Bersama - Refugee Art Project & Taring Padi

Photo of cardboard puppet characters on bamboo sticks

Tanah Merdeka by Taring Padi, photo credit: Maarten Nauw

Bersama / Togetherness - Refugee Art Project & Taring Padi
16 - 24 March 2024
Chrissie Cotter Gallery

Bersama/ Togetherness (Bahasa) is a creative collaboration between two community art organisations, Refugee Art Project (Djarrawunang/Ashfield) and Taring Padi (Yogjakarta, Indonesia).

Refugee Art Project hosted members of Taring Padi in Ashfield’s Thirning Villa residency to create Bersama - a graphic collaboration exploring the care, ethics and politics of art-making in a community setting with a strong focus on knowledge sharing, storytelling and cross-cultural understanding. “The aim of our collaboration is to create new threads, the tangible and intangible connections, ties of friendship, shared practices and emerging collaborations which play a vital role in sustaining our communities, reflecting the role of art in processes of community formation and support for individual agency”.

@refugeeartproject @taring_padi

Participating artists

Bayu Widodo Deni Pancatriatna Tabz A

Safdar Ahmed Zeina Iaali Can Yalkincaya

Alwy Fadhel Majid Rabet

Project Outcomes

Participating artists stand with their creations, mostly large cardboard cut out painted artworks inspired by the Indonesian puppet style made by Taring Padi, the artists stand on Pratten Park oval with the sun shining on them, there are about 14 artists with colourful political artworks — Bersama collaborators in Prattan Park

Bersama artwork Iran, a fist holds a clump of hair and a bracelet with the word IRAN is seen on the wrist, the background is bright red — Bersama artwork, Iran

Cropped cardboard artwork, a mother wearing a loose scarf on her head hold a baby in her arms, its arm is cradled around its mothers neck and its head is pointing over her shoulder, in the background is a blue sky and many people lined up with buckets resting on their heads — Bersama artwork, mother and baby

Bersama artwork of a dog dressed in police uniform wielding a baton — Bersama artwork, Police

Bersama artwork, a group of people sit at a table feasting on fish, biscuits the words be kind are written in the artwork — Bersama artwork, at the table

Cropped Bersama block art print with dolphin and nature related images, the artwork has an environmental message — Bersama cropped block print

Cropped Bersama block print with Peace message — Bersama block print peace

Bersama artwork Hope, a person with long dark hair holds a house shape inside is a bowl with the word HOPE written in it, people are inside the bowl with hands raised and a rainbow behind them — Bersama artwork Hope

Bersama artwork, a black man points his hand at his head in a gun symbol, his other hand covers his mouth — Bersama artwork, silenced

Artist Deni stands next to artwork Food right, a puppet of a girl in uniform standing above a bowl of food with the words food right written on the bowl, artist Safdar Ahmed stands next to him — Bersama, food right

Photo of a painted cardboard puppet, a girl with black hair pulled back in a bun stands on a soldiers head, he wears a green helmet and dark glasses and has his tongue sticking out — Bersama soldier puppet

A bald person sits bare chested on what looks like a round sieve small rocks are dropping and have created a mound, at the bottom of the mound is a blue plaque with calligraphy type writing in either farsi or arabic

A man jumps mid air he wears green pants and a red top, his arm reaches his jumping leg an the other arm reaches out behind his ear

A white dove has barbed wire holding its wings down

Two people in business corporate wear stand with legs apart they have gremlin type creatures nesting on their heads

A woman wearing a blue veil and dress looks to her hands in prayer, her dress has light blue blossoms on it — Bersama prayer

Overview

Over four days (6-10 March) Refugee Art Project (Sydney) and Taring Padi (Indonesia) participated in a cultural exchange - coming together at the Ashfield Thirning Vila Residency to share ideas, learnings, stories, art making techniques, skills and connections. During this time artists from both participating groups created a series of artworks influenced by the Indonesian style of puppet making. Some artworks included moving pieces and robotic elements. All artworks conveyed messages for a better world.

During the four day exhibition (16, 17, 23 & 24 March) 150+ people visited the Gallery to see the collaboration between Refugee Art Project and Taring Padi artists. Artworks included in the exhibition had messages for the future - showcasing the hopes and issues that are close to the artist’s and their community’s hearts and lives.

Recorded feedback from the exhibition was overwhelmingly positive, with visitors and people from the local community emphasising the importance of such works to be seen and discussed.

Organisers shared that "our artists and community members benefited enormously from the program, in terms of acquiring new creative skills and strategies, as well as in forming new artistic friendships and confidence for future collaborations". They say Cultural Connections "is a unique and special program for cross cultural learning and exchange, which is of enormous benefit to the local community of the Council".

Artists

14 artists collaborated on this project