Stylogenyin the style of Indonesian Woodcut Activism (Taring Padi)

Counterculture · 1998–present · Southeast Asia

Indonesian Woodcut Activism (Taring Padi)

Also known as Cukil kayu, Taring Padi, Indonesian protest woodcut, Reformasi agitprop

The protest graphics of Taring Padi, the collective founded by students and activists in Yogyakarta in 1998 as Suharto fell, and of the punk and activist woodcut scenes around it. Crowded black-and-white woodcuts (cukil kayu) pit workers, farmers, fishers and students against caricatured generals and corporations, and the same imagery is scaled up into collectively painted cloth banners and cardboard wayang puppets for demonstrations, workshops and carnivals.

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A sample layout drawn from the style’s design choices. Stylogeny doesn’t generate images of this style, out of respect for the people it belongs to.

Use it with care

Taring Padi's work is collectively authored for specific struggles: credit the collective and the communities involved, and commission or collaborate rather than imitating its banners for branding. Its caricatures of oppressors can slide into ethnic and religious stereotype (People's Justice was removed from documenta fifteen in 2022 for antisemitic figures), so never caricature people by ethnicity or religion. Wayang figures come from a living Javanese performance tradition; learn the characters before borrowing them.

01

How it works

  • Cut the image in wood and print it cheaply in black on paper or cloth, so anyone can learn it and reproduce it.
  • Agree theme, slogan and focal image together, then let many hands 'fill in' (mengisi) every gap with figures, symbols and carved texture.
  • Pack workers, farmers, fishers and students edge to edge against oversized, caricatured generals and corporate giants.
  • Carve or paint slogans in Bahasa Indonesia or regional languages in chunky capitals, loaded with wordplay and sarcasm.
  • Scale the image up into collectively painted, saturated cloth banners and life-size cardboard puppets (wayang kardus) for marches and carnivals.

Yogyakarta, where art students and activists founded Taring Padi in 1998 as Suharto fell; spread to Jakarta punk communities and to workshops in Indonesia, Europe and Australia

02

Its design choices

From Stylogeny’s vocabulary of design choices: defining choices make the style, characteristic ones are usual, occasional ones turn up now and then.

Layout & composition
Space & hierarchy
Typography
Colour
Form & shape
Surface & texture
Ornament
Imagery
Medium & production
Tone & intent
Avoids
Generous white space, Isolated object, Ornament-free, Straight photography, Gradients, Gloss & highlights, Luxurious & glamorous, Authoritative & institutional

Palette

  • #141414
  • #e9dfc8
  • #c8282e
  • #f0b323
  • #2f8a4a
  • #2b5fa8

Typefaces

  • Chunky woodcut capitals carved in Bahasa Indonesia and Javanese

  • Brush-painted banner lettering

Known for

  • Taring Padi collective

    Yogyakarta, 1998–

  • Taring Padi, Rakyat Pasti Menang

    banner, 1998

  • Taring Padi, Bara Solidaritas

    Sekarang Mereka, Besok Kita (banners, mural and wayang kardus, documenta fifteen, Kassel, 2022)

  • Taring Padi, People's Justice

    banner, 2002; removed from documenta fifteen in 2022 for antisemitic caricatures

  • Marjinal and the Taring Babi punk community, Jakarta

    woodcut prints

03

Where it comes from, and what it’s close to

Before it

The style it grew out of, and the styles it borrowed from.

This styleIndonesian Woodcut Activism (Taring Padi)1998–present · Southeast Asia

After it

The styles that grew out of it.

No later style in the atlas grew out of it yet.

Alike in its design choices

Styles that make many of the same choices, related or not, besides those above.

04

Real works

Artefacts in museums, libraries and archives that show the style, linked at their source.

05

Sources

  1. documenta fifteen, 'Taring Padi' (https://documenta-fifteen.de/en/lumbung-members-artists/taring-padi/)
  2. ArtAsiaPacific, 'Rakyat Pasti Menang: interview with Taring Padi, part 1' (https://www.artasiapacific.com/people/rakyat-pasti-menang-the-people-united-will-never-be-defeated-interview-with-taring-padi-part-1/)

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