Community trumpeting advice in art posters
JAKARTA: Round posters each 58cm in diametre are hung on the legendary Kerkweg Bridge in Yogyakarta. Passers-by who stop at the traffic lights under the bridge can see many posters urging people to vote wisely in the election on April 17.
There are 22 poster designs, one of them showing a person with a smartphone covering their eyes, implying that smartphones are the biggest culprits in the spread of fake news.
Written on that poster is “Differences in religion, ethnicity and race are not a reason to hate each other”, to remind people to think carefully about information on religious, ethnic and racial issues.
The 22 posters are the work of artists from the Taring Padi community, who organised a project named “Terompet Rakyat” (the people’s trumpet).
Taring Padi has been known for its “ideology” of art for people since 1999. This community regularly runs “Terompet Rakyat” projects to respond to general elections.
Heidi Arbuckle in her book Taring Padi: Radical Cultural Practice in Indonesia wrote that Taring Padi proclaims its work as an effort to prepare for popular democratic culture in Indonesia.
Yogyakarta-based artist Fitriani Dwi Kurniasih said they were responding to four issues in this year’s election, namely corruption, human rights, SARA (ethnicity, religion, race and groups) and fake news, and environment and agricultural conflicts.
Taring Padi has been hanging “Terompet Rakyat” posters in strategic places around Yogyakarta since March 3.
They also sent the posters to other art communities in other cities such as Jakarta; Malang, East Java; and Blora, Central Java in case they wish to hang the posters in their cities’ public spaces.
Fitriani said “Terompet Rakyat” aimed to remind people to vote for candidates with a strong commitment to Indonesia’s most crucial issues. — The Jakarta Post/Asia News Network