Our colleagues and collaborators in Taring Padi, the legendary Indonesian printmaking cooperative, have recently completed a series of actions and performances marking the 8th anniversary of the Lapindo mud disaster in north Java. Eight years ago, incautious drilling for gas resulted in a slow eruption of hot volcanic mud which has devastated the region. Click through for a ton of awesome photos and TP member Ucup’s description of the campaign.

After eight years of mud disaster in Porong, East Java, 27 villages have been flooded, and people have lost their homes, livelihoods, communities and cultures. The Lapindo Brantas corporation, who set off the mud volcano after drilling for oil and gas with no saftey procedures or contingency plans in effect, is to blame. The state declared the case a natural disaster, but no international aid was forthcoming, and compensation for the victims has never arrived.

This year the Taring Padi community visited Porong again to express our solidarity, because this issue never really goes away. We’ve visited Porong several times before to do art actions, including one with the block-printed banners that we produced with Justseeds members

This time we made woodblock prints on t-shirts, did a poster installation and a workshop, and made a giant paper and bamboo sculpture that accompanied a performance installation called “Hands of Hope”.
These hands of hope are expressions of solidarity to the victims of Lapindo, who we can help to resolve their problem. Most of the materials used were recycled bamboo, cardboard, and white fabric, on which the villagers wrote their hopes for the wind to carry to a better place.
Salam,
Ucup Baik