Griffith University Art Museum has been recognised at the 2024 Queensland Gallery and Museum Achievement Awards (GAMAA) this week, winning ‘Best Project – Organisation with Paid Staff’ for their exhibition Taring Padi: Tanah Tumpah Darah (29 February – 25 May 2024).
The annual awards, hosted by Museums and Galleries QLD, celebrate the achievements of organisations and individuals in the arts and cultural heritage sectors.
The Best Project Award recognises the high artistic quality of the exhibition as well as its outcomes for the artists, staff, and local community.
Tanah Tumpah Darah had strong competition from several finalists so it’s fantastic that this important artist-led project has been recognised.
Tanah Tumpah Darah began with an invitation from local Aboriginal artist collective proppaNOW to Indonesian artsworker collective Taring Padi, to come to Meeanjin/Magandjin (Brisbane) to collaborate during a month-long residency on a large-scale banner Ngaliya Budjong Djarra (Our Mother Earth) (2023-24), which was displayed on the western façade of Griffith University Art Museum at South Bank.
Supported by GUAM, Creative Australia, and an anonymous donor, Taring Padi and proppaNOW shared a six-week residency at The Paint Factory, Yeronga, which included opportunities for engagement with First Nations and artist communities.
Alongside the residency, GUAM mounted Tanah Tumpah Darah which surveyed Taring Padi’s almost three-decade long history. The exhibition included over 120 painted banners, woodcut prints, and cardboard puppets from Taring Padi’s beginnings in the turbulent post-Suharto period of the 1990s through to current issues concerning environmental destruction, violence, unemployment and marginalised communities.
Over the course of the exhibition GUAM hosted almost 50 public programs and tours, involving local school, artist, and First Nations communities, including an artist-led symposium and numerous workshops with Taring Padi and students from local schools, the Queensland College of Art and Design’s Contemporary Australian Indigenous Art (CAIA) program, the Griffith University Printmaking Club, and the Indonesian Student Association of Griffith University (ISAGU).
In addition, GUAM co-facilitated the Arts, Education and Law Summer Scholarship with Griffith University Law Futures and the Creative Arts Research Institute (CARI), which enabled six students from QCAD, CAIA and Griffith Law School to work alongside Taring Padi and proppaNOW and develop their cross-disciplinary research skills.
Taring Padi: Tanah Tumpah Darah was made possible by members of Taring Padi and proppaNOW as well as project supporters Sarazin; Creative Australia; Framer Framed, Amsterdam; Milani Gallery, Brisbane; The Paint Factory, Yeronga; and the Simon Lee Foundation, Institute of Contemporary Art, Art Gallery of Western Australia.
