Splash and Burn

At Jalan Gatot Subroto No.12, Petisah Tengah, Medan, Vhils carved the portrait of a critically endangered Tapanuli orangutan onto a city wall in 2018 for the Splash and Burn project. The species had been identified as distinct only shortly before the project and was already threatened by deforestation, palm-oil expansion, and a proposed hydroelectric dam fragmenting its remaining habitat. Placing the animal's image in the city brought the crisis into direct contact with an urban population that rarely encounters it. Here, subtraction itself echoes the forest's own irreversible removal.