Edhi Sunarso was a favored artist during the grand period of nation-building under the presidency of Sukarno and was given the opportunity to work on many of the public sculptures in key locations in Jakarta. He produced important public monuments such as ‘Digantara’ and the ‘Monument for the Independence of West Irian’ in the 1950s and 1960s. He worked in bronze, one of the earliest Indonesian artists to do so, and produced his bronze works in Yogyakarta.This work is a marquette of the large public sculpture Edhi Sunarso made in Jakarta when President Sukarno challenged the artist to make monuments in bronze, a feat never attempted before by any Indonesian artist then. Dirgantara is a Marquette of the monument known as the Aerospace Monument (Monuman Dirgantara) located in front of the Air Force headquarters in Pancoran. This monument honours the Indonesian air force for their contributions to the heroic defence of the country.
