Forming amicable relations between adversarial nations through art

Australian and Indonesian artists traverse a political divide to find common ground and bring distinct ways of addressing shared concerns.
Jumaadi, ‘Malaikat [Angel I]’, 2019-. Acrylic on buffalo hide. Collection of the artist. Image: Supplied. A detailed work depicting two figures flying with white wings and meeting each other in the centre. They both have two eyes on the side of their heads. In the background is an irregular oval with a circle of trees inside and a white bird on the bottom right corner.

The current exhibitions Taring Padi: Tanah Tumpah Darah at Griffith University Art Museum (GUAM) in Brisbane and Voice Against Reason at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Nusantara (Museum MACAN) are among a long line of bilateral art exchanges between Australia and Indonesia that began with the first Asia Pacific Triennial in 1993. Aaron Seeto, outgoing Museum MACAN director and former Curatorial Manager of Asian and Pacific Art at the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA), speaks to this cross geographical and cultural communication by describing Voice Against Reason as, ‘…more than just an exhibition, but a dynamic engagement between artists, artworks and audiences’.

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Pamela See (Xue Mei-Ling) is a Brisbane-based artist and writer. During her Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) from Griffith University, she researched post-digital applications for traditional Chinese papercutting. Since 1997, she has exhibited across Europe, Asia, North America and Australia. The collections to house examples of her artwork include: the Huaxia Papercutting Museum in Changsha, the National Gallery of Australia (NGA) in Canberra, and the Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA) in Adelaide. She has also contributed to variety of publications such as: the Information, Medium and Society Journal of Publishing, M/C Journal, Art Education Australia, 716 Craft and Design, and Garland Magazine.