Tuesday, May 18, 2010

taring padi is awesome

The Indonesian art collective (Taring Padi means fang of the rice paddy) founded in 1998 after Suharto stepped down says, Love your neighbor!

Two taring padi members/associates presented their awesome and inspiring work at Open Engagement this weekend.

An early cultural manifesto they had consisted of five antis: anti-capitalism/anti-imperialism/anti-feudalism/anti-militarism/anti-elitism. They also built a library for local children with money they made from the proceeds of their artwork. The library was also supported by donations from a kindergarten in Seattle!

When the collective was assisting in the raising of farmers' and villagers' spirits after the 2006 earthquake via scarecrow-making, Taring Padi drew on traditional Indonesian shadow puppets (Wayang Kulit), making scarecrows with the farmers out of cardboard instead of leather...Nearby artist Eko Nugroho also updated Wayang Kulit: