Just Art
Showing August 8-15
31 Woods Street, Darwin
REVIEW BY JO ELLIS
Opened by Dadang Christano on August 8, this eclectic collection of artworks by local and international artists, explored the themes of democracy, peace and freedom.
Taring Padi, an artists' collective in Yogyakarta, donated a series of lino-print posters with messages of human solidarity, peace and popular struggle. (Artists from Taring Padi are hoping to visit Darwin next year.)
A series of sketches donated by JAKER, an Indonesian political and cultural group, explored the militarisation of Indonesian society and its dehumanising impact.
Amanda Leahy contributed a series of sketches and painting depicting the people and landscape of East Timor. The series was inspired by Leahy's trip to East Timor as part of the first ASIET (Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor) work brigade and reflects the East Timor people's new-found political freedom and the struggle to rebuild their society.
Other contributions included a particularly striking photograph taken by Matt Mainsbridge at a 1999 independence rally, posters by local screenprinter Red Hand, collages about the NT News' sensationalism by Janice McEwen and a crab shell imprinted with a map of East Timor by Alwin Reamillo, artist-in-residence at Northern Territory University.
The exhibition was organised by ASIET as part of Darwin's Fringe Festival. Artworks will be auctioned at 5.30pm on August 15. Proceeds raised support pro-democracy organisations in Indonesia and grassroots organisations in East Timor.