INDONESIA • Normally, the artists at ER Studio Art are busy creating stage decoration and painting. But the Covid-19 pandemic hit theatres hard, so workers have had to innovate. Their new project has not only saved them their livelihood — it is also good for the environment. They are now making giant robot sculptures out of used motorcycle parts. There are more motorcycles on roads in Indonesia than in almost any other country in the world. In 2020, for example, nearly 112 million of them were in use there.
“Because of the pandemic, there was no work for six months. Then my first buyer, who often ordered paintings, asked for a robot made of metal or iron,” artist Eri Sudarmono told TribunJogja.com. The buyer, from China, was impressed with the outcome and has since ordered many more. The project hit the news in October 2021, and orders have flooded in from countries as far away as Germany and the US. The studio has hired 12 employees to work on the robots. It takes them one month to complete five to eight 2.5-metre-high robots. Each robot requires about five used motorcycles. In the end, the studio earns about Rp 60 million (€3,670) per robot.