From Tanah Merdeka to Tanah Tumpah Darah: Taring Padi in Brisbane, Australia
Following on from the Framer Framed exhibition, Tanah Merdeka in the summer of 2023, Taring Padi are undertaking a new residency and presenting their work at the Griffith University Art Museum in Brisbane, Australia.
Taring Padi are a leading Indonesian art collective with a mission to understand the cultural and social history of Indonesia through a contemporary lens. Based in Yogyakarta, they use art as a tool to explore issues of sovereignty to overcome environmental destruction, violence, food shortages and unemployment.
From March to May 2024, Griffith University Art Museum will host Taring Padi: Tanah Tumpah Darah. As part of this project, Taring Padi will undertake a residency and suite of public programs in collaboration with proppaNOW, one of Australia’s most important Aboriginal art collectives, and develop a public art banner project together.
Installation photo Tanah Merdeka (2023) by Taring Padi. Photo: Maarten Nauw / Framer Framed
Whilst the title of their Framer Framed exhibition, Tanah Merdeka meant ‘liberated land’ their new exhibition, Tanah Tumpah Darah takes its title from a poetic phrase loosely meaning the emotions generated by remembering one’s motherland that was popularised during the Indonesian revolution and declaration of independence in 1945. The Indonesian left employed the phrase as an ideological framework during land disputes (sengketa agraria) against feudalistic land ownership systems and Western investments until 1965. However, under the military dictatorship of Soeharto (1966-1998), the phrase became an empty slogan in the annual ceremony of Indonesian Independence.
More recently, Tanah Tumpah Darah has been reclaimed as a common chant of contemporary Indonesian activists in campaigns against land grabbing and deforestation across the archipelago, a core aspect of Taring Padi’s cultural and political activities since its formation in 1998. Taring Padi see land as a broad concept with many complexities. They consider forces of extraction, preservation, colonisation, occupation, identity, and emancipation, and think of land not only as a physical and territorial site to be protected, defended, and reclaimed.
Installation view of the exhibition Tanah Merdeka (2023) by Taring Padi at Framer Framed, Amsterdam. Photo: © Maarten Nauw / Framer Framed
Through learning and working together with diverse communities, Taring Padi understands that people have spiritual, cultural, social and economic connections with the lands, territories and resources they inhabit. In 2022, together with participants of the Wayang Kardus Workshops at Framer Framed and other locations, Taring Padi co-produced cardboard puppets that were later presented at documenta fifteen. For Tanah Merdeka they continued this collective approach during a one-month residency in Brazil, developing a new work with Casa do Povo and the Brazilian landless workers’ movement Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST). This wisdom necessitates struggle and fans the flame of solidarity action that continues collectively with proppaNOW in 2024.
Richard Bell, Aboriginal artist and activist speaking at the opening of Tanah Merdeka (2023) with Alex Supartono member of Taring Padi. Photo: Maarten Nauw / Framer Framed
Opening
Saturday 2 March 2024
Griffith University Art Museum
Griffith University South Bank Campus
226 Grey Street, South Bank, Brisbane, Australia
About Taring Padi
Taring Padi was founded in Yogyakarta, Indonesia in 1998 by a group of progressive art students and activists in response to the Indonesian socio-political upheavals during the reformation era and the fall of Suharto. Consequently, Taring Padi’s artistic practice is always part of and contextualises within socio-political and cultural action and solidarity with a wide range of communities and social groups. Taring Padi’s works and solidarity actions are manifested in collective works in the form of woodcut posters, large-size banners, rontek, cardboard puppets, music, carnival and other art actions. Taring Padi often run workshops at their studio and undertake collaborative projects with communities and national and international art and political groups.
About proppaNOW
proppaNOW are one of Australia’s most important Aboriginal art collectives, established in Brisbane in 2003. Combining both individual and collective practices, proppaNOW explore the politics of Aboriginal art and culture, re-thinking what it means to be a ‘contemporary Aboriginal artist’. Often imbedded with an ironic sense of humour, their works address issues of land rights, environmental destruction, visibility and political activism. Based in Brisbane, proppaNOW continue to have strong connections to Griffith University’s Contemporary Australian Indigenous Art program.
Current members of proppaNOW include Vernon Ah Kee, Tony Albert, Richard Bell, Megan Cope, Jennifer Herd, Gordon Hookey, Shannon Brett, Lily Eather, and Warraba Weatherall.
Collectives / Indonesia / Colonial history / Art and Activism /
Exhibitions
Exhibition: Tanah Merdeka
An exhibition with the Indonesian art & activist collective, Taring Padi, reflecting on the concept of land as the object and site of decolonial struggles.
Agenda
Opening: Tanah Merdeka
Opening of the exhibition Tanah Merdeka with works by the Indonesian art collective Taring Padi and collaborators.
Network
Taring Padi
Collective
Magazine
Collectives / Indonesia / Podcast / Social Practice /
Collectives / Indonesia / Colonial history / Art and Activism /
The making of Tanah Merdeka - Dialogue through collaborative practices
Collectives / Indonesia / Colonial history / Art and Activism /