning Garden may have been inspired by the ambitious green campaigns that have evolved as a dominant presence in the last five years. There are many movies and stories that have been made recently on this topic, including Al Gore’s notable documentary An Inconvenient Truth that exposed the danger posed by humanity to environmental sustainability. This type of exposure has brought environmental issues into mainstream contemporary discourse. Global Warming is now part of bombastic corporate advertising and events designed to promote corporate social responsibility programs, responding to the assumption that large scale corporate practices are the causes of environmental destruction.

Ayu takes personal approach to this matter. Cloning Garden thus becomes a story and dream towards healthy and sustainable human life. Ayu does not talk about specific environmental issues as discussed in mass media, but captures this issue in a scope that goes beyond the environmental discourse itself. In Cloning Garden, she tries to retrace our relationship with the earth—as the place we live within, with its complex history—and also our relationship towards the meaning of human life itself.

By presenting her new works in this series, Ayu invites us to reopen our past through the romantic undertones of time and memory. Ayu also underlines the important role of women in order to make the earth a healthier and more balanced place. Even though their efforts are considered as small, personal, and domestic. Her visual imagery might remind us of children books, where we accept visual symbols faster than words.