From Waste to Waka: How an Indonesian innovation is shaping climate art in New Zealand
For New Zealand artist Charlotte Crichton, Asia was both the catalyst and the solution for her personal pursuit of climate action. Experiencing India's sights and smells inspired her to close the doors of her studio and enrol in Victoria University of Wellington's climate change master's programme. Later, when wanting to turn her research into a new body of work, she looked north again — finding a faux leather product in Indonesia. Her exhibition, Fluid Bodies, displayed at Toi MAHARA Gallery for four months of this year.
The brains behind MYCL Adi Reza and artist Charlotte Crichton at the exhibition opening
At five metres high and 15 metres long, visitors crane their heads upward to take in the full extent of Charlotte Crichton's Fluid Bodies installation. Thirty-four floating leaves cascade from the ceiling, transitioning into a similarly shaped, but much larger waka resting on the floor.
Crichton's message: from the atmosphere to the ocean, everything in Earth's "robust yet delicate" system is connected.
"I wanted to create an environment where the audiences would emotionally engage or feel a sense of oneness within the space, and a sense of awe," Crichton says.
"Which is how I felt when I learned about the physical basis of climate change."
The exhibiting room for Fluid Bodies is both alive and ethereal. Crichton composed a soundtrack specifically for the exhibit, taking field recordings collected by New Zealand scientists, including files of fish and crabs underwater and the greenhouse gas monitoring station in Baring Head. She layered them with a cello, singing bowls, a ceramic flute and other instruments made from natural materials.
Gallery director Janet Bayly said the effect on visitors had been strong.
"Visitors have been deeply moved, awed and impressed by it," she says. "They often spend a long time in its immersive environment, go 'into the zone' and leave feeling emotional, and that they have been transported to 'another' space."
Artist Charlotte Crichton explains her work to the attendees at Toi Mahara Art Gallery's opening of Fluid Bodies
Putting the exhibit together took three years and involved multiple conference calls to Indonesia, as Crichton searched for a sustainable material to communicate her message.
She landed on a faux leather, called Mylea, developed by Indonesian biotech company MYCL.
"It was important to me that the work 'walked the talk'... it was a great opportunity to showcase a new material that proved a sustainable ethic is possible," Crichton says.
The company attempts to solve a problem caused by the country's booming US$448.2 billion agri-food industry, buying farmers' crop waste and using it to create the leather-like fabric. The crop waste would have otherwise been burned, contributing to Indonesia's air pollution problem.
Crichton learned about the product after reading a profile on MYCL co-founder and chief executive Adi Reza Nugroho on the Asia New Zealand Foundation website and asked for an introduction.
"It was the beginning of a beautiful long-distance relationship," Crichton explains, "There was a very similar kaupapa and a very similar intent of what we're both trying to achieve."
In February, Reza Nugroho flew to New Zealand for the exhibition's opening — his first in-person meeting with Crichton.
Reza Nugroho previously engaged with the Foundation in 2018, travelling to New Zealand as part of the ASEAN Young Business Leaders Initiative. The delegation brought together Southeast Asian entrepreneurs whose businesses had a strong sustainability focus, creating opportunities to connect with New Zealand businesses and explore shared interests.
Developing the faux leather recipe took Reza Nugroho and his team many years; the successful product emulates the process for making a traditional dish of Indonesia, called tempeh, involving binding soybeans together using the mycelium of a fungus. But instead of soybeans, MYCL replaces it with agricultural waste purchased from farmers.
Soybean-based dish Tempeh, originating in Indonesia
Being at the gallery and attending the opening, allowed him to see the material in a completely new way.
“We've been working with these materials for the past eight years, but I’ve never seen this... the translucency of the materials and how poetically it’s moulded into the shape of the boat, and the small pieces of leaves," Reza Nugroho says.
“When I saw the artwork, I want to cry actually, because I haven't seen our product as an art form before, or so beautifully displayed."
Mylea has already acquired international acclaim, walking the runway at Paris Fashion Week when the Japanese brand Doublet launched a line of leather-less jackets. Prince William acknowledged Reza Nugroho efforts in climate innovation in 2024, listing him as a finalist for the EarthShot prize.
However, Fluid Bodies marks the first time it's been showcased in New Zealand and for many to discover it for the first time and inviting inquiries of how to purchase the product.
"This platform that the Asia New Zealand Foundation provides is accelerating the innovations and bringing more awareness to people about the urgency of tackling the issue of climate change," Reza Nugroho says.
With her strong passion for climate action, Crichton shared that she'd been originally motivated to collaborate with innovators from Southeast Asia, because that region “feels the major impacts of climate change disproportionally”.
"We share the ocean currents, we share the atmospheric currents – we are neighbours – it's important we are working together,” Crichton says.
Made up of more than 17,000 islands and positioned between the South China Sea and the Pacific, Indonesia is highly exposed to climate hazards, including sea-level rise and flooding.
In December last year, a mass flooding event left more than one million people, across 11 islands, displaced. A 2025 report by the security policy institute Council on Strategic Risks placed Indonesia in the top third of countries most vulnerable to climate change.
Major centres are affected by severe air pollution. The Jakarta Post reported that in the capital city alone, persistent air pollution had triggered nearly 2 million cases of respiratory illness in 2025.
During the exhibition opening, Reza Nugroho shared the shock he felt when helping a friend take their sick children to hospital for respiratory illness and finding the facility filled with many others experiencing the same symptoms.
Fluid Bodies opening day with (from left) Asia New Zealand Foundation chief executive Suzannah Jessep, artist Charlotte Crichton, gallery director Janet Bayley, and MYCL chief executive Adi Reza
It's Crichton hope that Fluid Bodies will create some "motivation" in people.
"There's a lot to be pessimistic about because we're not moving fast enough [with climate action]. But you know, there's a lot of really great research being done. There's a lot of good new developments happening. I think Adi and what his company does is a great example of that."
Beyond the gallery walls and climate change space, Fluid Bodies also had an impact.
New Zealand Asia Institute director Natasha Hamilton-Hart highlights cross-country collaborations like these are important for the wider New Zealand-Indonesia relationship.
"Indonesians notice if we only pursue trade opportunities. So even though it is impossible to measure in dollar terms the full impact of cultural collaborations, without them, New Zealand is left with quite superficial relationships," Hamilton-Hart says.
"Understanding Indonesia — its priorities, view of the world, aspirations and resources - is something we cannot afford to miss out on."
She points to Indonesia's youthful population and rapid economic transformation as reasons New Zealand should be paying closer attention to Indonesia. Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade similarly projects it to be among the world's five largest economies by 2040.
"Many people will think of Bali and beach holidays, but we don't hear enough about Indonesia's society, its resources, its tech sector," Hamilton-Hart says.
She says several New Zealand companies are well placed to develop their technology with Indonesian partners, not just in agri-tech, but horticulture, husbandry and energy.
The collaboration between Crichton and Reza Nugroho also allowed both of them to gain a deeper understanding of each other.
"Through this process, I've certainly learned a lot more about Adi's part of the world, and he's learned a lot about mine," Crichton says.
She plans to tour Fluid Bodies across the galleries of New Zealand and to exhibit it in Indonesia - a desire Reza Nugroho shares, along with the hopes his product rivals traditional tannery leather one day.
Fluid Bodies exhibited at Toi MAHARA gallery in Waikanae from February 14, 2026 until June 14, 2026.
The Foundation's arts programme brings Asia into the mainstream of New Zealand arts by inspiring New Zealand arts professionals to grow their connections and knowledge of Asia. It also supports the presentation of Asian arts in partnership with New Zealand arts organisations and events.
