Wender·Vista
Makassar
shown on ceramic, 12-inch tileIndonesia
on the southwest coast of Sulawesi, on the strait that bears the city's name

Makassar

— — the port the spice fleets sailed from before the Dutch arrived.

— Where it lives

Not only on a wall.

A small tile on the nightstand catching the morning. A larger one above the fire. Yours, wherever you spend the slow hours.
— On the nightstand, a 6-inch on a walnut stand
— Among the books, a 6-inch leaning into the spines
— Beside the kettle, a 12-inch propped
— Down a quiet hall, an 18-inch floating off the wall
— Above the fire, the 24-inch in a walnut surround
— a note from the studio

“The capital of South Sulawesi and the largest city in eastern Indonesia, around 1.4 million people on the strait between Borneo and the rest of Sulawesi. Fort Rotterdam still stands on the seafront, raised by the Bugis kingdom of Gowa in the sixteenth century and rebuilt in coral stone after the Dutch took it in 1667. Pinisi schooners, hand-built downcoast at Bira, still tie up along the Paotere quay.

from the studio
Makassar
— bring it home

Makassar, on ceramic.

Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.

What kind of piece?
One tile — square or rectangle.
How big?
the popular one — counter, shelf, nightstand
6 × 6 in · 15 cm · 1.6 lb
Surface finish
A clear glossy finish — the artwork reads as if under resin. Ideal for show-pieces and framed wall art.
How it sits
A hidden cleat — sits ¼″ proud of the wall.
$58
Hand-finished and shipped from our studio at the foot of the Smokies. On your wall in about ten days.
— size
6 × 6 in
15 cm
— weighs
1.6 lb
solid in the hand
— surface
ceramic, hand-finished
art rests beneath a thin glossy finish
— from
Knoxville, TN
our family studio, at the foot of the Smokies
— start a Coaster Set

Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.

— about Makassar

The place, in three passes.

A little of what's known, in case you fall down the rabbit hole — or want to go see it yourself.
— the place

Makassar is the capital of South Sulawesi province and the largest city on the island of Sulawesi, with around 1.4 million residents in the city proper and roughly 2.5 million in the wider metropolitan area. It sits on the southwest coast of Sulawesi, on the Makassar Strait that separates the island from Borneo. The city is the principal commercial port and air gateway for eastern Indonesia and the main staging point for travel inland to Tana Toraja and the Bugis homeland along the south coast.

— informed by Wikipedia: Makassar
— the stone

Fort Rotterdam, on the Makassar seafront, began as the Bugis fortress Ujung Pandang under the kingdom of Gowa, traditionally dated to 1545. The Dutch East India Company took the fort in 1667 after the Makassar War and rebuilt it in coral limestone in the style of a Dutch coastal bastion. The complex now houses the La Galigo Museum, named for the seventeenth-century Bugis epic that is one of the longest literary works in any language. The walls and bastions survive largely intact.

— the water

Makassar's harbour has been a node of the Indonesian archipelago trade for at least six centuries, exporting cloves and nutmeg from the Maluku islands and trepang from the Arafura Sea. The Bugis pinisi schooner, a two-masted wooden ship still built by hand at Bira on the southeast tip of Sulawesi, remains in working use on these routes and ties up most days at the Paotere quay on the city's north side. UNESCO inscribed pinisi shipbuilding on its Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2017.

— where
Indonesia · Makassar, South Sulawesi
— position
-5.1477° S · 119.4327° E
— the neighborhood

What's nearby.

A handful of named places within an hour's walk or short drive. Some we've already painted; some we will.
1 km W
Fort Rotterdam
seafront fort & museum
1 km W
Losari Beach
seafront promenade
4 km N
Paotere Harbour
pinisi quay
7 km W
Pulau Samalona
coral island
N
Makassar
Fort Rotterdam
Losari Beach
Paotere Harbour
Pulau Samalona
— common questions

What people ask.

A few questions we get about Makassar — and about bringing the piece home.
— about the place

Makassar is the capital of South Sulawesi province and the largest city in eastern Indonesia, on the southwest coast of Sulawesi facing the Makassar Strait. The city proper holds around 1.4 million people.

A seafront fortress on Makassar's western shore, originally the Bugis fort Ujung Pandang from around 1545. The Dutch East India Company took it in 1667 and rebuilt it in coral limestone in the Dutch coastal style.

A pinisi is a two-masted wooden Indonesian schooner, traditionally built by hand by Bugis and Konjo shipwrights at Bira on the southeast tip of Sulawesi. UNESCO inscribed pinisi shipbuilding as Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2017.

A conflict from 1666 to 1669 in which the Dutch East India Company, allied with the Bugis prince Arung Palakka, defeated the Sultanate of Gowa. The war ended with the Treaty of Bongaya and Dutch control of the port.

La Galigo is a Bugis poem of around 300,000 lines, one of the longest literary works in any language. It survives in palm-leaf manuscripts; the museum inside Fort Rotterdam holds the principal collection.

The dry season runs roughly May through October, with lower humidity and reliable ferry and pinisi schedules. The wet monsoon from November through April brings heavy afternoon rain and rougher sea crossings.

— about the piece in your home

It carries well. Makassar is a defining city for the Bugis and Makassarese, and a tile of Fort Rotterdam or the pinisi quay reads as cultural recognition rather than generic Indonesian décor.

The coral-limestone whites, harbour blues, and teak-warm shadows settle into Tropical-modern, Coastal-modern, and Jewel-tone Maximalist rooms. It also reads well against teak, rattan, and unbleached cotton.

Yes. Tropical-modern has moved toward specific-place imagery and away from generic palm motifs. The Makassar piece grounds the style in an actual harbour and an actual ship the room can name.

A single Large above a console; a 4-tile Mural over a standard sofa; a 9-tile Mural where the room can carry it. The Mural lets the harbour and ships read at full scale.

Yes, in Dura Satin or Matte. Both finishes are scratch-resistant and handle humidity without trouble. Glossy stays in dry rooms; showers and backsplashes route to Dura Satin.

A microfibre cloth with water. No ceramic or glass cleaners, nothing abrasive. The colour lives in the surface beneath a thin finish, so the tile cleans like a smooth ceramic plate.

Yes. Every WenderVista piece is curated and hand-finished in one studio in Knoxville, Tennessee. The art is original to Wender Studios; nothing is licensed in, and no piece is sub-contracted out for production.

— if this one stayed with you

A few you might also love.

Hand-picked by the eye that found Sorapis. Same air, same kind of quiet.