Indonesian artist Setiawan Sabana has lived in Japan and his interest in its art is evident in the neutral and understated colour, simplified form and carefully balanced composition of his work. Sabana makes panels and objects from his own handmade paper and pulp. He uses discarded materials in his paper and also incorporates elements of drawing and calligraphy into works. His paper has developed to the point where it is not just a surface on which to print or draw: it is a contemporary art form in its own right. Much of his work makes reference to the landscape and celebrates its beauty.

The references in Sabana's work to simple hand-crafted technology are important because they represent the belief, shared by some Indonesians, that the rapid industrial progress in Indonesia has involved losses as well as gains. Sabana is particularly interested in the traditional Indonesian techniques of packaging (using banana leaves, palm fibres and other natural materials, which have been rendered obsolete by plastics), partly because it is a vanishing craft and partly to draw attention to the fact that it is being replaced by ecologically threatening methods. The subtle harmony created in Sabana's objects suggests a world of purity and balance, but not just as a matter of aesthetics. This refinement in an artistic realm is only made possible by removing a little of the pollution from the environment: Sabana's work is a gesture of purification. In Panorama I - an arrangement of square slabs of hardened pulp - Sabana places great emphasis on the physical character of the paper itself.