The four-decade career of Nyoman Nuarta has spanned many of the most interesting-and tumultuous-periods in the history of modern Indonesia. As witness to these events, either from the outside as a student activist and iconoclastic artist, or the inside as a favoured creator of monumental art objects to adorn the structures of the government and economic elite, Nyoman Nuarta has employed this unique perspective on Indonesian life and society to create a body of compelling and accomplished body of work of great importance and lasting value. In Reflections and Interpretations, Nyoman Nuarta reminisces on his exceptional career through examination of his own selection of works. From Proklamator, Nuarta's first commission, won in 1979 even before graduating from the Faculty of Fine Art at the Bandung Institute of Technology, to the massive Garuda piece recently installed at the entrance of Soekarno-Hatta International airport, the pieces included in this book cover the major creative periods in Nuarta's career.In this book, Nyoman Nuarta tells of the external events and internal passions driving the creation of each work, whether political protest, public monument, or private reflection. Nuarta's own words are complemented by brief explanatory introductions placing each piece into historical and social context.

The book features a perspective of Indonesia few have seen: from the air.From the window of a commercial airliner in flight, Indonesia is a carpet of green fields and blue seas. But from a low-flying aircraft, details on the ground are clearly visible, while the vantage point is sufficiently lofty to encompass the full splendor of trackless forests, towering volcanic cones, and endless sea, the pride of Indonesia from Sabang to Merauke.17,000 Islands of Imagination presents the natural grandeur of the land and sea of Indonesia in a stunning collection of photographs taken from the photographer's custom-made microlight.It portrays Indonesia's vast and rich beauty to the world as one will be taken to "fly" across its lands, seas and thousands of its islands along the equator. A book that will take one's imagination to freely glide and define all aspects of life beyond such beauty.Thousands of islands to imagine.